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.
Joyce Byers
Will's mother, who refuses to believe her son is gone and will tear her house apart to reach him. Played by Winona Ryder.
87 moments · 2h 00m
Joyce begs Hopper to find her son
Hopper says kids his age play hooky and quotes 99 out of 100; Joyce demands to know about the one. Nothing bad happens in Hawkins, he insists.
Joyce remembers Will and Poltergeist
Castle Byers password, a surprise movie night and a witch voice: Joyce's memory of Will, cut against her calling for him in an empty house.
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 asks Donald for a phone, an advance, and a pack of Camels
At the store she has worked ten years without missing a shift, Joyce lays out exactly what she needs and will not be talked out of it.
Will calls Joyce on the new phone
Joyce begs the breathing voice to say where he is, hears her son say Mom, and then the line and the phone burn out again.
Something pushes through Joyce's living room wall
Alone after the call, Joyce follows a sound to the wall, asks if it is Will, and watches the wallpaper stretch toward her.
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.
Karen brings a casserole and Joyce throws her out
Joyce explains the Christmas lights, worries about Mike, then Holly wanders toward the wall and Joyce abruptly ends the visit.
Blink once for yes: Joyce asks Will if he is alive
Alone with a single bulb, Joyce sets up a yes/no code and gets her first real answers from her son.
The alphabet wall spells RIGHT HERE
Joyce reads Will's answer letter by letter off the painted wall and begs him to tell her what to do next.
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.
Hopper tells Joyce about seeing Sarah after she died
Hopper opens up about hearing his dead daughter and packing the grief away, then urges Joyce to go to the morgue and see for herself.
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.
Will's voice: Joyce through the wall, the boys through the radio
Will calls for his mom from a place like home but dark and cold; Joyce tears into the wallpaper while the boys hear him on the Heathkit, until it blows.
Joyce loses Will's voice and Lonnie calls it grief
Shaken after the wall went quiet, Joyce insists Will was right there; Lonnie tells her it is all in her head and the funeral is tomorrow.
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.
Joyce remembers Will the Wise and the green fireballs
A memory at the graveside: young Will explains why a wise wizard still needs fireballs, and Joyce promises new crayons because they look like cabbages.
Joyce throws Lonnie out: the lights stay up until she dies
Joyce sees Lonnie came for lawsuit money, not for Will, and orders him out, swearing to keep the Christmas lights up as long as there is a chance Will is alive.
Hopper tells Joyce she was right about Will's body
After sweeping the house for bugs, Hopper admits he went to the morgue the night before: the body was a fake, and Joyce has been right the whole time.
Hopper realises the lab child may not be Will
Joyce retells the lab child's room; Hopper connects the drawing and Benny's diner to Terry Ives and fears he has been chasing another kid.
Hopper and Joyce meet Terry Ives
Terry's sister lets them in, but Joyce's plea about Will and Jane meets a woman who cannot answer anything at all.
MK Ultra: Terry, the LSD and the isolation tanks
Terry's sister explains the CIA study that paid her sister to take psychedelics and float in sensory-deprivation tanks while pregnant.
Jane, born with abilities
The sister insists Terry miscarried, yet Terry has spent twelve years believing a gifted daughter was stolen by the government.
What Hopper would give for a chance
Driving away from Terry's house, Joyce despairs of finding Will; Hopper reminds her the girl surfaced five nights ago, so they still have a chance.
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.
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 thanks Eleven before the bath
Fitting the goggles, Joyce tells Eleven she is brave, thanks her for Will, and promises to stay with her the whole time.
Eleven finds Barb in the Upside Down
In the void Eleven calls Barb's name and finds her; she surfaces screaming one word while Joyce holds her, then names Castle Byers.
Eleven reaches Will: Mom is coming
Eleven finds Will in his fort and relays Joyce's message to hold on; she comes out of the water shaking and is told she did good.
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.
Hopper and Joyce walk up to the lab fence
Hopper's plan is to let himself get caught; guards swarm them at the gate as The Clash plays out the episode.
Joyce tells Brenner to go to hell
Brenner asks Joyce to help him find the thing that took her son. Joyce answers with everything he did to her boy, then two words.
Hopper trades Eleven's location for a way into the gate
Hopper names his price for giving up the girl, then explains the deal to a stunned Joyce as they are handed suits for the atmosphere inside.
Hopper's breathing and the memory of a princess
Inside the Upside Down, Hopper talks Joyce through a panic attack and is pulled back into a bedtime story he once told his own daughter.
Will is found; Mike promises Eleven the Snow Ball
Joyce and Hopper pull Will out of the thing holding him in the Upside Down while Mike carries a fading Eleven and promises her Eggos and a dance.
Joyce and Hopper bring Will back
Will isn't breathing. Hopper counts compressions, Joyce begs her son to come back, and Hopper's memory of a hospital monitor cuts through it all.
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.
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.
Joyce and Bob sneak a kiss in the stockroom
Bob visits Joyce at work, admits he can't stop thinking about her, and asks that Jonathan skip the scary movies for movie night.
Joyce tells Will to stop apologizing
Driving Will to his appointment, Joyce reminds him there's nothing to be nervous about and that she'll be in the room the whole time.
Owens warns of the Anniversary Effect; Hopper tells Joyce to call him first
The doctor predicts more episodes and asks for trust; outside, Joyce bristles and Hopper backs the science but insists she call him if it worsens.
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.
Joyce and Hopper: nightmares or flashbacks
Joyce shows Hopper Will's drawing; he calls the episodes flashbacks and says it will get better in time, then they share a cigarette like high school.
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.
Bob suggests leaving Hawkins together
Joyce admits she cannot function when Will is away; Bob floats moving to Maine and a RadioShack job, and she says this is not a normal family.
Bob tells Joyce he likes everything that comes with her
Bob confesses his feelings, mentions kids bullying Will on his camera tape, and admits he never punched back; now he gets to date Joyce Byers.
Joyce calls Bob at RadioShack to play the Halloween tape
Bob talks Joyce through a VHS-C adapter in jargon she cannot follow; once the tape plays she sees the kids taunting Will and his panic.
Joyce and Dustin find Will frozen on the field
Cold open: Dustin leads Joyce to Will, locked in another episode on the school field, as she pleads with him to wake up.
No more secrets: Joyce shows Will the shape from the tape
Joyce matches the shape on the Halloween video to Will's drawing, says she thinks the episodes are real, and asks him to stop hiding things.
Will admits the thing got him; Joyce's promise
Will describes the shadow as a feeling he still carries everywhere, and Joyce swears nothing bad will ever happen to him again.
Will explains his now-memories to Hopper
Hopper gently questions Will about the shadow; Will says he just knows things now, memories that are not his, growing, spreading, killing.
Joyce and Hopper connect the drawings into vines
Joyce realizes the black lines in Will's drawings join up; laid across the floor they fork like lightning, and Hopper names them: vines.
Mike asks Joyce about the shadow monster
Mike turns up at the Byers house to see Will, Joyce fobs him off, and he asks point blank whether this is about the shadow monster.
Will wakes up: he saw Hopper and thinks he will die
Will wakes Joyce in the night with a vision of Hopper in danger.
Bob the Brain shows up with brain teasers
Bob drops by to help a sick Will, Joyce turns him away at the door, then changes her mind and calls him back.
Bob realizes Will's drawings are a map of Hawkins
Asked to find the X with no questions, Bob spots Lovers' Lake and the rivers and works out the vines are a map of the town.
Will's now-memories lead to Hopper's truck and the tunnels
Will shouts turn right from a vision, they find Hopper's truck by a hole full of vines, and Joyce makes Bob dig her down into Will's map.
Joyce and Bob cut Hopper free of the vines
Following his hat through the tunnels, Joyce finds Hopper being strangled by vines and hacks him loose as the lab team floods in.
Joyce demands answers from the lab doctors
Joyce tears into the Hawkins Lab staff who told her to be patient, and asks the room whether anyone can say what is wrong with her son.
Bob Newby, superhero, and a son who does not recognize him
Bob tells Joyce about the papers he signed and jokes about Maine, then Will wakes up and does not know who he is.
Will remembers Mike but not Hopper
The doctor tests Will's memory: he knows his friend in the photo but not the man who carried him out, and says the soldiers upset something.
A virus with a hive mind
Owens lays out his theory that Will is infected by something whose hosts communicate, and Joyce asks what happens when nothing of her boy is left.
Will's confession: it was a trap
Will apologizes and says he was made to do it. Mike realizes the soldiers are walking into a trap, and Will says it is already too late.
Will has to be put to sleep
With the lab overrun, Mike argues Will is a spy for the shadow monster. Joyce asks her screaming son if he knows her before holding him down to sedate him.
Bob Newby, superhero: Bob volunteers for the breakers
Only Bob knows BASIC, so he insists on going down to the basement alone. Hopper teaches him the gun in four words, and Bob promises to get everyone out.
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.
Bob's run for the front door
Told he is almost home free, Bob makes a break for the lobby. Joyce arrives just in time to watch and Hopper has to drag her away.
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.
Joyce's rainbow ship: the crayon memory
Joyce reminds Will of his eighth birthday, the box of 120 colours and the spaceship drawing she hung at work and showed to everyone.
Mike's first day of kindergarten speech
Mike tells Will about the swings, the question he asked and the yes that was the best thing he ever did. Joyce begs Will to answer, and he does with two words.
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.
The phone rings: it knows where they are
A ringing phone cuts through the shed. Everyone freezes hoping Will did not hear it, but he did, and the house has to move fast.
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.
Eleven meets Max, sees Will, and agrees to close the gate
Dustin shows off his new teeth, Max introduces herself, and Eleven sees how sick Will is before Hopper asks if she can shut the gate she opened.
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.
Getting ready for the Snow Ball
Joyce films Will's dance moves, Karen photographs a mortified Mike, Lucas's sister ambushes him with a kiss, and Dustin hunts for his hairspray.
Hopper and Joyce share a cigarette outside the gym
Waiting on their kids, Hopper and Joyce catch up in the parking lot and he tells her the grief never goes away, but every day gets a little easier.