Every ‘Stranger Things’ episode, ranked

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Every ‘Stranger Things’ episode, ranked

Since “Stranger Things” premiered on Netflix during the summer of 2016, the coming-of-age sci-fi series has exploded into a full-blown cultural phenomenon. Set in Indiana during the 1980s, the show follows the residents of a small town called Hawkins as they uncover government secrets and reality-bending supernatural threats that could threaten their very survival.

Apart from revitalizing ’80s nostalgia culture and the cinematic stylings of Ambling Entertainment co-founders Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, “Stranger Things” has had a massive impact on general pop culture over the past six years. From the resurgence of Kate Bush’s 1987 hit “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” and its promotion of Dungeons & Dragons following the fanfare of its fourth season, it’s safe to say that the Duffer Brothers’ series has established its place in television history. But now that the latest season is available for your viewing pleasure, it’s time to break things down: Which episodes of “Stranger Things” are truly the best?

Stacker has taken a democratic approach to rank all 34 “Stranger Things” episodes, using data from IMDb. Rankings are based on each episode’s average IMDb user rating, with ties broken by the number of votes. So while you wait for the fifth and final season, read on to see where your favorite Upside Down escapades rank on the list.

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#34. Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister (2017)

– IMDb user rating: 6.1
– Season 2, episode 7
– Director: Rebecca Thomas
– Runtime: 45 minutes

In “The Lost Sister,” Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) follows her psychic visions and reconnects with Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), another superpowered escapee from Hawkins Lab. Although Kali and her found family of misfits help Eleven hone her powers, she’s put off by her new mentor’s “no mercy” philosophy and soon leaves to rejoin her Hawkins friends. “The Lost Sister” is the only true standalone episode of “Stranger Things,” as Brown is the only major cast member who appears. The episode faced backlash from critics and audience members alike for its characters and isolation from the rest of the story, with CBR even naming it the show’s “worst episode ever.”

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#33. Chapter One: Suzie, Do You Copy? (2019)

– IMDb user rating: 7.8
– Season 3, episode 1
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 50 minutes

The season three premiere picks up with the Hawkins gang in the summer of 1985 as they navigate new romances and seasonal jobs. However, things take an ominous turn in this episode when the kids pick up a mysterious Russian broadcast on Dustin Henderson’s (Gaten Matarazzo) radio. “Suzie, Do You Copy?” introduces the new main character Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) as well as the Starcourt Mall, a major location for the season.

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#32. Chapter Two: The Mall Rats (2019)

– IMDb user rating: 7.9
– Season 3, episode 2
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 50 minutes

“The Mall Rats” finds Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery) becoming increasingly possessed by the Mind Flayer while elsewhere Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and Robin help Dustin decode the Russian message he intercepted. Meanwhile, Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) befriends Eleven and encourages her to stop living by the rules of the men in her life. This leads to the two traversing Starcourt Mall in a memorable montage set to Madonna’s “Material Girl.”

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#31. Chapter Two: Vecna’s Curse (2022)

– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Season 4, episode 2
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 77 minutes

During the second episode of season four, Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) heads to California to spend spring break with Eleven, who confronts her school bully during a fateful day at the skate rink. Back in Hawkins, Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) is still reeling from witnessing the death of popular cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham’s (Grace Van Dien) at the hands of Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), which has sparked Satanic panic in the town.

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#30. Chapter One: The Hellfire Club (2022)

– IMDb user rating: 8.1
– Season 4, episode 1
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 78 minutes

The season four premiere finds the “Stranger Things” cast spread out further than ever before: Eleven and the Byers family are struggling to start over in California, the other kids navigate their newfound high school status in Hawkins, and Hopper (David Harbour) fights for survival within a Russian prison. The dangers of the Upside Down resurface with the emergence of a mysterious new villain called Vecna. The episode also opens with a never-before-seen scene of a young Eleven surviving the slaughter of her Hawkins Lab brothers and sisters.

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#29. Chapter Five: The Nina Project (2022)

– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Season 4, episode 5
– Director: Nimród Antal
– Runtime: 76 minutes

In “The Ninja Project,” Dr. Owens (Paul Reiser) takes Eleven to Nevada in hopes of helping her regain her powers. She and the audience are in for a shock as it’s revealed that Eleven’s “Papa,” Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine), is still alive. They force her to relive the events leading up to the Hawkins Lab massacre, where she meets a friendly orderly. During the episode, the Hawkins crew also recognizes that Vecna’s nightmare lair is actually a local abandoned home known as the Creel House.

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#28. Chapter One: MADMAX (2017)

– IMDb user rating: 8.2
– Season 2, episode 1
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 48 minutes

The season two premiere introduces two new main characters: Skateboarding transfer student Max Mayfield, her stepbrother Billy Hargrove, and Joyce’s (Winona Ryder) new boyfriend, Bob Newby (Sean Astin). The episode also begins exploring Will Byers’ (Noah Schnapp) psychological turmoil following his time in the Upside Down. Finally, the ending officially reveals that Eleven is alive and staying with Hopper after seemingly being vaporized at the end of season one.

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#27. Chapter Three: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard (2019)

– IMDb user rating: 8.3
– Season 3, episode 3
– Director: Shawn Levy
– Runtime: 49 minutes

In “The Case of the Missing Lifeguard,” Max and Eleven search for a missing lifeguard named Heather (Francesca Reale), who they discover has been possessed by the Mind Flayer alongside Billy. Meanwhile, Will comes into conflict with his friends when he attempts to declare a “no girls” day in the aftermath of Mike and Lucas’ (Caleb McLaughlin) fights with their girlfriends.

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#26. Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak (2017)

– IMDb user rating: 8.3
– Season 2, episode 2
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 56 minutes

Although “Stranger Things” is in many ways a horror series, “Trick or Treat, Freak” marks the show’s only Halloween episode to date. The episode opens by explaining how Eleven survived when she was transported to the Upside Down after destroying the Demogorgon. The boys also memorably dress up as the Ghostbusters and Will has a terrifying vision of a giant, spider-like creature in the Upside Down (aka the Mind Flayer) while trick-or-treating.

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#25. Chapter Three: The Monster and the Superhero (2022)

– IMDb user rating: 8.4
– Season 4, episode 3
– Director: Shawn Levy
– Runtime: 63 minutes

“The Monster and the Superhero” finds Eleven reeling from her confrontation with Angela (Elodie Grace Orkin) at the skating rink and questioning her relationship with Mike. While Joyce and her friend Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman) set off to Russia in hopes of rescuing Hopper, the Hawkins gang defends Eddie from increasingly violent basketball star Jason Carver (Mason Dye). However, the episode ends on an ominous note, as Max hears Vecna repeatedly calling her name.

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#24. Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street (2016)

– IMDb user rating: 8.4
– Season 1, episode 2
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 55 minutes

In “The Weirdo on Maple Street,” Mike develops a connection with Eleven after the boys bring the strange girl they found in the woods home with them. Although season one contains multiple allusions to Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” the Duffer Brothers told Entertainment Weekly that this episode draws from it the most. “Just as ‘E.T.’ is about the connection between E.T. and Elliott, [‘The Weirdo on Maple Street’] is about the connection between Eleven and Mike,” they told the publication.

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#23. Chapter Five: The Flayed (2019)

– IMDb user rating: 8.5
– Season 3, episode 5
– Director: Uta Briesewitz
– Runtime: 51 minutes

“The Flayed” refers to the term that the Hawkins kids come up with for the growing number of people under the control of the Mind Flayer, who eventually dissolve into a large monster by the episode’s end. Elsewhere, Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Erica Sinclair (Priah Ferguson) discover Russians broadcasting a signal beneath Starcourt Mall and Joyce and Hopper capture one of the Russian scientists, a man named Alexei (Alec Utgoff).

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#22. Chapter Three: The Pollywog (2017)

– IMDb user rating: 8.5
– Season 2, episode 3
– Director: Shawn Levy
– Runtime: 51 minutes

The name of this episode comes from the pollywog-esque creature that Dustin adopts and names Dart. Unfortunately, things become more complicated when Will identifies Dart as a creature of the Upside Down. During this time, Eleven also defies Hopper’s orders and ventures into town in hopes of reconnecting with Mike.

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#21. Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers (2016)

– IMDb user rating: 8.5
– Season 1, episode 1
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 47 minutes

In the “Stranger Things” series premiere, a young Will disappears after an evening of playing Dungeons & Dragons with his best friends. That same night, a young girl with strange powers escapes from nearby Hawkins Lab, and their paths cross. In an interview with IGN, the Duffer Brothers revealed that a scene in which Hopper types Will’s police report was framed identically to a scene from Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws,” which they cited as a favorite film of theirs.

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#20. Chapter Six: The Dive (2022)

– IMDb user rating: 8.6
– Season 4, episode 6
– Director: Nimród Antal
– Runtime: 75 minutes

The Satanic panic themes of season four reach a fever pitch in “The Dive” as Jason convinces the majority of Hawkins that Eddie is a vessel for Satan and the Hellfire Club is actually a cult. Meanwhile, the California crew visits Dustin’s girlfriend Suzie Bingham (Gabriella Pizzolo) to help locate Eleven. The episode’s title comes from Steve discovering a gate to the Upside Down within Lover’s Lake and subsequently getting sucked into that dimension.

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#19. Chapter Four: Will the Wise (2017)

– IMDb user rating: 8.6
– Season 2, episode 4
– Director: Shawn Levy
– Runtime: 46 minutes

During “Will the Wise,” the Mind Flayer rapidly assumes control of Will, who opens up about his condition to a horrified Joyce. Elsewhere, Eleven does more research into her birth mother, while Dustin finds out that Dart—who ate his cat—is actually a juvenile Demogorgon.

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#18. Chapter Six: E Pluribus Unum (2019)

– IMDb user rating: 8.6
– Season 3, episode 6
– Director: Uta Briesewitz
– Runtime: 59 minutes

“E Pluribus Unum” finds Dustin and Erica launching a rescue mission to save Steve and Robin, who have been captured by Russians under Starcourt Mall. Under questioning from Joyce, Murray, and Hopper, Alexei admits the Russians are building a machine called “the Key,” in hopes of harnessing the power of the Upside Down’s gate. The episode ends on a terrifying note as the “Flayed” melt into flesh and complete the Mind Flayer’s newly reformed body.

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#17. Chapter Seven: The Bite (2019)

– IMDb user rating: 8.7
– Season 3, episode 7
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 55 minutes

In “The Bite,” Erica and Dustin attempt to hide the newly on-the-run Robin and Steve—still high from the Russians’ truth serum—within Starcourt Mall. Robin comes out to Steve as a lesbian, making her the first LGBTQ+ character in the “Stranger Things” universe. Later, short-lived fan-favorite Alexei is killed at Hawkins’ Fourth of July carnival for his betrayal of the Russians.

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#16. Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat (2016)

– IMDb user rating: 8.7
– Season 1, episode 5
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 52 minutes

After Will’s body is supposedly discovered, Hopper spends the majority of “The Flea and the Acrobat” sneaking into and investigating Hawkins Lab. Meanwhile, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) make plans to hunt the Demogorgon, and the boys ask their teacher, Mr. Clarke (Randy Havens), how to travel to another dimension. He explains the concept with an analogy that compares the perspectives of an acrobat and a flea.

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#15. Chapter Eight: Papa (2022)

– IMDb user rating: 8.8
– Season 4, episode 8
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 85 minutes

“Papa” opens with Vecna showing Nancy his plan for Hawkins, which involves destroying it with the Upside Down and unleashing an army of monsters. The Hawkins gang realizes Vecna’s physical body is vulnerable when he travels and creates a plan to attack the villain in the Upside Down while he’s trying to kill someone. Back in California, Eleven escapes with her restored powers, and her “Papa,” Dr. Brenner, dies once and for all.

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#14. Chapter Five: Dig Dug (2017)

– IMDb user rating: 8.8
– Season 2, episode 5
– Director: Andrew Stanton
– Runtime: 58 minutes

In “Dig Dug,” Eleven reunites with her mother, Terry (Aimee Mullins), who Brenner placed in a catatonic state after she attempted to rescue her daughter years earlier. Frustrated with their dead-end leads, Nancy and Jonathan travel to Illinois to swap theories about the events of 1983 with journalist-turned-conspiracy theorist Murray. The title of this episode is taken from the 1982 arcade game of the same name, which sees the player digging underground tunnels to defeat monsters. This is similar to Hopper’s arc in the episode, in which he traverses underground tunnels for information about the evolving Upside Down.

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#13. Chapter Six: The Monster (2016)

– IMDb user rating: 8.8
– Season 1, episode 6
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 46 minutes

During “The Monster,” Joyce and Hopper pay a visit to Eleven’s birth mother, Terry, where they learn she was told she’d miscarried and still believes she gave birth to a daughter with “abilities.” Meanwhile, drama brews between the teens as Steve glimpses Jonathan and Nancy’s newfound closeness and assumes she’s been cheating on him. After fighting with Eleven, Mike and Dustin reunite with their friend when she saves them from bullies pressuring Mike to jump off Sattler Quarry’s precarious cliff.

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#12. Chapter Three: Holly, Jolly (2016)

– IMDb user rating: 8.8
– Season 1, episode 3
– Director: Shawn Levy
– Runtime: 51 minutes

“Holly, Jolly” gives viewers their first official glimpse of the Upside Down as Barb (Shannon Purser) is killed by the Demogorgon during Steve’s party. The character’s premature death sparked the popular “Justice for Barb” campaign online. During this episode, Joyce also paints an alphabet wall adorned with Christmas lights—now an iconic image of the show—so that Will can communicate with her son in the Upside Down. The episode ends with Will’s body supposedly being recovered from the waters of nearby Sattler Quarry.

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#11. Chapter Four: The Sauna Test (2019)

– IMDb user rating: 8.9
– Season 3, episode 4
– Director: Shawn Levy
– Runtime: 52 minutes

In “The Sauna Test,” Erica officially joins the “Scoops Troop,” when Steve, Robin, and Dustin convince her to crawl through the Starcourt Mall vents to spy on the Russians. Elsewhere, Eleven and her friends trap Billy in a pool sauna to test the nature of his possession by the Mind Flayer (since the creature can’t handle hot temperatures). According to director Shawn Levy, the sauna scene took four 10- to 12-hour days to film due to the complicated nature of Eleven and Billy’s confrontation.

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#10. Chapter Four: The Body (2016)

– IMDb user rating: 8.9
– Season 1, episode 4
– Director: Shawn Levy
– Runtime: 49 minutes

During “The Body,” Joyce refuses to believe Will is dead and insists she can still communicate with him. The boys give Eleven a disguise and manage to pick up Will’s voice over Hawkins Middle’s A.V. club radio. This episode’s title is a nod to the Stephen King short story “The Body,” which inspired the film “Stand By Me.” In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Duffer Brothers cited the movie as another major inspiration for “Stranger Things.”

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#9. Chapter Seven: The Bathtub (2016)

– IMDb user rating: 9.0
– Season 1, episode 7
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 41 minutes

“The Bathtub” refers to the makeshift sensory deprivation tank the Hawkins crew builds for Eleven to locate Will and Barb within the Upside Down. The episode ends with Will singing “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by the Clash to comfort himself in the other dimension, which recalls a flashback of Will and Jonathan listening to the song in episode two.

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#8. Chapter Six: The Spy (2017)

– IMDb user rating: 9.1
– Season 2, episode 6
– Director: Andrew Stanton
– Runtime: 51 minutes

In “The Spy,” the Mind Flayer begins to use Will as bait, forcing him to lure local soldiers into a trap where they are killed by juvenile Demogorgons that the group has decided to call “Demodogs.” Elsewhere, Dustin and Steve begin to forge their unlikely bond as they hunt for Dart and his fellow monsters. This episode also marks the first time that Nancy and Jonathan actually get together.

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#7. Chapter Nine: The Piggyback (2022)

– IMDb user rating: 9.2
– Season 4, episode 9
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 139 minutes

“The Piggyback” is the longest “Stranger Things” episode yet, clocking in at two hours and 30 minutes. During the finale, Eleven enters a makeshift sensory deprivation tank in Surfer Boy Pizza in hopes of helping Max, who is using herself as bait while the Hawkins gang attempts to kill Vecna. During their plan, Eddie dies while fending off Demobats while, back in Russia, Joyce and Hopper finally kiss in the midst of killing off the prison’s Upside Down monsters. Although the Hawkins crew manages to hurt Vecna, Will reveals he is still alive. The villain succeeds in opening a gateway between dimensions and our heroes watch as the Upside Down begins to impose its vision upon our world.

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#6. Chapter Eight: The Mind Flayer (2017)

– IMDb user rating: 9.2
– Season 2, episode 8
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 47 minutes

“The Mind Flayer” marks the death of Joyce’s boyfriend, Bob, who is killed by a Demogorgon while helping his friends escape Hawkins Lab. The group begins interrogating Will, who has been taken over by the monster, which Dustin refers to as the “Mind Flayer,” using his knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons.

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#5. Chapter Eight: The Battle of Starcourt (2019)

– IMDb user rating: 9.2
– Season 3, episode 8
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 76 minutes

In the season three finale, our heroes mount their defense against the Mind Flayer, who hopes to bring Eleven under its control. Hopper and Joyce manage to close the Russians’ underground gate to the Upside Down, seemingly vaporizing and killing Hopper in the process. After Eleven brings Billy out of his haze, he sacrifices himself to save the group. The season ends with the Byers and Eleven moving to California while a mid-credits scene of a Russian prison with a mysterious “American” prisoner signals Hopper is still alive.

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#4. Chapter Nine: The Gate (2017)

– IMDb user rating: 9.3
– Season 2, episode 9
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 62 minutes

In the season two finale, Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy extract the Mind Flayer from Will using extreme heat, while Eleven and Hopper close the gate to the Upside Down. Eleven uses Kali’s advice to let her anger fuel her powers and manages to levitate for the first time. Using a faked birth certificate, Hopper legally becomes Eleven’s father. Later, Mike fulfills his promise from season one of taking Eleven to the school’s Snow Ball, where Lucas and Max also become a couple. The season ends on an ominous note as we see the Mind Flayer looming over Hawkins Middle in the Upside Down.

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#3. Chapter Eight: The Upside Down (2016)

– IMDb user rating: 9.3
– Season 1, episode 8
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 54 minutes

In the season one finale, Joyce and Hopper venture into the Upside Down to rescue Will. Meanwhile, Steve helps Nancy and Jonathan in their plan to lure the Demogorgon back to the Byers’ house. Ultimately, Eleven manages to destroy the monster, vaporizing both it and herself in the process. The season ends with Will throwing up a slug and flashing back to the Upside Down for a moment, indicating that his struggles with the other dimension are far from over.

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#2. Chapter Four: Dear Billy (2022)

– IMDb user rating: 9.5
– Season 4, episode 4
– Director: Shawn Levy
– Runtime: 78 minutes

“Dear Billy” sees Max fighting for her life after she’s marked for death by Vecna. The group manages to save her by playing her favorite song, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” by Kate Bush. Meanwhile, Nancy and Robin visit Victor Creel (Robert Englund) in the asylum, where he claims that a demon attacked his family in a similar fashion to Vecna decades earlier. Season four has led to a massive rediscovery of Bush’s music, with the artist reportedly earning $2.3 million from her song being featured on the show.

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#1. Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab (2022)

– IMDb user rating: 9.6
– Season 4, episode 7
– Directors: Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
– Runtime: 98 minutes

Serving as the finale of season four, volume one, “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab” reveals that Vecna is actually Henry Creel, a former Hawkins Lab experiment named One. Years earlier, Eleven tore One apart after he slaughtered her siblings and much of the lab’s staff, created the first gate to the Upside Down, and threw him inside it, creating Vecna in the process. Back in Hawkins, the kids help the teenagers escape from the Upside Down by opening the gate created in Eddie’s trailer, but sadly Nancy is captured by Vecna. Infiltrating the Russian prison, Joyce and Murray reunite with Hopper after he fights the Russians’ Demogorgon.

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