Stranger Thingsis finally coming back with a supersized runtimeand a story that is set to be grander than what we’ve seen before. The Netflix series has long been the crown prince of the streaming service, being their first giant hit and becoming a cultural touchstone that brought the 1980s nostalgia of films likeThe Goonies,E.T.,with modern day VFX and budget to produce a series viewers of all ages could fall behind. However,plenty happened in the jampacked Season 3that was released three years ago. So, here’s a refresher on all the key questions we hope get answered in Season 4 before you hit play on May 27.
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The Battle at Starcourt
For those who may not remember, Season 3 took place around the mid 80s, where a new mall called the Starcourt Mall is all the rage with the residents of Hawkins. However, as the events of the third season unfold, our lead characters learn that the mall is essentially a front for a Russian lab that operates underground by the Soviets. This was due to them experimenting with the Upside Down world and opening a gate to the place. The Season 3 finale sees all the leading characters assemble and fight the Russian soldiers as well as the Mind Flayer together.
The Mind Flayer who is the big bad of theStranger Thingsuniverse and is the being that sends Demogorgons from the Upside Down to the world above, is able to finally confront all the heroes in Hawkins. In Season 3, he makes his biggest moves yet, taking over Max (Sadie Sink)’s brother Billy (Dacre Montgomery). Using Billy as a conduit, the Mind Flayer kills several residents of Hawkins to become even stronger. However, he is ultimately stopped by Eleven (Milly Bobby Brown) who gets inside Billy’s mind and frees him from the being. This enrages the Mind Flayer who then kills Billy and is pushed back into the Upside Down by Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) who has closed the gate that the Russians had opened. This comes about during the Season 3 finale when Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce go undercover as Russian officers to infiltrate a secret Soviet base underneath the Starcourt Mall. Hopper and Beyers successfully destroy the laser the Soviets operated to keep open a portal to the Upside Down, thus destroying the Mind Flayer monster the kids are battling upstairs. We don’t know if the Mind Flayer is gone for good or if he will evolve and strike back, given how powerful he seems but here’s hoping Season 4 answers that sooner than later.
Hopper’s Soviet Trip
However, there is a price to pay for Joyce’s actions, as Hopper winds up on the wrong side of the gate and ends up sacrificing himself. Although he seems dead to the people at Hawkins, the end credit scene in Season 3 establishes that Hopper is very much alive. Only, he’s alive in Russia having somehow made his way to the other side of the portal and is now in captivity. What’s worse is that he seems to be in some kind of feeding chamber where the Russians are keeping people prisoners, so they can feed them to Demogorgons. There’s no information so far on how Hopper survived and what prevented him from death, so we will likely get all those answers in the new season.
Eleven’s New Life
With Hopper - who was Eleven’s guardian - now presumed dead, Eleven is being taken care of by Joyce and she has now moved to California with Joyce, Will (Noah Schnapp) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton). To make matters worse, the third season also introduced a new problem for her as she lost her powers after her fight with the Mind Flayer. So starting in Season 4, Eleven is now in unfamiliar terrain, away from her other friends and powerless, making her return to Hawkins and regaining her powers an exciting turn for the show. However, Mike (Finn Wolfhard) does tell Eleven that he’ll see her at Thanksgiving, so maybe that’s how the series unites the gang. Still, we do have some lingering questions about why her powers disappeared and what will bring them back.
Everyone’s Trying Long Distance
With Hopper dead to the world, Joyce and Hopper’s cutesy romance has definitely hit a big roadblock for the time being. With the latter being in a different country and the trailer for the new season showing no indication that he will be returning to Hawkins quickly, there’s no telling when or if they will finally date. Meanwhile, all the couples that are cannon, are all trying the long distance dating approach now that Eleven and Jonathan have moved away from Mike and Nancy (Natalie Dyer). Eleven even goes as far as to tell Mike that she loves him! So the new season better bring them all back together quickly. Max seems to be grieving Billy, to be too preoccupied by Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) but they are together as of Season 3. As for Dustin, he has been attempting the long distance relationship the longest with us only catching a glimpse of his camp girlfriend Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo) at the end of Season 3. Steve’s crush on Robin (Maya Hawke) doesn’t quite work out in Season 3, with her revealing that she isn’t sexually attracted to men. However, Steve (Joe Keery) has come a long way from the jerk we met in Season 1, and he seems perfectly content with his platonic relationship with Robin. We’re also wondering if this will be the season that Steve and Robin find their own respective love interests. Of course, whether they all survive and remain together is still up in the air, and who knows which way the wind will blow when the monsters come back to Hawkins.
The End Is Near
Finally, it’s vital to remember that the upcoming Season 4 will be split into two sections. Part One comes out May 27 and the remaining four episodes will be released July 1. The fourth season is set to start tying up all the loose threads from early seasons, such as the mystery of Eleven’s origin and how exactly she helped bring the Upside Down creatures to the main world. We’ve had some information given to us in the early seasons of the show, but the third largely chose to focus on the Russians. It seems that Season 4 will be a return to form and may finally give us some long awaited answers. The creators of the show,The Duffer Brothershave also promised a fifth and final seasonof the series that is set to kickoff following the events of the upcoming season. There’s no date yet on when the series will be released, but the creators have already begun teasing multiple spin-offs, and with a cast this expansive, it certainly makes sense why they would choose to continue the series. Of course this does leave the question of which characters will get the spin-off treatment and whether Season 4 will offer any indication of that.
