As almost everyone knows at this point, Stranger Things season two came out recently. Stranger Things has turned into a cultural phenomenon over the last year. The main actors have been turned into child stars overnight! I have been a little late with watching it, as I only just started a few weeks ago. In order to update others who may be in my position, I have written a recap of season one!
[!!SPOILER ALERT!!]
Consider yourselves warned.
Season one opens with Will, Dustin, Mike, and Lucas playing the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons in Mike’s basement. Upon finishing, they each bike home. Lucas and Dustin peel off after a few minutes leaving Will to bike home through the woods. He spots a Humanoid creature, he runs home terrified. Unable to find his mom and brother he runs to his shed in his backyard and vanishes. This is the premise of the whole first season, what has happened to Will Byers.
We see a girl with a shaven head breaking into a diner in a hospital gown, she steals food from the diner but is spotted by the owner. After seeing the condition she is in, Benny, takes pity and feeds her. He tries to start a conversation, learning that her name is Eleven from the tattoo on her arm. Benny is later killed by a woman who comes to the diner pretending to be a social worker; but as armed men search the diner, Eleven escapes into the nearby woods. The night after Will’s disappearance, the boys go looking for him in the woods. They don’t find Will, but they do find Eleven.
At Will’s house his mom, Joyce is trying to communicate with Will. Sure he is somehow trying to speak to her through the electricity she buys a boxes of Christmas lights to use for communication with him. Meanwhile Mike, Lucas, and Dustin bring the Eleven into Mike’s house. Eleven is unwilling to say much to them but does reveal that “bad people” are searching for her. Eleven is initially skittish and mistrusting, using her telekinesis to stop Mike when he wants to tell his parents about her which reveals to him her powers, but after a while she starts opening up to Mike, though remains wary of Dustin and Lucas.
Mikes older sister Nancy and her best friend Barb go to a party at Nancy’s boyfriend Steve’s party. Barb, unimpressed by their drinking and flirting, argues with Nancy and then leaves. Sitting on the side of the pool, she vanishes, the same as Will. Will’s older brother Jonathan almost witnessed this. He had been searches the woods where Will went missing, taking photos of what could be important but heard a scream and ran to help. He realised that it was the teenagers at the party, whom he continued to photograph from afar but turned away the moment Barb disappeared. Barb wakes up in a crumbling version of the pool, screams and is dragged down by the unseen creature. This is the last we see of Barb, alive.
This is the first half of season 1. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next half of season 1 and episode by episode reviews of season 2.