The D&D campaign meets the Demogorgon
Ten hours into a campaign in the Wheeler basement, the party faces the Demogorgon, Will's fireball roll goes missing, and Karen calls time.
Mike Wheeler
The leader of the group of friends, the first to shelter Eleven. Played by Finn Wolfhard.
124 moments · 2h 44m
Will admits the roll was a seven
Mike and Lucas gripe about Nancy, then Will quietly tells Mike the truth about his roll before biking home.
Will bikes home alone and vanishes
A race for a comic turns into Will's solo ride down a dark road, an empty house, and a shed that will not stay quiet.
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.
Freak show: Dustin's teeth and the arm thing
Bullies hold a freak-show auction outside school; Dustin explains cleidocranial dysplasia and Mike calls it a superpower.
Hopper questions the boys about Mirkwood
The party explains Will's route home via a road named from The Hobbit; Hopper orders them straight home with no investigating.
Wheeler dinner: house arrest and Ted's chicken
Mike wants to search, Nancy wants Barb's, Karen locks the house down. Doors slam, Holly gets juice, and Ted asks what he did.
Will cast Fireball: the boys decide to search
Over walkie-talkie Mike reminds Lucas that Will risked himself for the party last night, and sets a meeting in ten.
The boys reach Mirkwood: did you hear that?
Calling for Will in the rain, Dustin argues for turning back right before a noise stops all three of them. Episode cliffhanger.
The boys interrogate the girl and Mike gives her privacy
Dustin and Lucas pepper the shaven-headed stranger with questions; Mike hands her dry clothes and learns she wants the bathroom door left open.
Pennhurst escapee or Michael Myers: the boys debate the plan
Lucas is sure she escaped an asylum, Dustin backs him, and Mike lays out a doorbell scheme to hand her off without their parents finding out.
Eleven shows her tattoo and gets the name El
Alone in the basement, Mike spots the 011 tattoo on her wrist, learns her name, and offers her a shorter one before they say goodnight.
El refuses the doorbell plan: bad people are after her
Mike explains how she should ring the doorbell and play lost; she answers with a single no and, haltingly, tells him who she is running from.
Mike's room tour ends with El pointing at Will
Yoda, a roaring dinosaur, and science fair trophies, then El stops at a photo of the boys and Mike realizes she may know Will.
The closet promise and the memory of Papa
Mike hides El in his closet as his mom comes home and explains what a promise is; the dark brings back a cell and a man she calls Papa.
Karen tells Mike he can talk to her; Mike checks on El
Mike fakes sick and his mom answers with tenderness instead of anger, then he opens the closet to find El shaken and asking if everything is okay.
Lucas pushes El about Will and she slams the door shut
Mike argues El knows what happened to Will; Lucas shouts at her, calls it nuts, and heads for the stairs until the door shuts by itself.
What is friend? The boys explain the spit swear
Over meatloaf in the basement, Dustin blurts out superpowers and El asks a question that leaves the boys defining friendship and promises.
El flips the game board: Will is hiding
With the boys watching, El uses the D&D board to answer where Will is, then shows them what he is hiding from.
Operation Mirkwood: wrist rocket, snacks and a flying Millennium Falcon
Lucas unpacks Vietnam-era gear, Dustin unpacks candy, and the boys try to get Eleven to fly a toy with her mind.
Mike teaches Eleven three-one-five
Before school Mike hides Eleven in the basement and shows her on the clock when to meet the boys at the power lines.
Why don't you marry her: rock hunting, Troy's taunt and the monster killer
Rock hunting by the creek: X-Men or Green Lantern, 'why don't you marry her', a cruel bully, then the perfect slingshot stone.
Eleven's flashback: the cat test, the guards, and 'incredible'
Eleven refuses to hurt a cat, is dragged toward solitary, and shows Papa what she can do; back in the present she escapes to meet Mike.
Friends tell the truth: Mike admits Troy tripped him
Eleven asks about Mike's cut, he lies, and she holds him to the rule; mouth breather and knucklehead get explained.
Eleven leads the boys to Will's house and Lucas explodes
At the power lines the search ends at the Byers house; Lucas wants the cops, Mike refuses, then sirens pull them away.
A body comes out of the quarry and Mike turns on Eleven
Hopper watches divers pull a small body from the water; the boys see it on the news and Mike screams at Eleven for lying.
Mike tells Eleven what she did sucks, then Will sings through the walkie
Mike says friends don't lie and Lucas was right about her; then Eleven turns on the walkie and Will's favorite Clash song comes through the static.
Mike spams Lucas on the walkie until he answers
Mike chants Lucas's name over the radio until he picks up, then declares the funeral can wait: this is about Will, get over here stat.
Mike insists Will is alive and Eleven is channeling him
Lucas says it was a baby monitor; Mike argues Eleven is channeling Will like Professor X, and the boys plan to get her to Mr. Clarke's Heathkit radio.
Eleven's makeover: pretty, good
The boys put Eleven in a blonde wig and a pink dress to pass her off at school; Mike fumbles out that she looks pretty good, and she repeats it to the mirror.
Eleven becomes Eleanor, Mike's cousin from Sweden
Caught sneaking to the Heathkit, the boys improvise a cover story for Mr. Clarke: Eleven is cousin Eleanor from Sweden, where it is cold. Subzero.
Mike confronts Troy at the assembly and Eleven makes him wet himself
Mike calls out Troy for laughing at Will's memorial; Troy mocks Will as a fairy, then freezes mid-threat and pees his pants in front of the whole gym.
Eleven reaches for Will on the Heathkit as Papa's word test plays
At the ham radio, Eleven closes her eyes; in flashback Brenner has her listen to a stranger and repeat his words. The classroom lights start to flicker.
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.
The party decodes Will's radio message: the Upside Down
Piecing together 'home, dark, empty', Eleven flips the board and the boys name the Vale of Shadows, a dark echo of Hawkins where Will might be.
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.
Mr. Clarke explains the flea and the acrobat
At the wake the boys ask their science teacher how to reach another dimension; he answers with a tightrope, a flea, and a gate that would need enormous energy.
Dustin's compasses do not point to true north
Eleven dodges the question of where the gate is, then Dustin grabs every compass: a gate strong enough to bend magnetic north would also point the way.
Is the weirdo acting weird?
On the compass hike Dustin needles Lucas about distance, Mike wonders if Eleven is off, and Lucas asks whether the weirdo can act weirder than normal.
The compasses loop back and Lucas accuses Eleven
The setting sun shows the party has walked in a circle; Lucas sees fresh blood on Eleven's nose and calls her a traitor, and she can only say it is not safe.
Mike and Lucas fight until Eleven throws Lucas
Lucas calls Eleven a stray dog and maybe the monster, Mike tackles him, and Eleven ends the brawl with her mind, knocking Lucas out cold.
Dustin lays down the rule of law
Mike blames himself and Lucas for Eleven leaving; Dustin calls all three of them out and orders a handshake or banishment from the party.
Lucas refuses the handshake and goes to the gate alone
Dustin invokes the Bloodstone Pass to keep the party together, but Lucas calls Eleven a traitor and leaves to find Will by himself.
Dustin on best friends and goblins with zero intelligence
Riding without Lucas, Dustin tells Mike the fight is about jealousy, and they settle whether you can have more than one best friend.
Eleven saves Mike at the quarry
Troy holds a knife to Dustin and counts Mike down to the cliff edge; Mike jumps, and Eleven catches him and breaks Troy's arm.
Eleven confesses she opened the gate
Drained after the quarry, Eleven apologises and calls herself the monster; Mike tells her she is the one who saved him.
Lucas's walkie warning: the bad men are coming
A frantic, half-audible call from Lucas reaches Mike's basement: the lab knows about Eleven and is on its way.
Mike spots the fake repairmen and flees
Mike interrupts Karen's phone call to ask about repairs, realises the van outside is the lab, and leaves with a one-line exit.
The bike chase and the flipped van
The boys race through Hawkins on bikes with lab vans closing in, until Eleven sends one flying overhead.
Lucas and Mike make up: friends don't lie
After the chase, Lucas takes back calling Mike a traitor and the party's rule gets said out loud.
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.
Waiting in the bus: shut up about Lando
Dustin paces and panics that the chief set them up, Lucas has had enough of Lando, then headlights appear.
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.
Dustin calls Mr. Clarke about curiosity doors
At ten on a Saturday Dustin phones his science teacher for sensory deprivation tank plans, and learns they need 1,500 pounds of salt.
Nancy and Mike: no more secrets, and Eggos
Setting up the pool, the Wheeler siblings swap confessions, Mike reveals what Eleven eats, and both deny any crushes.
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.
Dustin goes hunting for chocolate pudding
The boys argue over whether to stay hidden in the school gym; Dustin's answer is a raid on the lunch lady's secret stash so Eleven can recharge.
Mike asks Eleven to the Snow Ball
Over a cup of pudding, Mike promises Eleven a bed, a family and real food, fumbles the word 'sister', and asks her to a school dance.
The agents storm the school
Lab agents sweep the building and corner the boys in the hallway; the chase ends in silence and Eleven slumps, bleeding and unresponsive.
Papa comes for Eleven and the lights go out
The boys refuse to hand Eleven over, Brenner scoops her up with soothing words, and she answers him with a single word before the monster arrives.
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.
Eleven faces the Demogorgon alone
Rocks from a wrist rocket do nothing, so Eleven gets up, tells the boys to stop, pins the monster to the wall and says goodbye to Mike.
The party tells Will about Eleven
Mike, Dustin and Lucas pile into Will's hospital room with news of his funeral, Troy's accident, and a new friend who is basically a wizard.
Will the Wise fireballs the thessalhydra
A month later the campaign ends in the basement: Will rolls a fourteen, the boys complain the ending is too short, and Dustin gets blamed for the smell.
Dustin, Lucas and Mike scrape together arcade money
Couch-cushion pennies, a mowed lawn and a raid on Nancy's savings: the boys radio each other to tally quarters before arcade night.
A mystery player called Mad Max beats Dustin's Dig Dug record
Dustin loses at Dragon's Lair, then finds his top score smashed by someone named Mad Max. Keith will only talk in exchange for a date with Nancy.
Will slips into the Upside Down outside the arcade
Will steps out for air and the arcade goes dark and empty around him. Mike finds him shaken and coaxes him back inside.
Max skateboards into Hawkins Middle and corrects her name
The boys clock a new skater in the schoolyard; in class Mr. Clarke introduces Maxine from California, who insists on Max.
The boys spy on Max and get caught
Lucas and Dustin debate whether a girl can be Mad Max while watching her through binoculars, until she leaves them a note.
Mike's parents bench him: two boxes of toys for the yard sale
Karen lists Mike's year of trouble and Ted delivers the verdict in baseball terms; Mike pleads emotional value for his toys.
Day 352: Mike calls out to El on the radio
Alone in the basement, Mike keeps his nightly ritual of radioing Eleven, asking only for a sign she's okay. Dustin cuts in on the channel.
Mike refuses to give up Eleven under questioning
Government men press Mike on where she is; he says he would never tell them even if he knew, as searchers sweep the woods.
Two Venkmans and nobody else in costume
Mike and Lucas fight over who gets to be Venkman and why nobody wants Winston, then realise they are the only kids at school dressed up.
Billy's car: 'Say it' and the near miss
Max's stepbrother makes her say whose fault Hawkins is, then swerves at the boys in the road for bonus points. The kids finally learn who Mad Max is.
The 3 Musketeers debate and a masked ambush
The boys argue whether 3 Musketeers is just nougat or top three, then get scared out of their skins by a new party member in a mask.
Totally tubular, and Mike sulks
Dustin and Lucas butcher California slang for Max's benefit while Mike complains to Will that nobody asked him about adding her to the party.
Will's episode on Halloween night
Shoved by bullies, Will slips into a vision of the shadow and freezes; Mike finds him shaking and takes him home while Max shrugs it off.
Will describes the shadow; 'crazy together'
Will tells Mike about being stuck between two slides and a living shadow coming for him; they agree that if they are going crazy, they go together.
Day 353: Mike asks for a sign
Mike radios into the dark for the 353rd day, admits a bad day and wishes she were here; somewhere, someone hears her name said back.
Dustin presents Dart to the party as a new species
In the AV room the boys meet the slimy thing from Dustin's trash; he rules out tadpoles and reptiles and claims a brand-new species.
The party argues Dart is from the Upside Down, then he escapes
Will says he saw something like Dart last year; Dustin's True Sight theory and Death Star defense end when the trap opens and Dart bolts.
Mike names the party roles and refuses the new girl a spot
The new girl asks why Mike hates her; he lists paladin, cleric, bard, ranger and a mage called El. She offers to be zoomer, until her board is yanked.
Dustin finds Dart in the bathroom and keeps him for himself
Dustin radios that he has found Dart, then quietly reclaims him; the others arrive to an empty bathroom and realize nobody knows where Will is.
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.
Dustin feeds Dart, then the boys search the trash
Dustin leaves breakfast for Dart and heads to school, where Lucas and the new girl are digging through garbage looking for the escaped creature.
Party members only: the boys plan to find Dart
Mike shuts the new girl out of the AV room; the party debates whether Will's shadow can hurt him and decides Dart is the key.
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 tells Mike the shadow monster is inside him
Will explains his link to the shadow monster and his now-memories; Mike reframes it as a chance to spy on the thing and stop it.
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.
Will sees the shadow monster's weak spot
Mike waits impatiently and Hopper is kept out, then Will comes to with a vision and says he knows how to stop the shadow monster.
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.
Eleven hears Mike calling from the lab
Sitting with the gang's poker game, Eleven drifts through memories of Mike and Hopper, then sees Mike in danger shouting about a trap.
Eleven chooses her friends over her sister
With the van waiting, Eleven tells Kali she has to go back because her friends are in danger, and that she alone can save them.
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.
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.
Demo-dogs: Dustin names the enemy
Grieving at the Byers house, the kids remember Bob founded Hawkins AV, then Dustin defends his compound word and Mike realises the army answers to one master.
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.
Mike tells Max about El
Max says she gets why El was Mike's mage. Mike keeps her at arm's length, then admits El was awesome until the thing took her, just like it took Bob.
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.
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.
Mike confronts Hopper for hiding Eleven for 353 days
Eleven walks back into the Byers house; Mike's joy turns to fury when he learns Hopper kept her hidden all year, and he screams that Hopper is a liar.
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.
Steve the babysitter sends Nancy off; Mike and Eleven promise
Steve tells Nancy to go with Jonathan and owns his new role as babysitter, then Mike makes Eleven promise he won't lose her again.
On the bench: the kids plot the tunnels, Steve says no
Mike and Dustin work out how to lure the Demo-dogs away by burning the tunnel hub; Steve shuts it down and demands a yes from every one of them.
Steve vs Billy brawl, and Max ends it with a syringe and a bat
Billy goes after Lucas, Steve lands the first punch, and the fight turns ugly until Max sedates her stepbrother and makes him swear to leave them alone.
Steve wakes up with Max at the wheel of Billy's car
A battered Steve comes round in the back seat to find a thirteen-year-old driving them to the tunnels, with the boys shouting directions.
Dustin's party-rules speech gets Steve into the hole
At the pumpkin-field hole, Dustin invokes the duty of a party member to help another, and Steve caves and takes the lead into the tunnels.
Dustin gets a face full of spores, then the party finds the hub
A vine sprays Dustin in the mouth and he panics while the others laugh; moments later they reach the hub and start dousing it with gasoline.
Dustin says goodbye to Dart with a bar of nougat
Cornered in the tunnel, Dustin recognises Dart, apologises for the storm cellar, and feeds him his favourite candy so the party can pass.
The Demo-dogs come running and the party scrambles for the rope
Eleven channels her rage at the gate as the horde turns back; the boys sprint through the tunnels and Steve hauls them up the rope one by one.
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.
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.
Dustin gets turned down, and Nancy asks him to dance
Every girl refuses Dustin and he breaks down alone, until Nancy pulls him onto the floor, teaches him the rhythm, and tells him he's her favourite.
Eleven arrives at the Snow Ball and Mike asks her to dance
Eleven walks into the gym and Mike tells her she looks beautiful; neither knows how to dance, so they decide to figure it out together.
Every Breath You Take: the Snow Ball slow dance
The couples sway to The Police as Mike shows Eleven the steps and the season closes on the Snow Ball dance floor.