S4E1 · Chapter One: The Hellfire Club

Complete story — includes the ending

In a flashback to 1979, Dr. Brenner is experimenting on children with supernatural abilities until a mysterious incident kills all the children except Eleven. In 1986, eight months after the events at Starcourt Mall, Joyce, Will, Jonathan, and Eleven have moved to California, where Eleven struggles with the loss of her powers and is routinely bullied by other students. Joyce receives a porcelain doll in the mail, seemingly from Russia, and finds a hidden note stating that Jim Hopper is alive. In Hawkins, Mike and Dustin have joined their high school's "Hellfire Club," a Dungeons & Dragons club run by the iconoclastic Eddie Munson. As a result, they miss seeing Lucas win the basketball team's championship. Max, who broke up with Lucas, struggles to grieve Billy's death. Chrissy Cunningham, a student on the cheerleading squad, is tormented by visions of her abusive mother and a ticking grandfather clock. While buying drugs from Eddie, Chrissy is possessed and killed by a sentient humanoid creature from her visions.