Summary

• The Stranger Things timeline spans from the founding of Hawkins in the 1800s to the 1970s when Eleven and the other kids were born.
• Each season of Stranger Things takes place roughly over the course of one week, with new key events adding complexity to the overall story.
• The complete Stranger Things timeline covers all known events in the series, leading up to the final season and providing clarity on certain aspects.

With the fifth and final season ready to wrap up the story, the Stranger Things timeline is so twisty and complex that it needs considerable examination. It all began in November 1983 and, so far, stops in March 1986 at the end of Stranger Things season 4. What's more, there's plenty of history alluded to, spanning from the founding of Hawkins in the 1800s to the 1970s, when Eleven was born and the rest of the kids were born. The complete Stranger Things timeline shows the key moments in the series that will bring audiences to the final season.

Each season of Stranger Things takes place roughly over the course of one week. Season 1 occurs in November 1983, season 2 takes place in late October and early November 1984, season 3 is largely in late June and early July 1985, and season 4 is in late March 1986. Each season introduces new key events to the overall story. Stranger Things season 5 will end the series and the timeline while also undoubtedly complicating it further. The complete Stranger Things timeline covers all the known events mentioned or seen on the show and helps to clarify certain aspects.

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Early Stranger Things Timeline

The Story Begins Longer Ago Than Fans Might Realize

Long before Hawkins was overrun with Demogorgons, Mind Flayer, and the infection of the Upside Down, a number of things had happened leading up to the events of the Stranger Things timeline.

• Unknown: The alternate dimension known as The Upside Down comes into existence
• 1800s: The town of Hawkins is founded.
• 1923: The last person before Will Byers goes missing this year.
• 1940s: Victor Creel, Henry Creel's father, is shown fighting in WWII, where he ordered the shelling of a civilian home in France.
• 1959: The Creels move into their dream house, but Henry/Vecna starts flexing his powers. He kills his family and frames his father for their deaths.
• 1961: The last person to die by suicide in Hawkins (according to Hopper in season 1) happens this year.
• 1964: In a season 4 monologue, Hopper mentions working with the chemical corps to spread Agent Orange in Vietnam.
• 1966: Steve Harrington is born.
• 1967: Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers, Barb Holland, and Billy Hargrove are born.
• 1971: Dustin Henderson, Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Lucas Sinclair, Sara Hopper, and Eleven are born.
• 1973: Joyce Byers begins working at Melvald's General Store.
• 1979: Sara Hopper dies from cancer. Hopper's marriage crumbles. He returns to his hometown of Hawkins and becomes the Chief of Police.

MKUltra & Hawkins National Laboratory

Hawkins Lab Became A Key Location In The Story

A lot of Stranger Things season 2 focused on the backstory of Hawkins Lab and the government's involvement in producing superpowered individuals like Eleven. This is what ultimately led Eleven to discover that there were more people like her, such as Kali.

• 1953: Project MKUltra is cleared by the U.S. government. Hawkins National Laboratory is among the many labs across the nation to begin experiments.
• Early 1960s: Kali Prasad, still a baby, is stolen from her home in London.
• 1969: Dr. Martin Brenner arrives, with Kali, in Hawkins to begin his MKUltra experiments.
• 1969-1970: Kali escapes the lab. Terry Ives participates in MKUltra experiments while unknowingly pregnant.
• 1971: Terry gives birth to Eleven and is taken by Brenner.
• 1973: The truth about MKUltra is revealed to the public and stopped.
• 1974: Terry infiltrates Hawkins Lab, looking for her daughter. She is taken into custody and forced to undergo ECT therapy, resulting in her permanent catatonic state.
• 1979: Vecna is released by Eleven and inflicts the Hawkins Lab Massacre. After this, Eleven banishes him to the Upside Down.

Eleven Before Stranger Things

The Show's Young Hero Comes From A Tragic Past

Eleven spent her early life inside Hawkins Lab, where Eleven honed her superpowers in addition to being experimented on and attempting to spy on the Russians. But all of that contributed to her escaping the facility and meeting Mike and his friends.

• 1980-1983: Brenner observes Eleven crush a Coca-Cola can with her telekinetic powers. She is also asked to kill a cat with her mind but cannot do it. As two guards take her to solitary confinement, she kills them with her powers. After this event, Eleven is made to repeat specific words and it's discovered she can broadcast them through the Hawkins Lab speaker system with her mind. Eleven is put into a sensory deprivation tank to locate a Russian spy and broadcast what she hears in her mind. Here, she makes first contact with a Demogorgon from the Upside Down.
• 1983: Eleven is put back into the sensory deprivation tank. She touches the Demogorgon and unintentionally opens a gate to the Upside Down. Eleven escapes Hawkins Lab. In the Upside Down, Hawkins is frozen in 1983.

1983: Stranger Things Season 1

Stranger Things season 1 primarily focuses on finding and rescuing Will Byers, with a secondary plot on dealing with Eleven and the Hawkins Lab. Most of the season takes place over the course of one week, with a short time jump at the end of the season.

Sunday, November 6

• The Demogorgon escapes from Hawkins Lab.
• Will Byers is taken to the Upside Down by the Demogorgon.
• Homes in Hawkins experience power surges and outages.

Monday, November 7

• Joyce Byers goes to the Hawkins police department and reports that Will is missing.
• Brenner begins an investigation into Eleven and Demogorgon escaping.
• Eleven shows up at Benny's Burgers and the cook, Hammond, calls Child Services. The call actually goes to Hawkins Lab, alerting Brenner and his team. They arrive at Benny's Burgers and kill Hammond, but Eleven escapes.
• Hopper's team searches the woods. Will's bike is recovered.
• Joyce receives a strange phone call where she hears breathing. She believes it is Will.
• That night, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin find Eleven in the woods as they search for Will.
• Eleven is brought back to Mike's house to stay until they figure out what to do.

Tuesday, November 8

• The search party for Will turns up nothing.
• Eleven recognizes Will in a photo at Mike's house. She reveals her telekinetic powers to Mike, Lucas, and Dustin. She then tells them Will is "hiding" from the Demogorgon in the Upside Down and is stuck there.
• Brenner's team, posing as Hawkins Power & Light, find clues about Will's disappearance and the Demogorgon in the Byers shed.
• That night, Nancy and Barb go to the party at Steve's house. Barb is abducted, as she sits poolside, by the Demogorgon while Nancy and Steve are in his room.
• Joyce gets another phone call the same night with mysterious breathing and sees a monster push through the wallpaper. She flees.

Wednesday, November 9

• Nancy discovers Barb is missing. She goes to Steve's house to investigate and is scared by what she thinks is an animal. It's revealed Jonathan took pictures of Steve's house the night Barb went missing and Nancy teams up with him to figure out if the creature he photographed is what took her.
• Hopper and officers Powell and Callahan learn more about Brenner and Hawkins Lab. They discover he was involved with MKUltra.
• Joyce hangs Christmas lights in her home. She successfully makes contact with Will. He tells her to R-U-N.
• Will's body is discovered at the quarry.

Thursday, November 10

• Eleven proves to Mike that Will isn't dead, by making contact with him over the radio. The boys bring her to their school so that she can use the AV Club's ham radio to contact Will again.
• A worker at Hawkins Lab enters the Upside Down with a security line attached. He is removed from the line and pulled further into the Upside Down.
• Hopper figures out Will's body is a dummy.
• Joyce sees Will through an opening in her wall.
• That night, Hopper breaks into Hawkins lab.

Friday, November 11

• Will's funeral is held.
• Hopper finds evidence of the Upside Down in his house. He goes to Joyce and tells her she was right about Will, then they team up.
• Nancy and Jonathan go looking for the Demogorgon who kidnapped Barb.
• Nancy enters the Upside Down through a portal in the woods.

Saturday, November 12

• Joyce and Hopper find Terry Ives. Terry's sister tells them about her involvement in MKUltra and Terry's belief she had a daughter.
• Lucas discovers with the help of his compass the gate to the Upside Down is at Hawkins Lab.
• Eleven saves Mike and Dustin from bullies Troy and James. She tells them she is the reason Will is missing because she opened the gate.
• Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Nancy, Jonathan, Joyce, and Hopper make a sensory deprivation tank at Hawkins Middle School so that Eleven can find Barb and Will. Eleven confirms Barb is dead and Will is weakened from being there too long.
• Nancy and Jonathan set traps for the Demogorgon. Steve shows up to talk but Nancy and Jonathan recruit him to help them fight the monster.
• Mike, Dustin, Will, and Eleven stay at Hawkins Middle for the Snow Ball. The Demogorgon appears, as does Brenner's team. Eleven kills Brenner's team. She pins the Demogorgon to the wall, says goodbye to the boys, and disappears as she kills the monster.
• Hopper and Joyce infiltrate Hawkins Lab to retrieve Will. They find the gate, put on hazmat suits, and go into the Upside Down. They find Will and bring him back home.
• Will wakes up in the hospital with his friends all around him.
• Hopper is picked up by a government car.

Sunday, November 13

• Mike begins trying to contract Eleven. He will do this for the next year.

November 12 - December 10

• Sometime in the month after Eleven makes it out of the Upside Down in Hawkins Middle School, she is hiding in the woods outside of town. She knocks a hunter unconscious using her telekinetic powers and steals his coat and hat for warmth.

Sunday, December 11

• Will coughs up an Upside Down slug in his bathroom before sitting down to Christmas dinner.
• Hopper is shown leaving Eggos in the woods. It's believed he's been doing this for the past month.
• Mike keeps the pillow fort he made for Eleven intact.

Monday, December 12

• Eleven finds Hopper leaving food for her in the woods. Hopper takes her back to his grandfather's cabin in the woods to keep her safe.

1983-1984: Between Seasons 1 And 2

Almost a year goes by between Stranger Things seasons 1 and 2, but important events still took place in the interim. In fact, a lot happened.

• Dr. Owen takes over at Hawkins Lab.
• Hopper and Joyce start bringing Will to Dr. Owens to do tests and make sure the Upside Down hasn't permanently hurt him.
• A second entrance to the Upside Down gate is formed. It is a series of tunnels underneath Hawkins.
• Hopper and Eleven develop a father-daughter bond.
• Hawkins Lab begins regular "burns" of the Upside Down gate to prevent it from spreading.
• Barb's parents hire Murray Bauman to find their daughter.
• Joyce starts dating Bob Newby.
• Billy and Max move to Hawkins.

1984: Stranger Things Season 2 (& Part Of Season 3)

Stranger Things season 2 takes place entirely in 1984 but so does part of season 3. While Will isn't kidnapped this time around, he is taken over by the Mind Flayer, and everything that happened this year sets the stage for the rest of the series beyond just the core characters of Stranger Things.

Thursday, June 28

• The Russians attempt to open a gate to the Upside Down at one of their secret bases in Russia. The attempt fails, and the science team under Dr. Alexei is given one year to figure out how to successfully open it.

Monday, October 29

• Kali and her gang evade the police in Chicago after pulling off a criminal act.
• Mike, Dustin, Will, and Lucas go to the Hawkins Arcade. Will has another vision of the Upside Down.

Tuesday, October 30

• Billy and Max have their first day at school.
• Will goes to an appointment with Dr. Owens.
• Hopper is alerted to crop degradation on multiple farms across Hawkins and investigates.
• Mike tries to contract Eleven. It's been 352 days since he last saw her.
• Will has another vision of the Upside Down at his home. He sees the Mind Flayer for the first time.

Wednesday, October 31

• Mike, Dustin, Will, and Lucas go trick-or-treating. Will has another vision. The boys discover him, and he tells them what has been going on but asks that they don't tell anyone.
• Eleven waits for Hopper to celebrate Halloween, but he loses track of time.
• Eleven telepathically tracks Mike and sees him trying to call her via radio.
• Dustin returns home and finds a creature in his trash can.

Thursday, November 1

• Hopper discovers a connection between the crop degradation and Hawkins Lab. He demands Owens and the lab investigate.
• Dustin brings the creature, Dart, to school. He shows the group. Dart escapes and the kids spend the day looking for him.
• Eleven leaves the cabin and the woods. She goes to Hawkins Middle. She sees Mike from afar.
• Nancy and Jonathan arrange a meeting with Barb's parents but Hawkins Lab intercepts the call.
• Will has another vision at school. The Mind Flayer attaches himself to Will's body.
• Joyce rushes to school when she is called about Will. She can't get him to wake up and takes him home.

Friday, November 2

• Nancy and Jonathan are taken to Hawkins Lab. Dr. Owens warns them about searching for the truth about Barb's disappearance. They secretly record him.
• Will shows the Mind Flayer to Joyce and Hopper through drawings. Will's drawings also reveal the tunnel system running through Hawkins.
• Eleven discovers the files on Terry Ives. She tries to contact Terry telepathically in the Void.
• Dustin comes home to find Dart has evolved and has eaten his mom's cat.
• Hopper finds one of the tunnels in Will's drawings and enters. He is knocked unconscious after being sprayed with spores.

Saturday, November 3

• Hawkins Lab discovers that soil samples react adversely to heat in the same way and theorizes a hive mind is controlling all matter and creatures from the Upside Down.
• Eleven goes to Terry's home. Terry's sister (and Eleven's aunt) tells Eleven about Terry and what happened. Eleven goes into the Void to see Terry and finds the memories of Terry's attempt to get Eleven back.
• Nancy and Jonathan find Murray Bauman and share their Owens recording. Murray proposes publishing a report to close Hawkins Lab.
• Bob and Will help provide information on how to find Hopper. Bob, Joyce, Mike, and Will find Hopper in the tunnel and free him.
• At the same time, lab techs begin burning the tunnels. Will, connected to the Upside Down through the Mind Flayer, falls on the ground convulsing.
• Will is rushed to the hospital.
• That night, Eleven learns more about Kali's existence from old photos Terry has. Eleven gets money from Becky to go to Chicago after locating Kali there. Eleven and Kali reconnect and discuss their powers.

Sunday, November 4

• Will regains consciousness but only recognizes Joyce and Mike. Dr. Owens believes Will is infected with a virus connecting him to the Upside Down hive mind.
• Demodogs appear at the junkyard. At the same time, Will, as the Mind Flayer, misdirects lab members into the tunnel, leading to a Demodog ambush.
• Kali helps train Eleven to hone her powers.
• Eleven gets a vision of what is happening in Hawkins and returns home.
• Demodogs invade the lab. Mike tells Joyce to sedate Will so he can "hide" from the Mind Flayer.
• Steve, Max, Dustin, Lucas, Nancy, and Jonathan arrive at the lab to get Will, Joyce, Bob, and Mike. As they leave, Bob is killed by a Demodog, giving Will, Mike, Joyce, and everyone else enough time to escape.
• Everyone returns to the Byers house. They build on the hive mind theory and figure they have to separate Will from the Mind Flayer to save him. In an exorcism-like process, Will (as himself) taps out a Morse code signal while the Mind Flayer speaks through him. Will's message is "CLOSE GATE."

Monday, November 5

• The Mind Flayer is alerted to Will's location at the Byers' house. It sends a Demodog to the house.
• The team manages to kill the Demodog.
• The door opens on its own and Eleven returns. She hugs Mike and rejoins the group.
• A plan is formed: Hopper and Eleven will close the gate at the lab. Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy will take Will to Hopper's cabin and heat Will's body to force the Mind-Flayer out of him for good.
• Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Max hatch a plan to go to the tunnels and set them on fire. They take Steve's car there to do it with Steve in the back.
• Joyce, Nancy, and Jonathan free Will from the Mind Flayer's clutches.
• Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Steve are successful in burning the tunnels.
• Eleven closes the gate to the Upside Down.

November 6 - December 14

• Murray Bauman's report on Hawkins Lab shuts it down for good.
• Barb is given a real funeral.
• Dr. Owen presents Hopper with a forged birth certificate for Eleven, making Eleven his daughter.

Saturday, December 15

• Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, Max, and Eleven attend the Snow Ball.
• The Mind Flayer watches over Hawkins Middle School from the Upside Down.

1985: Stranger Things Season 3

Stranger Things season 3 takes the series in brand-new directions, not only taking place in the summer but also prominently featuring the Russians as Stranger Things villains for the first time and focusing on things happening in Hawkins rather than an extension of the Upside Down. Season 3 was more about uncovering a conspiracy, and while it took place over the course of one week again, a lot happened.

Friday, June 28

• Mike, Will, Lucas, and Dustin go to Starcourt Mall to see George Romero's Day of the Dead.
• A power outage sweeps through Hawkins, affecting the newly-built Starcourt Mall as well.
• Strange things begin happening at Brimborn Steel Works, located on the edge of town, including tons of rats flocking to the building.

Saturday, June 29

• Rats scurry from across Hawkins in broad daylight to Brimborn. Will, Lucas, Max, and Dustin fail to see them on the hill they are climbing to see up Cerebro.
• That night, Billy prepares to meet Mrs. Wheeler at the Motel 6. As he is driving, something hits his car. He gets out and is dragged to Brimborn.
• The Mind Flayer possesses Billy.
• Nancy works late at the Hawkins Post. She gets a call from Mrs. Driscoll about rats in her home that are acting funny. Nancy makes a note to investigate the next day.
• Dustin is still on the hill at night. His Cerebro machine intercepts a Russian communication.

Sunday, June 30

• Joyce notices none of the fridge magnets in Melvald's are sticking. She goes to Hawkins Middle School teacher Mr. Clarke's house to learn about how all the magnets in town could have lost their magnetic properties.
• Nancy and Jonathan visit Mrs. Driscoll. Driscoll tells them she thinks the rats wanted to eat her fertilizer. She also shows Nancy and Jonathan one of the rats she caught, and it's acting erratically.
• Dustin visits Steve at Scoops Ahoy and tells him about the Russian message.
• Robin, Steve's Scoops Ahoy co-worker, overhears Steve and Dustin's conversation about the Russian message and offers to help because she is good at languages. Robin manages to crack the code by the end of their shift.
• Billy goes to work as a lifeguard at the Hawkins Community Pool. He is sweaty and disoriented.
• Hopper goes to Town Hall to talk to Mayor Larry Kline about the Starcourt Mall protesters on the town hall lawn. While there, Hopper notices a strange man leaving Kline's office.
• Eleven and Max spend a day together at the mall after Mike, who she is currently dating, ditches her. The girls accidentally run into Lucas, Mike, and Will at the mall. Eleven is angry and dumps Mike.
• That night, Robin, Steve, and Dustin leave Starcourt Mall. Steve makes the connection that the bit of music heard in the Russian message is the same as a kid's ride in the mall. This leads the trio to conclude the message was recorded inside the mall.
• That same night, Billy kidnaps his co-worker from the pool, Heather Holloway. He drags her back to Brimborn to turn her into a drone of the Mind Flayer.
• Eleven and Max have a sleepover. The girls use Eleven's powers to go into the Void to spy on people they know. Eleven spies on Billy and sees his car and him crouched over Heather. Billy stands up, looks right at Eleven, and disappears.
• Eleven tells Max that it's weird, and they decide to investigate in the morning.

Monday, July 1

• Joyce tells Hopper about the magnets. She theorizes Hawkins Lab has something to do with it. She manages to get Hopper to join her and investigate the lab.
• Max and Eleven go to the Hargrove house. They discover a bathtub full of cold water and empty plastic ice bags. Eleven finds Heather's lifeguard fanny pack and her bloody whistle stashed under the sink. The girls learn Heather's identity when they go to the community pool to talk to Heather's co-workers. Eleven goes into the Void and sees Heather's home address and that Heather is in trouble.
• Robin figures out the Russian code refers to different locations within the Starcourt Mall.
• That night, Joyce and Hopper go to Hawkins Lab. They find nothing. Hopper is attacked by Russian soldier Grigori, the same mysterious man Hopper saw at Mayor Kline's office.
• Joyce gets a look at Grigori and Grigori's motorcycle license plate as he flees the scene. She takes Hopper back to his cabin.
• Max and Eleven go to Heather's house. They find Heather alive but she and Billy are acting strangely. They leave.
• Billy and Heather drugs Heather's parents, Tom (the Editor-in-Chief of the Hawkins Post and Nancy and Jonathan's boss), and her mom. They take the Holloways to the Brimborn basement where the Mind Flayer turns them into his drones.
• After work, Robin and Steve bring Dustin up to the roof of the mall near the loading bays and discover armed guards keeping watch as delivery men and couriers load tons of boxes into the storage room.
• Nancy and Jonathan go back to Driscoll's home. They find her acting strangely, and she is eating fertilizer. They call the police, who rush Driscoll to the hospital.

Tuesday, July 2

• Hopper wakes up from the attack. Joyce tells him about the man – the Terminator-esque Grigori – she saw driving away. Her description jogs Hopper's memory about the man he saw at Town Hall.
• Hopper and Joyce got to Town Hall. Hopper confronts Kline about the man. Kline reveals the man, Grigori, works for a group of Russians who want to buy land, including the Starcourt Mall and old farms near the Hawkins power plant.
• Hopper and Joyce resolve to try and find the Russians at one of the farm locations to see what's up. That night, they find Alexei working in the basement of the Hess farmhouse. Grigori tracks Hopper and Joyce to Hess farms. Hopper and Joyce take Alexei hostage and flee.
• Mike manages to get Eleven and Max over to his house. Will reveals to the group he can feel the Mind Flayer is present and may not have left when Eleven closed the gate. Eleven tells the group she and Max think something is wrong with Billy, and he might be the new Mind Flayer host.
• The group performs a heat test to see if Billy is possessed because the Mind Flayer hates heat. The group lures Billy into the sauna at the community pool and traps him. Billy shows signs he is possessed. The group fights him off.
• Nancy and Jonathan are fired by Tom, now possessed, from their jobs at the Post.
• Nancy goes to see Driscoll at the hospital. As the kids perform the sauna test, Nancy observes Driscoll shaking and shouting with black veins popping out.
• During their shift at Scoops Ahoy, Robin tells Steve and Dustin she thinks going through the air ducts will help them get into the loading bay, and they can figure out what Russians are doing in there. The only person big enough to get into the ducts leading to the room is Erica, Lucas's younger sister.
• Erica goes through the ducts and opens the door. The foursome finds an unusual substance in one of the boxes. The group is trapped in the room and the room turns into an elevator and descends.

Wednesday, July 3

• Eleven tracks Hopper and Joyce in the Void while the rest of the kids sit in the Wheeler's basement and wait for her to tell them what's up. Eleven sees them in the woods as Hopper says they have to go to Illinois.
• Hopper and Joyce take Alexei to Murray's home in Illinois. They need him to translate for Alexei, so they can find out why the Russians are in Hawkins.
• Alexei reveals the Russians want to open the Upside Down gate and the one in Hawkins is the most vulnerable.
• Nancy and Jonathan meet the kids at the Wheeler house. The kids reveal Billy is possessed like Will once was, and Will can sense the Mind Flayer. Nancy and Jonathan realize Billy's symptoms match Tom Holloway's symptoms, prompting the group to go to the Holloway home. They find all the cleaning chemicals used up and Mike believes the Mind Flayer's human drones are eating the chemicals to help them transform into something new.
• Nancy tells the group about Driscoll and realizes she reacted at the same time Billy did during the sauna test. The group goes to the hospital to see Driscoll.
• The Mind Flayer sends Tom and Bruce, a reporter at the Hawkins Post who is possessed, to kill Nancy and Jonathan.
• Tom and Bruce's bodies melt and form into an Upside Down monster that attacks Nancy. Eleven kills the monster and the kids watch the monster's remains seep back to Brimborn through the sewers.
• Dustin, Erica, Robin, and Steve make it to Russian HQ. They see the scientists trying to open the gate to the Upside Down.

Thursday, July 4

• Grigori meets Kline at the Hawkins Funfair grounds in the morning to demand Kline finds a way to lure Hopper and Joyce to the funfair that night.
• After Alexei reveals why the Russians are in Hawkins, Hopper calls the FBI and demands Dr. Owens come to help them take the Russians on and that he bring back up.
• Robin and Steve are taken prisoner by the Russians as Erica and Dustin escape into the air ducts. Robin and Steve are drugged with a truth serum and interrogated.
• Nancy, Jonathan, and the kids go back to Hopper's cabin. Eleven goes into the Void. She sees Billy, who tells Eleven the Upside Down creatures are going to conquer Hawkins. Billy also tells Eleven he will be tracking her, as will every other Upside Down creature.
• Billy directs the newer, bigger Upside Down monster comprised of the Mind Flayer's drones (which the kids call "The Flayed") to go attack Eleven at Hopper's cabin. The group escapes and heads for Starcourt.
• Dustin and Erica save Robin and Steve, and they all make it back to Starcourt Mall. They hide from the Russians in the food court after the mall shuts down. The rest of the kids meet up with the foursome.
• Hopper, Joyce, and Murray manage to evade Grigori after being lured to the funfair by Kline and escape (Grigori shoots Alexei). They pick up Dustin's distress signal and head to Starcourt.
• A plan forms: The adults will close the gate in the Russian lab under Starcourt while Erica and Dustin guide them down because they already know the route. Eleven, with the help of Max and Mike, will stop Billy. Nancy, Jonathan, Robin, Steve, Lucas, Max, and Will plan to attack the Upside Down monster when it arrives at the mall.
• The adults get to the lab. Hopper has to fight Grigori and ends up close to the machine opening the Upside Down gate. Joyce is forced to shut the machine off and risk Hopper's life. The machine explodes and Hopper seemingly dies.
• Eleven gets through to Billy and frees him of the Mind Flayer. Billy gets Stranger Things' most heroic death as he stands up to the monster and is killed.
• The closed gate kills the monster.
• Dr. Owens and the U.S. military arrive at Starcourt and immediately get to work.
• Eleven realizes Hopper didn't make it back. At this point, Joyce makes her a part of the Byers family.

Sometime After July 4

• Kline is arrested and ousted as mayor of Hawkins.
• A news program called The Cutting Edge releases a commercial for an upcoming investigative report covering all the strange things that have happened in Hawkins over the last two years.
• It is revealed that at a prison in Kamchatka, Russia, there is an American prisoner and a Demogorgon. It is unclear how the Russians got hold of them.

October 1985 ​​​​​

• Steve and Robin get new jobs at Hawkins Family Video.
• Eleven now lives with the Byers family, and she still doesn't have her powers back.
• Max, Lucas, Dustin, Mike, and Nancy help the Byers pack up their house. The Byers family moves away from Hawkins.

1986: Stranger Things Season 4

Stranger Things season 4 parts 1 and 2 take place five months after the events of season 3. There are several new elements in the mix to show the passage of time. The Hawkins kids are in high school, and Lucas has found his place on the basketball team, much to the chagrin of Mike, Dustin, and Will. The season jumps in time to Eleven's time in Hawkins Lab, leading to her subsequent escape, and the new mysterious Stranger Things villain with Vecna. The Stranger Things season takes place over about a week and a half.

Sunday, March 16

• A popular student named Chrissy has her very first vision from the season's villain, Vecna.

Friday, March 21

• Mike receives a letter from Eleven, which details (and slightly embellishes) her life in Lenora Hills, California.
• A pep rally at Hawkins High sees bully Jason Carver talking about the strange deaths that have occurred over the years.
• Joyce gets a disturbing package from Russia containing a Russian doll.
• Eddie Munson and the Hellfire Club, a D&D organization, are introduced, with the Hawkins kids being a part of it. They ask to move their meeting date due to Lucas' basketball game but are forced to find a replacement in the form of Erica.
• Joyce contacts Murray, and they smash the doll, which contains a note revealing that Hopper is still alive.
• Chrissy asks Eddie for drugs, and they go to his trailer. Inside, she has another hallucination before floating to the ceiling and having her bones broken by Vecna. She dies at Vecna's hands in front of Eddie.
• El is continuously bullied by Angela.

Saturday, March 22

• Chrissy's body is found and Eddie is the main suspect.
• Mike travels to California during spring break to hang out with Eleven and Will. Eleven is humiliated by Angela at a roller rink, and in turn, hits her bully in the face with a rollerskate.
• Max believes Chrissy's murder has something to do with the Upside Down, so she enlists Steve, Dustin, and Robin to help her find Eddie.
• Murray and Joyce call the number on the note and are told to go to Alaska if they want to find Hopper.
• Jason and the rest of the basketball team, including Lucas, go to find Eddie, believing him to be responsible for Chrissy's murder.
• Nancy and Fred Benson go to Eddie's trailer to investigate Chrissy's murder for the newspaper. Nancy talks to Eddie's uncle, where she learns about Victor Creel.
• Max, Dustin, Steve, and Robin find Eddie in a cabin by Lover's Lake.
• Fred Benson is killed by Vecna.
• Joyce lies about going to a conference so she can travel to Alaska.

Sunday, March 23

• El is arrested for assaulting Angela but is saved by Sam Owens so that she can join the Nina Project, in order to restore her powers.
• The police find Fred's body, and Nancy is informed about Vecna by Max, Dustin, Steve, and Robin.
• Hopper is in a Russian prison and finds out through Dmitri Antonov that Joyce and Murray are coming to save him.
• Joyce and Murray fly to Alaska to meet a Russian smuggler named Yuri Ismaylov.
• Nancy and Robin research Victor Creel to find out that his whole family was killed and he blamed it on a demon.
• Lucas abandons the Hawkins basketball team after they beat up Eddie's band members.
• Max, Dustin, and Steve break into Hawkins High and find out that Fred and Chrissy all came in for headaches, nightmares, and nosebleeds.
• Max sees Vecna's clock in the hall and is officially cursed.
• Mike, Will, and Jonathan are met by Federal agents, who inform them that Eleven is in the hands of Owens and Brenner to take part in Nina Project. In addition, they tell them of the new evil that is attempting to take over Hawkins.
• Max tells the rest of the gang about Fred and Chrissy's symptoms, revealing that she is suffering from the same thing.

Monday, March 24

• Steve, Lucas, and Dustin do more research on the Creel murders, trying to connect the incident to Vecna and the Upside Down.
• Nancy and Robin visit Victor Creel at the Pennhurst Mental Hospital, where he reveals that music can free someone from Vecna's curse.
• Mike, Jonathan, and Will sneak away from the Federal Agents to try and find Eleven at Hawkins Lab. They are pursued but escape with Harmon and Argyle.
• Joyce and Murray meet Yuri with the requested ransom money. However, he betrays them and tries to hand them over to the Russian government.
• Hopper manages to escape the prison but is recaptured.
• Antonov is betrayed by Yuri and is thrown in prison.
• Max is placed under Vecna's curse while visiting Billy's grave but is saved by Dustin, Lucas, and Steve when they play her favorite song.
• Mike, Will, and Jonathan are told by the dying Agent Harmon that they can find Eleven with a specific number he gives them.

Tuesday, March 25

• The town goes full Satanic panic, as they believe Eddie is responsible for the murders, and they go on a witch hunt.
• Eddie, Robin, Steve, and Nancy go to the lake where they find a portal to the Upside Down and go through it.
• Hopper faces off against a Demogorgon in prison and is able to fend it off.
• Joyce and Murray sneak their way into the Russian prison that's holding Hopper.
• Eleven is brought to an old missile silo for the Nina Project, where she finds out that Dr. Brenner survived the Demogorgon attack. She proceeds to relive her memories of her time at Hawkins Lab.
• Patrick McKinney is the next to be cursed by Vecna at Chrissy's funeral.
• Jason and the basketball team continue on their hunt for Eddie, now believing that Lucas is helping hide him.
• After calling the number provided to them by Harmon, Mike, Will, and Jonathan realize they are calling a computer and decide to enlist the help of Suzie, Dustin's girlfriend.
• In the Upside Down, Eddie, Robin, Steve, and Nancy break into the Creel house, then traverse their way through the rest of the alternate dimension version of Hawkins, trying to find a way back out through Eddie's trailer.
• Patrick McKinney dies at Vecna's hands.
• Eleven regains her powers but decides to continue with the Nina Project to access her repressed memories.
• Steve, Eddie, and Robin escape the Upside Down through a portal in Eddie's trailer, but Nancy is captured by Vecna.

Wednesday, March 26

• Mike and the rest of the California group arrive at Suzie's house, and she's able to track the phone number to a location in Nevada.
• Eleven befriends the orderly Henry Creel after witnessing him being tortured by the other staff.
• Eleven takes the chip out of Henry Creel/One/Vecna's arm, which allows him to use his powers again, and he massacres the entirety of the Hawkins Lab staff and children.
• Vecna's backstory is revealed to Nancy while she is stuck in the Upside Down.
• Eleven banishes Vecna to the Upside Down in her memories.
• Nancy is given a vision by Vecna, in which Hawkins is taken over by the Upside Down, revealing his ultimate plan.
• Mike and the California group travel to the location in Nevada.
• Brenner explains to Eleven that she fell into a coma after banishing Vecna and repressed her memories.
• Nancy escapes the Upside Down.
• Mike and the California group make it to the Nevada location and guard themselves to break in and rescue Eleven.
• Eleven breaks out of the missile silo, and she reunites with Mike, Will, Jonathan, and Argyle.
• Max, Lucas, and Erica go to the Creel house.
• Hopper, Joyce, and Murray escape the Russian prison.

Thursday, March 27

• Dustin, Nancy, Steve, Robin, Eddie, Lucas, and Erica develop a four-phase plan to kill Vecna, which involves using Max as bait, and Nancy, Steve, and Robin going into his lair.
• Eleven and the rest of the California group get back to Hawkins, but first, they must build a sensory deprivation tank to assist Eleven in protecting Max's mind.
• Joyce, Hopper, and Murray return to the prison to kill the hive mind of the Demogorgons to buy time for the kids.
• Max is cursed again in her pursuit of Vecna, and Lucas desperately tries to wake her up.
• Joyce and Hopper realize that the Mind Flayer has been controlling the Demogorgons and Demodogs in the Russian prison.
• Joyce and Hopper make a plan to kill the creatures and are successful.
• Jason catches up with Lucas and Max, and begins to fight Lucas, which causes Max's walkman to break.
• Before Vecna can kill Max, he is thrown away by Eleven from her isolation tank.
• El and Vecna battle.
• Vecna reveals he was responsible for unleashing the Mind Flayer.
• Eleven breaks free of Vecna and throws him away from Max again, but Max goes into a coma.
• Vecna is defeated — for now. However, Stranger Things fan-favorite Eddie dies.
• A red crack forms in the Creel House, and spreads all over Hawkins.

Saturday, March 29

• Mike, Eleven, and the California group make it back to Hawkins.
• The red cracks that appeared throughout Hawkins are dismissed as an earthquake that caused 22 casualties by the local media.
• Max is at the hospital, comatose and in a full-body cast.
• Hopper and Joyce return to Hawkins.
• Eleven realizes at the end of Stranger Things season 4 that this is the beginning of the Hawkins takeover Vecna planned.

What We Know About The Stranger Things Season 5 Timeline

The Final Season Faces Difficult Decisions With The Passage Of Time And A Cliffhanger Ending

The Stranger Things timeline may already be filled with a lot to remember but there is sure to be a lot more added in the final season of the show. Stranger Things season 5 is still a long way off and there is a lot that is unconfirmed. However, it is already very clear that the timeline of the final season is going to be tricky to handle. Stranger Things has always struggled with the young actors on the show aging far faster than the characters to the point that it is getting hard to buy them as teenagers.

This issue only got worse for season 5 as the actor and writer strikes in Hollywood ensured the production was delayed. There are also rumors there could be a time jump in Stranger Things season 5 this would be an interesting approach and something that would help explain the passing of time due to the delayed production. The time jump may make for some odd storytelling however as season 4 of Stranger Things ended with what felt like the beginning of the battle against Vecna in the real world.

Hawkins was largely deserted and the Upside Down was seeping into their dimension. To pick up a year later would potentially feel like a loss of momentum. In any case, it would require a lot of questions to be answered about what happened in that gap in the Strangers Things timeline.

• 

  Stranger Things

  Summary:

  Inspired by 80s pop-culture and elements of Stephen King's works, Stranger Things is a supernatural action-drama TV series set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. When a young boy goes missing, his group of friends stumbles upon a young girl with telekinetic powers who recently escaped from a mysterious facility. They soon realize that she may be their only chance at stopping an impending doom that threatens to engulf Hawkins whole.

  Release Date:

  2016-07-15

  Cast:

  Finn Wolfhard, Joe Keery, Jamie Campbell Bower, Brett Gelman, Caleb McLaughlin, Maya Hawke, David Harbour, Matthew Modine, Priah Ferguson, Gaten Matarazzo, Winona Ryder, Charlie Heaton, Sadie Sink, Millie Bobby Brown, Joseph Quinn, Dacre Montgomery, Natalia Dyer, Noah Schnapp

  Genres:

  Fantasy, Horror, Drama

  Seasons:

  4

  Franchise:

  Stranger Things

  Writers:

  Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Paul Dichter, Kate Trefry

  Story By:

  The Duffer Brothers

  Streaming Service(s):

  Netflix

  Directors:

  Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer

  Showrunner:

  Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer