(Credits: Netflix)

It was November 1983 when Netflix opened the floodgates of all things strange with Stranger Things. A 12-year-old Will Byers had just gone missing, leaving the entire Hawkins on high alert. But instead of finding Will, the townsmen stumbled upon a strange young girl, who, in time, became the solution to every otherworldly problem Indiana could barely wrap its head around.

The viewers have come a long way from the first season as they wait with bated breath for the fifth and final season of the hit Netflix series. But in case you need a refresher of everything that went down nine years ago, don’t worry, we have you covered.

With the bike-riding teenagers and Eggo-loving kids forming an alliance that’s one for the history books, what you really need to do is sit tight and recap those memories.

As the central characters of Stranger Things try to solve the mystery surrounding the town’s odd events and, of course, their missing friend, here lies the answer to all those questions which left us scrambling years back then.

When does Stranger Things happen?

Stranger Things commences on November 6th, 1983, when Will Byers disappears mysteriously and Eleven manages to flee the Hawkins National Laboratory. Throughout the week, Will’s mother, Joyce, his friends, and Hawkins’ Chief of Police, Jim, go on an unrelenting search for the 12-year-old, still unaware of the conspiracies buried deep in the Hawkins lab.

But by the end of the instalment, not only do they find Will, but also unravel the secrets plaguing the lab, by sending the monstrous entity back to the Upside Down.

But what is Upside Down?

The Upside Down is also known as the shadow dimension, which is basically a clone of the town, except that it’s inhabited by malevolent forces and covered in shadows and living vines. Anyone who gets stuck in the Upside Down ends up being the food for these monsters and vines.

And in order to reach this alternate dimension, there are portals and “gates” hidden all over Hawkins. In case you don’t remember, the primary gate in the first season of Stranger Things was in the basement of the Hawkins National Laboratory.

Who’s Eleven? How is she tied to the Upside Down?

Eleven is the Eggo-loving kid whom the Hawkins residents stumble upon during their search for Will Byers. She has psychic abilities and was reared in the Hawkins National Laboratory, a clandestine Department of Energy facility. It is unveiled in the first season of the sci-fi series that she’s the daughter of Terry Ives, who was one of the participants in the federal government’s MKUltra experiments that tested the supernatural consequences of certain drugs. While signing up for the program, Terry was unaware of her pregnancy.

Her family was informed that she had miscarried the baby during the third trimester, but Terry barely believed that. Joyce and Hopper were of the opinion that Eleven was the child the Hawkins lab had taken away from Terry. During the experiments, Eleven’s powers were heavily exploited to weaponise and control the monsters of the Upside Down. Her name comes from the fact that she was the 11th child to undergo those experiments in the laboratory. However, she manages to escape the laboratory, becoming friends with the Hawkins Middle School AV Club, consisting of Mike, Lucas, and Dustin, during their search for Will.

With Eleven, the preteens soon discover the real existence of monsters in the town and amidst their quest to track down Will, they try their best to convince the adults of the same.

How did Eleven harness psychic powers?

It turns out that the drugs that were fed to Terry while she was pregnant led to a baby who could move objects with her mind, enabling her to communicate with alternate dimensions. When Eleven exerts her psychic abilities, her nose tends to bleed. And the more intensity either of those clauses requires determines the energy it takes.

Although she’s incredibly powerful on her own, to maximise her psychic reach, she needs to be in “the bath,” which is basically a sensory deprivation chamber. The Hawkins Laboratory used to lock up Eleven in one of those State-run chambers, coercing her into locating Russian spies and Upside Down monsters. But when Joyce and the Hawkins kids make their own DIY version to locate Will in the alternate dimension, she willingly volunteers.

What’s Will Byers’ role in all of this?

Will Byers‘ mysterious disappearance ultimately boils down to the fact that an Upside Down creature had abducted him from his family’s shed on the night of November 6th, 1983. After playing a game of D&D with his friends, he sees something stalking him. He leaves his bike and returns to the yard, but unfortunately, the monster tails him, taking him to the Upside Down.

It’s not until the next morning that Joyce gets a hunch that Will’s missing. And she turns to Hopper, whose investigations lead to the Hawkins National Laboratory’s clandestine experiments and information about the real existence of the Upside Down. Meanwhile, Joyce realises that Will has been trying to communicate through his radio and Christmas lights, which are hung over the alphabet written on the wall. This convinces her that Will is technically in the same room as her but not in this dimension.

Joyce and Hopper soon join forces with the kids, leading to a negotiation with the lab to enter the Upside Down to rescue Will. Will is finally found in the shadow realm of the Hawkins Public Library’s basement and is revived with CPR. Although he returns home, the ending scenes are enough revelation that the Upside Down is far from done with him.

What chased Will Byers in the woods?

The Hawkins gang named the creature Demogorgon, which is based on the monster from Dungeons & Dragons. A Demogorgon is a faceless, monstrous creature with a flappy head and petal-like appendages, complete with sharp shark-like teeth. It feeds on its victims via the scent of blood, which can be either human or animal.

Who is the main monster in the first season?

The Demogorgon is undoubtedly the main monster of Stranger Things in the debut season. However, the Hawkins National Laboratory, led by Dr Martin Brenner, is no less evil. In fact, they end up killing several people during their pursuit to hunt Eleven in order to gain back their control of her.

But is Will Byers the only one to get stuck in the Upside Down?

No. Barbara Holland, AKA Barb, Nancy’s best friend, is also dragged by the Demogorgon into the Upside Down on November 8th, poolside at Steve Harrington’s house. Filled with guilt, Nancy makes it her mission to track Barb down throughout the season, leading her to join forces with Will’s elder brother, Jonathan. But unlike Will, Barb doesn’t survive the journey to the alternate dimension. Eleven discovers her corpse while searching for the missing people with her psychic powers.

Meanwhile, Dr Brenner also confirms that Will was the only one to return alive from the five who went missing.

Who is Nancy dating by the end of season one?

Nancy was romantically linked to Steve Harrington in the beginning. But following Barb’s disappearance, cracks begin to show when he looks more concerned about his parents finding out that they had a party while they were out of town. As she frantically tries to track down Barb, she ultimately teams up with Jonathan, who, unlike Steve, cares about finding her missing friend.

The two eventually grow close while chasing the Demogorgon through Hawkins. When Steve gets a hunch and catches them cuddling in Nancy’s bedroom, he acts out by getting his friend to paint graffiti at the local movie theatre, writing, “Nancy The Slut Wheeler.” And to make things worse, he also gets embroiled in a fight with Jonathan, leading to the latter’s arrest.

But Steve soon realises his mistake and the fact that he still cares for Nancy. He also shows up to help the two fight the Demogorgon head-on. In the Christmas epilogue, Nancy and Steve are seen together. However, when she gives Jonathan his Christmas present, it becomes clear that the feelings are not yet gone.

How does the first season end?

The first season of Stranger Things concludes with several fights. On one end of the gate leading to the Upside Down, Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve buy out time by distracting the Demogorgon to the Byers’ house to help Joyce and Hopper find Will in the shadow realm.

Meanwhile, Dr Brenner and his team chase Eleven to Hawkins Middle School, where the AV Club boys are doing everything they can to hide her. She uses her power to kill dozens of Brenner’s men, and the blood ultimately lures the Demogorgon towards the school. But she ultimately manages to overpower the Demogorgon, reducing it to dust while crumbling down along with it.

So, does Eleven die?

The Stranger Things season skips to Christmas in Hawkins when Hopper meets the Hawkins lab men following Will’s release from the hospital. He then appears at the police department’s Christmas party, where he takes a to-go plate, cling-wrapped Eggos, only to stash them away in the woods. After the Demogorgon fight, viewers don’t get to see Eleven again. But the Eggos are a hint that she’s not really gone.