Read This Refresher Before You Watch Stranger Things 3 Today
The Hawkins kids are back in Stranger Things 3, debuting today, July 4, just in time for post-barbecue, air-conditioned bingeing. The show has undergone an ’80s summer teen glow-up since it was last on Netflix: Everyone is a little bit older and a little bit cooler, and the landscape of the drama, both hormonal and supernatural, has accordingly been updated from basement D&D games to the mall and the public pool.
Now, without any hint of a spoiler: New friend and foe Max (Sadie Sink) and her brother Billy (Dacre Montgomery) are still on the scene, as are the fab five, Will (Noah Schnapp), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown. Sheriff Hopper (David Harbour) and Will's mom Joyce (Winona Ryder) are up to their old will-they-or-won't-they bickering, and Mike's sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Will's brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) are fighting to stay together. And yes, thank goodness, Steve (Joe Keery) hasn't gone anywhere.
But season 3 can't just be chicken fights in the pool and flirting at the food court (even though the switch from fall to summer does make the show refreshingly lighter overall). Remember the Upside Down? And the creepy Hawkins lab? And those random cyberpunks? To make it easier on your sunburned, weary selves, here's what you need to refresh before you hit play on Stranger Things 3:
Eleven closed the gate to the Upside Down, for good (right?)
At the end of season 2, Eleven returns from her soul-searching, which took her to her birth mother and to her "sister" Eight (Linnea Berthelsen), another victim of Hawkins Lab experiments. And just in time, too, for her to close the gate to the Upside Down, or so we think. In the chaos, Joyce's boyfriend Bob (Sean Astin) died trying to save her from the demodogs, the four-legged versions of the Shadow Monster from Season 1. (Dustin tried to keep one, Dart, as a pet, until he realized what it was.)
Though Will is finally un-possessed, the Mind Flayer is still very much on the loose
Season 2 saw Will physically free from the Upside Down but mentally possessed by the Mind Flayer, which made him work against Eleven and his friends as they tried to close the gate between the dark universe and the Hawkins Lab. Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy stage a kind of exorcism, which looks successful—until we see that the Mind Flayer is still very much looming over the school. It was hinted that new bully Billy might be a new means for it to do its dirty work in Hawkins, but that might have been a red herring.
Jonathan and Nancy tried to get the word out about the evil Hawkins Lab
In a nice tribute to the powers of investigative journalism, Nancy and Jonathan leak audio from Hawkins to the press, exposing its corrupt experiments. But most people still believe that the happenings in the town are due to a chemical spill, and the government is happy to confirm that version as it hastily cleans up the laboratory.
Eleven has a new family, and a new boyfriend?
By the end of Season 2, Eleven has a new birth certificate that shows Hopper is now officially her father. She and Mike also share a kiss at the school dance that will likely mean new dynamics for the friend gang. Lucas seemingly wins Max's affections; Dustin is encouraged by Nancy and by his new mentor Steve. Everything is fine—except, obviously, not for long.
Originally Appeared on Vogue
