Warning: Contains spoilers up to Season 4 of Stranger Things.
It’s been five weeks since the first seven episodes of Stranger Things 4: Volume 1 hit our screens – although it’s felt a lot longer.
The Netflix sci-fi series saw its characters further apart than ever before, with different storylines emerging in many US states and even spreading to Russia.
Part two, which will conclude the season with two super-sized episodes, has finally been released on Friday, July 1, and fans can’t wait to dive in.
But with so many storylines to wrap up, it’s worth looking back at the previous seven episodes just to refresh and catch up on our thoughts.
What happened in part 1?
Our Hawkins friends started Stranger Things 4 scattered across the map, after the tragic events of Stranger Things 3 took each of them on a new lease of life.
Believing that Hopper (David Harbour) is dead, Joyce (Winona Ryder) took Will (Noah Schnapp), Johnathan (Charlie Heaton), and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) to start over in California.
That left Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) in Hawkins, along with Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Steve (Joe Keery), Robin (Maya Hawke) and Max (Sadie Sink).
What’s going on in Hawkins?
Eight months later, Dustin and Lucas had befriended Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) – metalhead, drug dealer and leader of the gang’s Dungeons & Dragons group Hellfire Club.
A series of Hawkins teenagers were brutally murdered and Eddie was the prime suspect and public enemy number one. Knowing he was innocent, Dustin, Robin, Steve and Max tried to clear Eddie’s name by pursuing the real killer: Vecna.
Vecna, a monster from the Upside Down, owned several Hawkins children and lured them to a gruesome death. His attention then turned to Max, who saved himself from his clutches by listening to Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” repeatedly.
We left the Hellfire Club in a nasty place, with the police still illegally pursuing Eddie and with Nancy now possessed by Vecna - the Hawkins gang will surely be forced back to the Upside Down to rescue her .
Was Hopper really killed in Stranger Things 3?
In California, Joyce received a package in the mail stating what we viewers already knew thanks to a teaser trailer released in February 2020: Hopper was not killed at the end of Season 3, but was captured and sent to a Russian prison.
Almost as soon as she arrived, Joyce teamed up with Murray (Brett Gelman) and set out for Russia to find Hopper, who had befriended prison guard Enzo (Tom Wlaschiha) and tried to escape.
After failing to run away, Hopper and Enzo found themselves fighting a demogorgon just as Joyce and Murray infiltrated the prison. Hopper and Enzo survived the battle with the Demogorgon, and Hopper reunited with Joyce, but they were still stranded in the deepest, snowiest Russia.
What happened in California?
In the first episode, Elf and Will struggled to adjust to their new school in California. Eleven, having lost her powers, was bullied by the popular kids, especially Angela, with Will’s attempts to protect her unsuccessful.
Mike flew over to visit Eleven and witnessed the bullying at a roller skating rink. He could only stand watching Elf slap Angela in the face with her skates.
Eleven reunited with Dr. Sam Owens (Paul Reiser), who explained that Hawkins was in grave danger. Eleven had to regain her powers to save the city from Vecna. Reluctantly, she agreed to go with him deep into the Nevada desert.
While Mike, Will, Johnathan, and Johnathan’s friend Argyle (Eduardo Franco) followed her, Eleven reunited with Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) and tried to regain her powers. While doing this, she met One (Jamie Campbell Bower), a mysterious man in Dr. Brenner.
In a dramatic reveal, we discovered that One was in fact Henry Creel, a child serial killer who slaughtered several other kids in Hawkins Lab and then took the form of Vecna when Eleven banished him to the Upside Down.
Brace yourself for Stranger Things 4: Volume 2, everyone!
You can watch Stranger Things on Netflix.
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