Stranger Things: 12 episodes to watch before season 5

Stranger Things returns in November with its final season, which is supposed to wrap up the story and answer mysteries accumulated over the years. With the premiere scheduled for November 26, many fans have already begun to reconsider the series’ high points.

To help with this warming, the Capitals He rounded up the really important episodes ahead of season five. These are the chapters that provide important clues, discoveries about the characters’ pasts and crucial moments that can be key to the outcome of the story.

Season one

Stranger Things – Season 1. Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven and Finn Wolfhard as Mike

Episode 1: The Disappearance of Will Byers

The first episode is the catalyst for the entire series. It sets the tone of mystery and setting for the 80s. Basically, it presents two plot pillars: the disappearance of Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) and the arrival of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown).

Episode 2: The Stranger on Maple Street

In this episode, Will’s disappearance stops seeming like an isolated case and the danger begins to take shape. This is because Barb Holland (Shannon Purser) becomes the first visible victim of the Demogorgon. Her death marks a turning point in the plot: alone by the pool, she is surprised and taken by the monster from the upside-down side.

Episode 7: Bathtub

The episode shows how Eleven reaches the Upside Down, and in the climax, a bathtub scene reveals three central points: where Will is, how the Demogorgon moves and the true extent of the girl’s powers.

Episode 8: Upside Down

The end of Season 1 shows the moment Will is saved, the Demogorgon is defeated through Eleven’s temporary sacrifice and the immediate mystery is closed. However, the final scene of Will coughing up a slug and looking upside down is the seed for future seasons, ensuring that the dimensional threat is far from over.

Season two

Stranger Things – Season Two. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) and Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo)

Episode 6: The Spy

For series creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer, Episode 6 of Season 2 is extremely important to the series’ ending. In it, the audience sees Will being possessed by the Mind Flayer, who begins using the host as a spy. The tunnels beneath Hawkins indicate how the Upside Down is increasingly contaminating reality, a phenomenon that intensifies at the end of season four.

Episode 7: The Lost Sister

Perhaps the most controversial episode of the series, the seventh episode of Season 2 shows the moment Eleven meets her “sister,” Subject No. 8 in Hawkins Laboratory. Along with Kali, Eleven learns to control her anger to use her powers more effectively.

Episode 9: The Gate

Back in Hawkins, Eleven applies her sister’s teachings and channels her rage to expand her powers, finally managing to close the portal connecting the Upside Down to the city. This moment represents a new way of engaging with your abilities. In the episode, Hopper officially adopts her, and the relationship between the two begins to guide the hero’s choices in the following seasons.

Season three

Stranger Things – Season 3. Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven and Sadie Sink as Max

Episode 8: Battle of Starcourt

The chaotic ending of Season 3 profoundly determines the fate of some characters. Billy’s (Dacre Montgomery) sacrifice shakes his sister Max, who plays a central role in the plot. Eleven is also affected by the disappearance of Hopper, who is revealed to be staying at a military base in Russia, a major point that comes up again in the following episodes.

Season four

Stranger Things – Season 4. Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven and Jamie Campbell Bower as Peter Ballard

Episode 4: Dear Billy

The episode reveals that Vecna mentally attacks his victims, exploiting their trauma until he kills them. However, his weakness comes to the surface when, in the first psychological encounter, Max runs away to the sound of Running Up That Hill. With the first survivor of evil, there is an affirmation that music can save victims.

Episode 5: Project Nina

Eleven is taken to the mysterious Nina Project, where she meets Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine), whom she believes is dead. Under his supervision, he begins the painful process of regaining his powers. The experiment reveals that Eleven’s power is closely linked to her past in the laboratory, and in order to fully regain it, she must confront her most traumatic memories.

Episode 7: Hawkins Laboratory Massacre

One of the most revealing episodes shows that Vecna is actually Dr. Brenner’s first patient, named Henry Creel. Here, his direct connection to Eleven is revealed: she is the one who defeated him and threw him into the Upside Down, creating the first portal. The group also discovers that this universe was frozen in 1983, the same day the original portal appeared in Hawkins.

Episode 9: Diving

One of the most striking moments in the score involves Max: after Vecna’s attack, she dies for a few seconds, is revived by Eleven and ends up in a coma, leaving her future open. At the same time, the Upside Down World begins to take over Hawkins as the Fourth Gate opens, and the city begins to be destroyed.