The Only ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 Part 1 Recap You Need To Watch Before Part 2

Well, you only had to wait a month for it, but Stranger Things has now concluded the unusual step of breaking up one of its seasons, with part 2 of season 4 airing today, two more episodes (for a total of four hours) joining the seven that already aired weeks ago.

Even though it has only been a month instead of a few years like the gap between seasons 3 and 4, you still may want a refresher on what exactly happened in those first seven episodes. And there’s really probably only one video you need to watch, the brief recap made by Netflix summing up the first string of episodes, which ran for about nine hours in total. Spoilers follow.

If you just want the highlights from that, I can make it even more simple for you:

• Joyce and Murray went to go rescue Hopper in Russia, where he’s been held prisoner. Russia has captive Demogorgons and other Upside Down monsters kept there. Hopper survives his trial against the Demogorgon, but they’re not out of the facility yet.
• Mike visits Eleven and Will in California now that they’ve left Hawkins. El is bullied at school which she hides, but soon she’s swept away by her old captors who are trying to get her to relieve her past to reclaim her powers. She recounts a buried memory of how One murdered almost everyone in the old facility once she helped him unsuppress his powers.
• Everyone else (Steve, Robin, Dustin, Max, Lucas, Nancy and newcomer Eddie) is busy dealing with Hawkins’ own version of Freddie Krueger, Vecna, an Upside Down monster that causes people to enter nightmarish trance states before breaking all their bones and harvesting them. They’ve discovered that music can help pull people out of the trance, which is how Max, despite being “marked” by Vecna, manages to escape.
• In the end, we learn that Vecna is actually One, transformed into the monster after he was flung into the Upside Down during his final confrontation with Eleven all those years ago. Now, he’s still out there, and he’s mad.

That’s the gist of it, but I obviously would not watch the final two episodes without watching the first seven. This was just meant to refresh your memory. And even though it’s just two more episodes to watch today, keep in mind they are long. Episode 8 is 90 minutes and Episode 9 is two and a half hours, blockbuster movie length with a budget to match, allegedly. So buckle up, and remember, this isn’t even the last season. That’s still to come with season 5.

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