Welcome to io9’s summer cram session for Stranger Things, the Duffer Brothers’ Netflix phenomenon, which will return this November to Netflix for its final season. To honor the Hawkins gang’s late, great, guitar-shredding Dungeon Master Eddie (Joseph Quinn), this rewatch shall be coined the Hellfire Club Catch-Up. With part one of season 5 a few months out, it seems fitting to get started now. Read on for io9’s guide to everything you need to remember from the show’s 2016 debut.
Season one of Stranger Things was straightforward, a lean and mean horror binge. From the jump, the Amblin and Stephen King vibes by way of John Carpenter are all over the DNA of the ’80s-era show. I would shy away from calling this gateway horror because season one in particular really went there in building up the horror with the Demogorgon hunting down Hawkins youth. Violence was not in short supply.
At the center, we have the events unfolding around Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) when their friend Will (Noah Schnapp) goes missing and a mysterious girl turns up with telekinetic powers. Rewatching this made me feel so old because they were so little when the show started—and let me tell you, the show really hits different now that I’m a parent.
Right off the bat, those are my biggest takeaways: the horror and story really hold up and are even more terrifying watching as a mom. Joyce (Winona Ryder), I get it now—I thought her extremes to find Will were a little off-kilter almost 10 years ago. I was so wrong, and everything she did for those kids with Hopper (David Harbour) was absolutely justified.
And there are so many details that I completely forgot about, some of which we’ll go over, like Will’s fake body or the fact that Hawkins has a huge bully problem. For the purposes of our club, though, here are the main things that happened that we should keep in mind as we work our way to season five.
1. Will’s fate might be in how he played that fateful Dungeons & Dragons game
When Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will end their campaign in episode one, it comes down to a big choice to save them all. Will has the option to either protect his crew or attack the Demogorgon (game version), but his move to fireball backfires. It’s clear he should have made the move to protect his friends, and that makes us wonder if Will’s story might come down to a similar choice—where he may need to make the ultimate sacrifice.
2. Joyce jumps into action, establishing no one messes with her kid
Will is barely gone for the morning period of school, but that doesn’t stop Joyce from taking matters into her own hands. While other parents err on the side of thinking Will ran away, his mother knows better. Her inclination to feel something sinister is afoot lays the groundwork for her and Hopper tuning into the suspicious presence of Hawkins Lab, located near to where Will disappeared.
In Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the stage prequel to the events of Stranger Things the series, audience members have shared it’s now established canon that back in high school, Joyce and Hopper investigated an unusual happening in their town involving Victor Creel (Henry Creel’s father), the real truth of which was left unsolved. Hopper went on to leave to become a big city cop, and in his flashbacks we see his tragic backstory of having lost his daughter to cancer. Seeing Joyce’s relentlessness to find out what happened to Will is something Hopper recognizes and shares—seeing finding Will as a path to do what he couldn’t and save her kid.
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