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.
S1E2 · Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street
20 moments · 25 min of essential viewing in a 55-minute episode.
Moments, in order
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hopper learns about the kid with the buzzed head
Questioning Benny's friend, Hopper hears about a small child stealing food from the kitchen, hair buzzed to the scalp, who could have been Will.
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.
Barb warns Nancy about Steve's party
Parked three blocks from Steve's house, Barb tells Nancy what the empty-house invitation really means, and notices the new bra.
Hopper on the porch: you ever feel cursed?
Out in the cold, Hopper counts Hawkins' last disappearance and last suicide and asks when someone last froze to death.
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.
Nancy shotguns a beer, Barb cuts her hand, Nancy goes in the pool
Nancy proves she is no cliché at Steve's party, Barb's attempt ends in blood, and Tommy shoves Nancy into the water.
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.
Nancy sends Barb home from the pool
Soaked and heading upstairs with Steve, Nancy tells Barb to go home; Barb says this is not her, and Nancy insists she is fine.
Playlists touching this episode
Mike Wheeler's Best Moments
Stranger Things
The leader of the group of friends, the first to shelter Eleven. Played by Finn Wolfhard.
124 moments · 2h 44mby Favseen
Dustin Henderson's Best Moments
Stranger Things
The group's curious, sharp-tongued scientist, never without a theory. Played by Gaten Matarazzo.
101 moments · 2h 15mby Favseen
Eleven's Best Moments
Stranger Things
A girl with a shaved head and telekinetic powers who escapes a government lab and finds the boys. Played by Millie Bobby Brown.
98 moments · 2h 16mby Favseen
Jim Hopper's Best Moments
Stranger Things
Hawkins' police chief, a man with a lost past who takes the Byers case seriously when nobody else does. Played by David Harbour.
94 moments · 2h 11mby Favseen
Lucas Sinclair's Best Moments
Stranger Things
The group's skeptic, quickest to question Eleven and to act. Played by Caleb McLaughlin.
89 moments · 1h 59mby Favseen
Joyce Byers's Best Moments
Stranger Things
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 00mby Favseen
Nancy Wheeler's Best Moments
Stranger Things
Mike's older sister, pulled from her own high-school life into the search. Played by Natalia Dyer.
71 moments · 1h 43mby Favseen
Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson & Lucas Sinclair
Stranger Things
The party: the three boys, their walkie-talkies and every argument. 70 scenes together, in story order.
70 moments · 1h 36mby Favseen
Jonathan Byers's Best Moments
Stranger Things
Will's older brother, a loner with a camera who looks for his brother his own way. Played by Charlie Heaton.
63 moments · 1h 33mby Favseen
Will Byers's Best Moments
Stranger Things
The quiet boy whose disappearance on his way home sets everything in motion. Played by Noah Schnapp.
63 moments · 1h 29mby Favseen
Mike Wheeler & Eleven
Stranger Things
The boy who found her in the rain and the girl with the powers: their story, scene by scene. 54 scenes together, in story order.
54 moments · 1h 10mby Favseen
Jim Hopper & Joyce Byers
Stranger Things
The chief and the mother who refuses to be told she is crazy. 46 scenes together, in story order.
46 moments · 1h 06mby Favseen
Steve Harrington's Best Moments
Stranger Things
The popular senior dating Nancy, more than the hair suggests. Played by Joe Keery.
46 moments · 1h 06mby Favseen
Joyce Byers & Will Byers
Stranger Things
A mother talking to her lost boy through fairy lights, then nursing him back. 34 scenes together, in story order.
34 moments · 48 minby Favseen
Nancy Wheeler & Steve Harrington
Stranger Things
The high-school couple whose romance the Upside Down pulls apart. 25 scenes together, in story order.
25 moments · 38 minby Favseen
Karen Wheeler's Best Moments
Stranger Things
Mike and Nancy's mother, holding the Wheeler household together. Played by Cara Buono.
18 moments · 25 minby Favseen
Dr. Martin Brenner's Best Moments
Stranger Things
The scientist who ran the lab and calls Eleven his own. Played by Matthew Modine.
14 moments · 21 minby Favseen
Eleven & Dr. Martin Brenner
Stranger Things
The girl and the man she was taught to call Papa. 9 scenes together, in story order.
9 moments · 13 minby Favseen