A complete 'Stranger Things' timeline to refresh your brain

Predating Season One

• 1953 – Project MKUltra begins at Hawkins Lab
• 1959
  • Henry Creel murders the Creel family and is taken into custody by Martin Brenner
  • Police arrest Victor Creel for the murder of his wife and daughter
• 1969-1970 – Terry Ives (Eleven’s mother) participates in Project MKUltra experiments
• 1971 – Jane/Eleven is born with telekinetic abilities; Brenner takes her away for experimentation
• 1974 – Terry breaks into Hawkins Lab to rescue Jane, but Brenner captures and subjects her to electroconvulsive shocks
• 1978 – Kali escapes Hawkins Lab and hides in Chicago; she enacts her revenge by murdering previous employees
• September 8, 1979 – Henry/001 massacres everyone but Brenner in Hawkins Lab
• 1979 – Eleven banishes Henry to the Upside Down, where he transforms into Vecna
• 1981 – Hopper’s daughter, Sarah, dies of cancer

Season One: Fall 1983

Season one takes us back to the very beginning. Will mysteriously vanishes, Eleven is very bald, and we get our first glimpse of the Upside Down and its monsters. Meanwhile, Hawkins Lab is up and running with its top-secret government experiments. Here’s a detailed breakdown.

• Unknown time between 1980 and 1983
  • Eleven participates in Hawkins Lab experiments
  • Demonstrates her power by crushing a Coke can, killing two guards, and locating a Russian spy
• Sunday, November 6, 1983
  • Eleven opens the gate to the Upside Down and escapes Hawkins Lab
  • The Demogorgon escapes Hawkins Lab
  • Will Byers is abducted by the Demogorgon
• Monday, November 7, 1983
  • Joyce goes to the police, and a search for Will begins
  • Benny Hammond is shot after feeding Eleven a hamburger
  • Joyce starts receiving strange phone calls in which she hears only breathing
  • Mike, Lucas, and Dustin meet Eleven for the first time
• Tuesday, November 8, 1983
  • Eleven recognizes Will and reveals her telekinetic abilities to the boys
  • Nancy and Barb go to a party at Steve’s house, where Barb is taken by the Demogorgon
  • Joyce continues hearing strange noises and sees the Demogorgon stretch out of the wall
• Wednesday, November 9, 1983
  • Nancy discovers Barb is missing and searches for her in the woods
  • Will communicates to Joyce through Christmas lights
  • Police find a body in the quarry, claimed to be Will’s
• Thursday, November 10, 1983 – Hopper discovers Will’s body is a fake, while Eleven contacts Will through the AV Club ham radio
• Friday, November 11, 1983
  • A funeral is held for Will
  • Nancy is sucked into the Upside Down after she and Jonathan encounter the Demogorgon
• Saturday, November 12, 1983 – Sunday, November 13, 1983
  • Joyce and Hopper learn about Terry Ives (Eleven’s mother) and Project MKUltra
  • Lucas uses his compass to track down the gate at Hawkins Lab
  • The crew evades the authorities and breaks into Hawkins Middle School to create a sensory deprivation tank for Eleven to track down Will and Barb (who is dead)
  • Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve attack the Demogorgon at the Byers’ house
  • Joyce and Hopper break into Hawkins Lab and rescue Will from the Upside Down
  • Eleven defeats the Demogorgon and disappears in a cloud of ash
• Saturday, December 24, 1983 – Will has a vision that he is still in the Upside Down

Season Two: Fall 1984

We return to Hawkins almost a year after Will’s disappearance and Eleven’s takedown of the Demogorgon. Surprise, surprise! The gate between the Upside Down and Hawkins is still open, and Eleven is nowhere to be found. There’s also the rise of the Mind Flayer, a hive mind creature that toys with Will like a puppet.

• Sunday, November 13, 1983 – Eleven wakes up in the Upside Down and escapes through a temporary portal
• Unknown time between seasons
  • Hopper hides Eleven in his grandfather’s cabin in the woods, where she lives for 352 days
  • Dr. Sam Owens takes over as director of Hawkins Lab as shady experiments continue
  • Tunnels begin spreading underneath Hawkins as a second gate to the Upside Down forms
  • Billy and Max move to Hawkins
• Tuesday, October 30, 1984
  • Hopper investigates the degradation of Hawkins’ crops
  • Mr. and Mrs. Holland hire Murray Bauman to investigate Barb’s disappearance
  • Will has his first vision of the Mind Flayer
• Wednesday, October 31, 1984
  • Will has another vision when the boys are out trick-or-treating
  • Nancy and Steve have a falling out at Tina’s Halloween party
  • Dustin finds a strange creature in the trash and names him Dart
• Thursday, November 1, 1984
  • Dustin brings Dart to Hawkins Middle School to show the group, but he escapes
  • Hopper links the dying crops back to Hawkins Lab
  • Eleven leaves the cabin to see Mike
• Friday, November 2, 1984
  • Nancy and Jonathan are taken to Hawkins Lab, where they secretly record Dr. Owens’ voice
  • Will creates a series of drawings depicting the tunnels that spread underneath Hawkins; Bob later deduces it to be a map
  • Dart grows larger and eats Dustin’s cat, Mews
• Saturday, November 3, 1984
  • Nancy and Jonathan visit Murray with the evidence to shut down Hawkins Lab
  • Lucas tells Max the truth about last year
  • Joyce enlists Bob’s help and rescues Hopper from the Upside Down tunnels
  • Eleven discovers her backstory and hitches a ride to visit her mother
  • Will collapses when lab workers torch the tunnels and is rushed to Hawkins Lab
• Sunday, November 4, 1984
  • Eleven visits Kali in Chicago; Kali teaches her how to channel her anger
  • Lucas, Dustin, Steve, and Max are confronted by Demodogs while hunting Dart
  • The Mind Flayer uses Will as a spy to massacre workers in the lab
  • Demodogs invade Hawkins Lab and kill Bob Newby
  • The rest of the group escapes to the Byers house, where they try to talk to Will
  • Eleven reunites with everyone
• Monday, November 5, 1984
  • Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Max, and Steve burn the tunnels to distract the Demodogs
  • Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy expel the Mind Flayer from Will with heat
  • Eleven uses her power to close the gate and stop the Mind Flayer
• Tuesday, November 6, 1984
  • Murray’s report shuts down Hawkins Lab for good
• Saturday, December 11, 1984
  • Hopper adopts Eleven as his daughter
  • The kids go to the Snow Ball dance; the Mind Flayer lurks over Hawkins Middle School

Season Three: Summer 1985

Ah, pool days, teen romance, and Starcourt Mall. It would be the perfect summer if the Mind Flayer weren’t still around, infecting people for its army. And if that’s not enough, Hawkins has Russian spies now, too. Even scarier is the growth spurt from season two to season three.

• Thursday, June 28, 1984 – The Russians attempt to open a gate to the Upside Down
• Friday, June 28, 1985
  • The Soviet Union activates “the Key” in their secret base underneath Starcourt Mall, opening a new gate to the Upside Down
  • The Mind Flayer resurfaces to infect rats at Brimborn Steel Works
• Saturday, June 29, 1985
  • Dustin returns from camp, and the gang reunites; they set up a giant ham radio
  • Billy crashes his car and is taken by the Mind Flayer
  • Dustin receives a strange Russian transmission
• Sunday, June 30, 1985
  • Nancy and Jonathan investigate a tip about diseased rats
  • Joyce notices something is off with the magnets
  • Dustin, Steve, and Robin team up to decipher the Russian code
  • Billy kidnaps Heather Holloway and takes her to the Mind Flayer
• Monday, July 1, 1985
  • Eleven and Max investigate Billy and Heather’s strange behavior
  • Joyce and Hopper are ambushed by a Russian hitman after breaking into Hawkins Lab
• Tuesday, July 2, 1985
  • Hopper confronts Mayor Kline about shady Russian dealings in Hawkins
  • Dustin, Steve, Robin, and Erica use the mall’s air ducts to infiltrate Russian headquarters
  • A sauna test proves that Billy is possessed by the Mind Flayer
• Wednesday, July 3, 1985
  • Joyce and Hopper take Alexei hostage and flee to Murray’s warehouse
  • The Mind Flayer grows its army; the Holloways attack Nancy and Jonathan
• Thursday, July 4, 1985
  • The Russians drug and interrogate Robin and Steve in their headquarters; Dustin and Erica rescue them
  • The group arms themselves to face the Mind Flayer at Starcourt Mall
  • Grigori assassinates Alexei at the Fun Fair
  • The kids battle and defeat the Mind Flayer; Billy sacrifices himself to protect Eleven
  • Joyce and Hopper shut down the Key machine and blow up the Russian base
  • Hopper is captured by the Soviets
• Friday, July 5, 1984 – Eleven loses her powers and starts living with the Byers

Season Four: Spring 1986

Season four returns roughly eight months after we left off. The core six are in high school now, and more dispersed than ever. We get our first introduction to Eddie Munson and the Hellfire Club, as well as the sinister humanoid, Vecna. There’s a lot to pack in here, so bear with me.

• October 1985
  • The Soviets torture Hopper at the Kamchatka labor camp
  • The Byers and Eleven move to California
  • Owens and Brenner begin the “Nina Project” to get Eleven’s powers back
  • Mike and Dustin join the “Hellfire Club,” led by Eddie Munson
• March 1986 – Chrissy, Fred, and Max begin having headaches, nosebleeds, and nightmares
• Friday, March 21, 1986
  • Joyce receives a strange package of a Russian nesting doll
  • Vecna murders Chrissy from the Upside Down as Eddie watches
• Saturday, March 22, 1986
  • With help from a Russian prison guard, Joyce and Murray travel to Alaska to rescue Hopper
  • Mike visits Eleven for Spring Break; Eleven hits Angela with a roller skate
  • Eddie is blamed for Chrissy’s death; the group finds him hiding at an old boat house and tells him about the Upside Down
  • Vecna kills Fred Benson
• Sunday, March 23, 1986
  • Owens intercepts Eleven from juvenile detention and tells her about the “Nina Project”
  • Nancy and Robin research alleged killer Victor Creel
  • Max, Dustin, and Steve break into Counselor Kelley’s office; Max’s hallucinations continue
• Monday, March 24, 1986
  • Argyle, Mike, and Jonathan flee from Colonel Sullivan’s men
  • Joyce and Murray meet Yuri in Alaska, who drugs them
  • Nancy and Robin interview Victor Creel at Pennhurst Mental Hospital and learn about Henry
  • Vecna targets Max at Billy’s grave, but she breaks free with music
• Tuesday, March 25, 1986
  • While in the “Nina” isolation tank, Eleven sees glimpses of the 1979 lab massacre
  • The Hawkins crew breaks into the Creel house while Vecna kills Patrick at Lover’s Lake
  • Sullivan continues searching for Eleven
• Wednesday, March 26, 1986
  • The California team enlists Suzie’s help to track down Eleven
  • Joyce and Murray sneak into Kamchatka to find prisoners being forced to fight a captured Demogorgon; Hopper and Dmitri escape with Joyce and Murray
  • Steve, Nancy, Robin, and Eddie discover an underwater gate to the Upside Down and go in
  • Vecna reveals his origins to Nancy in the Upside Down
• Thursday, March 27, 1986
  • Brenner tells Eleven about Henry, revealing him to be Vecna
  • Sullivan attacks the “Nina” facility and kills Brenner; Eleven escapes with the California crew
• Friday, March 28, 1986
  • Joyce, Murray, and Hopper return to the prison to kill the Mind Flayer and Demogorgon
  • Eleven piggybacks into Max’s mind to fight Vecna while the older teens and Dustin attack in the Upside Down
  • Eddie distracts the Demobats with heavy metal, sacrificing his life
  • Vecna starts to kill Max before Eleven stops him; though alive, Max remains unconscious
  • Nancy, Robin, and Steve attack Vecna in the Upside Down, but he escapes
  • A fourth gate opens up in the Creel house and kills Jason
• Saturday, March 29, 1986 – The entire crew reunites in Hawkins as smoke rises from the gates

What We Can Expect For Season Five

Obviously, there’s a lot going on. Season five kicks off in the fall of 1987, a year and a half after season four left off. Last we see, the line between Hawkins and the Upside Down is almost entirely blurred, with the latter bleeding into the former. The trailer for season five confirms that the town is in full government lockdown mode, Vecna is back and badder than ever, and Eleven is the key to stopping him. According to the Duffers, it’s going to be one massive finale. One not devoid of tears, I’m sure.

Stranger Things 5 Volume One hits Netflix on Wednesday, November 26.