S4E8 · Chapter Eight: Papa

Complete story — includes the ending

Vecna shows Nancy, who is still possessed by him, a vision of the future in which Hawkins is torn apart by rifts before freeing her. The group determines that Vecna needs four portals to implement his plan; Max volunteers to lure Vecna into possessing her so the others can attack him while he's distracted. Eleven, using her powers, learns of this plan and gets Owens to arrange transit to Hawkins. However, Brenner betrays and secures Owens and traps Eleven, insisting she needs to complete her training. Eleven realizes that Brenner had been using her for years to try to retrieve Henry from the Upside Down. Sullivan and his forces arrive and kill all the staff; Brenner escapes with Eleven, but is shot himself. Sullivan's crew tries to kill Eleven from a helicopter, but she uses her powers to eliminate them just as the California group arrives. As Brenner bleeds out in her arms, he asks for her forgiveness; Eleven silently leaves him to die. In Russia, Hopper, Joyce, Murray, Yuri, and Antonov escape the base after discovering several more creatures from the Upside Down, as well as a shadowy fragment of the Mind Flayer, which is being studied at the prison.