Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
The fourth season scatters the Byers family and their friends across three fronts. In California, Eleven has lost her powers, faces school bullies and is taken to the NINA project to relive the lab’s past. In Hawkins, a string of gruesome deaths points the police and town jocks toward Eddie Munson and the Hellfire Club, while Dustin, Max, Steve, Robin, Nancy and Lucas work out that a creature they call Vecna is choosing victims through their worst memories. Joyce and Murray follow a package from Russia and discover that Hopper survived, imprisoned in a labour camp.
Max becomes Vecna’s next target, but Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” helps her break free when Lucas and the others play it for her. Eleven learns Vecna is Henry Creel, already known as One, the first child tested at Hawkins Lab; after she banished him, he became Vecna. Joyce and Murray reach Hopper and help him escape the prison, while Eleven recovers her abilities and Mike, Will and Jonathan find her in Nevada. In Russia, Hopper, Joyce and Murray attack the creatures there, weakening the hive mind linked to Vecna.
Vecna is wounded, but his plan continues. Eddie dies keeping the demobats occupied while Nancy, Robin and Steve attack Vecna, and Jason’s attack leaves Lucas unable to protect Max as Vecna breaks her limbs and stops her heart. Eleven brings Max back, though she cannot find her in the void and Max remains comatose. Her brief death opens the fourth gate; enormous fissures join across Hawkins and split the town. The friends reunite as grey ash falls and the Upside Down begins bleeding into their home. Vecna is missing, so the season ends with the invasion underway and no clear way to close it.