Joyce realizes Will never came home
A frantic school morning at the Byers house: Will's bed is empty, Jonathan took a late shift, and a call to Karen gives no comfort.
Jonathan Byers
Will's older brother, a loner with a camera who looks for his brother his own way. Played by Charlie Heaton.
63 moments · 1h 33m
Hopper searches the Byers shed and calls a search party
Will's bike is found but not Will. Hopper checks the house, then the shed, and comes out rattled enough to summon every volunteer in town.
Joyce picks a photo of Will, then the phone breathes
Joyce tells Jonathan it is not his fault and that she feels Will is close; then a call comes with only breathing on the line.
Joyce tells Hopper the call was Will
Hopper calls the melted phone a prank; Joyce refuses to be managed and hits back with a question about his own daughter.
Jonathan gives Will the mixtape over The Clash
A memory of the brothers over Should I Stay or Should I Go, Joyce fighting Lonnie on the phone, as Jonathan tells Will not to like things on command.
Joyce tells Jonathan that Will is talking through the lights
Joyce begs the flickering lamps to answer; Jonathan calls it bad wiring and asks his mother to stop and sleep.
Steve's crew finds Jonathan's photos and smashes his camera
Tommy grabs Jonathan's bag, the photos from the party come out, and Steve breaks the camera while Nancy watches.
Joyce swears the body in the quarry is not Will
Hopper lays out the drowning theory; Joyce insists she spoke to Will through the lights and describes a faceless, long-armed thing in her wall.
Joyce checks the body for Will's birthmark and refuses to sign
Joyce asks to see the birthmark on the arm; outside, Hopper and Jonathan talk about how tough she is, then she storms out saying that is not her son.
Jonathan and Joyce fight in the parking lot about the funeral
Jonathan says the rest of them are burying Will while she talks to the lights; Joyce vows she will not stop until she brings him home.
Nancy describes the faceless man and Jonathan already knows
At the funeral home, Nancy tells Jonathan the cops think Barb ran away and that she saw a weird man in the woods; he finishes her sentence: no face.
The darkroom: Jonathan's photo shows what took Barb
Jonathan admits he would rather observe people than talk to them; the enlarged print reveals the thing behind Barb, and Nancy connects it to Will.
Jonathan tells Lonnie he only ever makes things worse
Lonnie plays the concerned father and tells Jonathan his mother is sick; Jonathan throws back years of absence and gets told to behave at the funeral.
Will's funeral and the joke about Jennifer Hayes
The pastor asks how God could take someone so young while the boys, unconvinced Will is dead, note who is crying so they can tell him later.
Nancy and Jonathan map the monster and decide to kill it
Over a map of every sighting, Nancy and Jonathan realise the creature stays within a mile, and Jonathan loads a gun rather than take another photo.
Jonathan teaches Nancy to shoot and remembers the rabbit
Target practice: Jonathan recalls the birthday hunt his father forced on him, Nancy describes her parents loveless marriage, and both say screw that.
Pretentious creep versus suburban girl
Nancy asks why Jonathan took her photo; the answer stings, and each admits they had almost started to think the other was okay before the insults fly.
The wounded deer is dragged into the dark
Nancy and Jonathan find a deer hit by a car; Nancy insists she is not nine anymore and takes the gun, but something pulls the animal away before she can shoot.
Nancy crawls through the tree and vanishes
Following the blood trail, Nancy climbs into a hollow tree and comes out somewhere wrong; Jonathan calls her name into empty woods.
Jonathan pulls Nancy back through the tree
Cold open: Nancy is lost in the dark other world while Jonathan shouts to guide her back to the opening in the tree.
Nancy asks Jonathan to stay the night
Shaken after the woods, Nancy does not want to be alone and asks Jonathan to stay, lights on, neither sure they are safe.
The shark theory: the monster hunts by blood
Awake at night, Nancy and Jonathan reason that the creature hunts alone and smells blood, and decide to test it; then Karen walks in.
Monster hunting: Nancy buys bear traps
At the hardware store Nancy reflects on how fast life changed from shopping with Barb to buying traps with Jonathan.
Steve confronts Nancy over Jonathan
After the slur painted on the marquee, Steve accuses Nancy of lying about the night before and demands she finish her sentence.
Jonathan beats Steve in the alley
Steve insults the Byers family and Will; Jonathan snaps and pummels him until the police arrive and the kids scatter.
Only love makes you that crazy
At the station Nancy says Jonathan is not her boyfriend; the officer suggests someone should tell him that, then Jonathan brings her ice.
Joyce tells Jonathan he is not alone
At the station Joyce lays into Jonathan for hunting the monster himself and reminds him he has a family.
Nancy and Hopper radio Mike: We're here
Nancy uses the AV room ham radio to reach her brother; the boys debate a Lando Calrissian trap until Mike finally answers.
The acrobat and the flea: Eleven tries to find Will
Nancy hugs Mike and notices her dress; the boys explain the Upside Down with a flea and a tightrope; Eleven reaches and comes up empty.
Joyce insists on going for Will: He's my son, Hop
Hopper wants Joyce to stay back; she refuses outright and tells Jonathan to watch the kids before they head for the lab.
Nancy and Jonathan cut their palms on three
With the trap set in the Byers house, Nancy and Jonathan run the plan one last time and bleed to bait the monster, Jonathan still trying to talk her out of it.
Steve knocks at the worst possible moment
Steve shows up at the Byers house to apologize and finds gasoline on the floor and Nancy pointing a gun at him just as the lights start to blink.
Steve comes back with the bat
Steve gets as far as the driveway, turns around, and swings a nail-studded bat at the monster while Jonathan lights the trap.
Will wakes up to his mom, his brother and a mix tape
In the hospital Will asks where he is, worries about Jonathan's bandaged hand, and gets a new tape with songs his brother thinks he'll like.
Nancy's Christmas present for Jonathan
Nancy stops Jonathan in the driveway with a gift he didn't expect; in the car, Will opens it and Jonathan finds out who helped pay for it.
Christmas dinner at the Byers house
Jonathan documents the turkey, Will guesses the green present is an Atari, slips off to wash his hands, and comes back saying he's fine.
Nancy invites Jonathan to the Halloween party
Nancy won't let Jonathan spend Halloween alone with his records and a Vonnegut novel; Steve arrives in sunglasses to break it up.
Jonathan tells Will being a freak is the best
Will shows Jonathan his Zombie Boy drawing and says everyone treats him like he'll break. Jonathan answers with Bowie versus Kenny Rogers.
Ghostbusters costume photo shoot
Parents snap pictures of the boys in proton packs before school; Will and Jonathan pose for Joyce while a little sister calls her brother a nerd.
Will heads out with Bob's camcorder
Joyce gives Will a camera lesson and a promise to come home if anything feels wrong; Jonathan lets him trick-or-treat alone with a 9:00 curfew.
Nancy and Jonathan on the weight they both carry
On the bleachers Nancy wonders if she meant what she said drunk; Jonathan admits Will came home changed. Nancy proposes skipping fourth period.
Nancy calls Barb's mother from a payphone
After a stiff run-in with Karen at the store, Nancy phones Mrs. Holland and arranges a secret meeting, warning that the line is dangerous.
Nancy and Jonathan wait for a contact and get picked up
Nancy and Jonathan sit in the park watching a man play duck-duck-goose, then a stranger offers them a lift they cannot refuse.
Dr. Owens apologizes: mistakes have been made
Released from a holding room, Nancy and Jonathan get a walking lecture from the lab's new boss; Nancy says flatly that they killed Barbara.
Owens shows them the gate and talks of pulling weeds
Owens reveals what really killed Barbara, explains why the truth must not spread, and makes clear he will stop it by whatever means necessary.
Let's burn that lab to the ground
Nancy and Jonathan replay their recording of Owens admitting the lab's mistakes, then decide what to do with it.
Nancy and Jonathan share a motel room
A double room, deja vu and lingering tension: Nancy asks Jonathan why he disappeared after last year, and Steve comes up.
Nancy and Jonathan meet Murray Bauman
The conspiracy theorist shows off his wall of Barbara leads; Nancy tells him his timeline is wrong and who the girl really was.
Murray on why nobody will believe the tape
Thinking with vodka and loud music, Murray tells Nancy the public likes the curtain and will nod along the moment authority calls it bullshit.
Murray's plan: water the story down
Diluting his vodka gives Murray the idea to make the truth tolerable, a lab leak scary but familiar enough to take Barb's killers down.
Murray calls out Nancy and Jonathan's two lies
Over vodka, the conspiracy journalist reads the pair cold: shared trauma, trust issues, and a couple who keep insisting they are just friends.
Nancy and Jonathan agree Murray is wrong, awkwardly
Neither can sleep after the reading. They meet in the hallway, insist a drunk stranger cannot have them figured out, and say good night.
Open sesame: Bob gets the doors open
Alone in the dark basement, Bob resets the breakers and reboots the system while Nancy and Jonathan rattle the gate outside. The locks release and he cheers.
The Mind Flayer: the kids explain the hive mind
The party lays out the shadow monster as a hive mind and reaches for a D&D analogy. Hopper calls it a kids' game; Dustin says the manual is not for kids.
Joyce decides: we have to kill it
No one trusts the military to stop this. Joyce says she wants to kill it, Hopper agrees, and Mike points out the one person connected to the thing is Will.
Will wakes up tied to a chair
In the shed, Will comes round bound and surrounded by family. Joyce says they only want to talk; he demands to know why he is tied up until his voice gives out.
Jonathan remembers building Castle Byers
Jonathan recalls the night their dad left, when he and Will stayed out in the rain building the fort because they just had to finish it.
Morse code: Will spells out the answer
Will is talking without words. The group feeds him memories while Dustin and Lucas decode the taps letter by letter into a two-word instruction.
Demo-dogs surround the Byers house
Hopper orders everyone from the windows and Nancy takes the shotgun. The pack circles outside, then one comes crashing through, already dead.
Demo-dogs, and why closing the gate could kill Will
Dustin names the Demo-dogs, Eleven insists she can close the gate, Mike realises that would kill Will, and Joyce decides to burn the thing out of him.
Jonathan begs Joyce to stop as the heaters torture Will
With Will strapped to the bed and the room blazing, Jonathan screams that they're killing him while Joyce refuses to back off.
Joyce burns the shadow out of Will, and Jonathan radios: Close it
Joyce screams for the thing to get out of her son; Will finally wakes and says Mom, and Jonathan tells Hopper over the radio to close the gate.
Snow Ball arrivals: pure fuel, Dustin's hair, and two first dances
Nancy spikes the punch, Mike and Lucas roast Dustin's new hairdo, Lucas awkwardly asks Max to dance, and a girl asks Zombie Boy Will.