The gang: Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair, Will Byers, and Eleven, the quiet girl with a buzz cut, a weakness for Eggos, and psychic abilities that leave her nose bleeding.

The love triangle: Nancy Wheeler (Mike’s older sister), Jonathan Byers (Will’s older brother), and Steve Harrington (great hair), who was a douche-b in the beginning but a brave and handsome young man towards the end.

The adults: Joyce Byers (Will’s mother) and Jim Hopper (Hawkins’ chief police officer)

The monsters: The Demogorgon, an evil monster from the Upside Down* that has a sinister-looking Rafflesia flower for a head.

*The alternate dimension existing parallel to the human world where the Demogorgon roams. The portal to the Upside Down was opened when the Hawkins National Laboratory had Eleven make inter-dimensional contact with the Demogorgon.

Will’s disappearance and the Upside Down

Will goes missing one night and his friends attempt to search for him in the woods. They stumble upon Eleven, dirty and alone, and bring her back to Mike’s basement. Eleven recognizes Will in a picture and she tells the boys that Will is trapped in the Upside Down, hiding from the Demogorgon, a monster. The boys discover Eleven’s psychic powers and they ask her to locate Will.

Will’s mother, Joyce Byers enlists the help of Hawkins’ chief police Jim Hopper. Back at home, Joyce discovers Will can communicate with her through electricity and she buys Christmas lights to use as a Ouija board of sorts. At one point, Joyce sees Will trapped in a membrane-like portal in their wall and she uses an ax to attempt to break him free to no avail. This only strengthened her belief that he is alive.

via GIPHY

Meanwhile, Nancy’s friend Barb gets abducted by the monster one night prompting Nancy and Jonathan to investigate her disappearance.

But then things get strange

The boys and Eleven attempt to locate the portal to the Upside Down in order to rescue Will. Lucas and Mike end up fighting over whether or not Eleven was telling the truth about finding Will. Eleven uses her telekinetic powers to fling Lucas away from Mike, knocking him unconscious. The group disbands.

Nancy and Jonathan continue to investigate Barb’s disappearance. In a photo Jonathan took seconds before Barb disappeared, the monster is captured in the background. The pair bravely goes in search of the monster and Nancy finds a fleshy portal in the woods. She enters (because duh) and sees the Demogorgon. The monster chases her and she and Jonathan narrowly escape.

Hopper gets increasingly suspicious of the Hawkins Lab.

And stranger still. Like coughing-up-black-slugs strange.

Meanwhile, Hawkins Lab agents chase down the boys, who have reconciled, and Eleven until they’re forced to hide in an abandoned bus. Hopper finds them there and they all reconvene at Will’s house. The boys quickly explain what they need to do in order to find Will and Barb. The group travels to the middle school to set up a kiddie pool so Eleven can have her “isolation tank” and locate Will better through her powers.

Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve fight off the Demogorgon that they lured to Jonathan’s house. They attempted to set fire to it but it disappeared. Another Demogorgon then appeared (it was a busy night) at the middle school where Hawkins Lab agents and the kids are. Eleven, deciding to save her friends, uses her powers to stop the monster, she disappears with it much to Mike’s heartbreak.

In the end, Will is back at home with his family, safe and sound. But he is shown running to the bathroom and coughing up a black slug, alluding that the Upside Down messed this kid up pretty bad and it looks like things won’t just end there.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE SECOND SEASON?

The characters

Pretty much the same as Season One except for:

The kid: Max Mayfield, the new cool skateboarding, arcade wizard in town whom Lucas and Dustin immediately take a liking to

The adults: Billy Hargrove, Max’s hot but bad boy older step-brother; Bob Newby, Joyce’s adorable boyfriend

The monster: Dustin’s eeeeevil pollywog which he found in a trash can; the Mind Flayer which is Will’s worst nightmare; and vicious ‘Demodogs’

It picks up where it left off

Will is having episodes that take him back to the Upside Down where a huge monster, a shadow in the sky, is targeting him. It turns out to be true and the monster is actually slowly turning Will into a ‘spy’ while sowing roots underground to bring the Upside Down to Hawkins. Mike aptly nicknames it as the Mind Flayer.

Meanwhile, Eleven didn’t disappear from Hawkins as the boys previously believed. She spent her time in a cabin deep in the woods in the company and under the care of Hopper. She eventually runs away and stumbles upon a band of outcasts on a quest to kill anyone associated with the Hawkins program.

The new relationships were formed

The boys meet Max and take her in as part of the group, although it takes Mike a little while to warm up to her. Lucas, on the other hand, warmed up a little too much and by the end of the season, he and Max kiss at the Snow Ball dance.

Nancy started the season dating Steve but eventually, her mission to avenge Barb with the help of Jonathan brought her closer to Jonathan. By the end of the season, Nancy and Jonathan are together (and in real life too!) and Steve, surprisingly cool about it all, finds a new calling.

And by his calling, we mean becoming a ‘mama’ and babysitter to Dustin and the rest of the gang. Steve takes the role seriously, complete with his baseball bat with nails and his willingness to share his hair care tips with Dustin. It’s the Farrah Fawcett hair spray, man.

The continuing threat

All kinds of monsters invade Hawkins in this season. The Demodogs, for one, which looks just as it sounds, gets unleashed in the Hawkins Lab where Will, Joyce, Hopper, and Bob are. Unfortunately, the monsters kill Bob just after he helps the adults escape.

Will becomes extremely possessed by the Mind Flayer that his family had to tie him down and subject him to heat which is supposed to drive the monster away. Eleven comes back to Hawkins after sensing that her friends need her. She unleashes her power to close the Gate the Mind Flayer uses to wreak havoc on Hawkins.

In the end, Eleven reunites with Mike and they share a kiss at the Snow Ball dance at the school. While outside, the Mind Flayer is seen looming over the middle school, obviously not done harming Hawkins.

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Well, you got through that! Stranger Things Season 3 premieres on Netflix on July 4, 2019. Get ready for an action-packed last summer hurrah!

What are your expectations for this series this season? Tell us below!