Stranger Things 4 is quickly approaching, and despite having plenty of time between the release of Stranger Things 3 and now, it might have crept up on you. So if you forgot what happened in the first three seasons of Stranger Things and don’t really have the time to catch up before May 27, I have a quick breakdown of each season to get us through. There was a lot that happened, so this is going to be the briefest of explanations (and probably still won’t be that brief), but let’s talk about the journey we’ve been on with Hawkins, Indiana.
Season 1
We met the crew in season one. There were our favorite kids, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will, and their games of Dungeons and Dragons. When they are confronted with the mystery of Will’s disappearance and the discovery of Eleven (who has “superpowers”), the kids try to connect their knowledge of D&D with what’s happening around them. Meanwhile, Joyce Byers is trying to find her son Will and realizes that she can talk with him through the Christmas lights she has around her living room. When Sheriff Jim Hopper finally believes her that Will isn’t dead, they realize there’s something weird happening in Hawkins.
And then there are the teenage kids, who are living in their own horror movie. Barb goes missing thanks to the same creature that took Will, and Mike’s sister Nancy and her boyfriend Steve have to figure out what they believe and what they want to do about it. All of this ends with Eleven seemingly sacrificing herself to take on the creature they discover is a demogorgon, and they all save Will from the parallel dimension of the Upside Down that exists within Hawkins.
Season 2
While season 1 was about the mystery of what’s happening, season 2 was fully about trying to figure out how the Upside Down affected Will and how Eleven (who was found by Hopper and is living with him) can escape from being trapped in their cabin. The beginning of the season shows Will hanging out with his friends around Halloween, when the four are all fighting about their Ghostbusters-inspired costumes. Will is clearly still struggling with his connection to the Upside Down, and throughout the series, we learn that the Mind Flayer is using Will and “likes it cold.”
There’s also a new kid in town (who is beating Dustin and Lucas at their games in the arcade) named Max, and she’s keen to become part of their friend group, even if Mike doesn’t really want her around them. For Nancy and Steve, the two have a bad break-up when she drunkenly tells Steve she doesn’t love him and instead starts a relationship with Will’s brother, Jonathan.
Meanwhile, Eleven has run away from home and is on a search for her mother and answers about her powers, which leads her to her sister, Eight. Though Eight is using her power to make her life of crime easier, Eleven quickly realizes that she doesn’t want this and returns to Hawkins to help her friends and stop whatever is happening to Will. What we learn is that the Mind Flayer hates heat, so they rid Will of the Mind Flayer by basically turning up the heat, Hopper adopts Eleven, and all our favorite young teens realize that Eleven is actually alive, and she gets to go back to hang out with Mike at the school dance—only after she closes the portal to the Upside Down, of course.
Season 3
Set in the summer as the July 4 celebrations are underway, we’re gifted with a new adventure: The Starcourt Mall. When the Mayor brings a mall to Hawkins, it gives characters like Steve Harrington a job (and a new friend in Robin), but it also seems to be a front for Russian agents who have come to Hawkins to try to reopen the entrance into the Upside Down.
While Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Lucas’ sister Erica are all taking on the Russians, everyone else seems to be having relationship problems. Will is angry that Mike and Lucas would rather spend time with their girlfriends than him, and both Eleven and Max are mad at Lucas and Mike for being bad boyfriends. In the end, all of the storylines converge to stop the Russians, which results in what looks like the death of Jim Hopper in order to stop them from opening up the Upside Down, and Eleven moves to California with the Byers family.
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That’s what you missed on Stranger Things, and now it’s time to get ready for Stranger Things 4!
(image: Netflix)
