Stranger Things season 4

Netflix is adding a warning card to the Season 4 premiere of 'Stranger Things,' in light of this week's school shooting in Texas.

The first part of Stranger Things Season 4 is still slated to debut this Friday, returning after a nearly three-year hiatus with five new episodes. “We filmed this season of Stranger Things a year ago,” the warning card reads, according to our sister site Variety. “But given the recent tragic shooting at a school in Texas, viewers may find the opening scene of Episode 1 distressing. On Tuesday, 19 children and two adults were killed when a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The 18-year-old suspect also was killed.

The long-awaited new season of 'Stranger Things' is getting a last-minute warning about "graphic violence involving children" in premiere.

We are deeply saddened by this unspeakable violence, and our hearts go out to every family mourning a loved one.” The new season is being split into two parts. “But given the recent tragic shooting at a school in Texas, viewers may find the opening scene of episode 1 distressing.

Netflix is adding a warning card to the 'Stranger Things 4' premiere in light of the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting on Tuesday.

This warning will appear before the prior season recap that auto-plays at the beginning of “ Stranger Things 4” Episode 1 for viewers in the U.S. only. But given the recent tragic shooting at a school in Texas, viewers may find the opening scene of episode 1 distressing. Last Friday, Netflix released the first eight minutes of the “Stranger Things” Season 4 premiere as a sneak-peek video ahead of the official launch of Volume 1 this Friday. This opening scene depicts a massacre that involves Millie Bobby Brown’s psychokinetic and telepathic character Eleven and shows the dead bodies of several children covered in blood.

Stranger Things Season 3, which came out in 2019 on Netflix, featured new romances, and a lot of death. Here's what happened to El, Hopper, and the rest of ...

Will senses the Mind Flayer is coming to attack them, and El holds it off, but is wounded. Joyce makes the difficult decision to destroy the machine with Hopper still trapped, and he’s presumed dead after a large explosion. El takes a piece of the Mind Flayer out of her wound, which renders her powerless. But finally, the Mind Flayer is defeated. El works to find the Mind Flayer through Billy’s mind, but inadvertently reveals her own location to the monster. Along with Lucas’s younger sister Erica, the group finds the loading bay to the mall is actually an elevator, and all become stuck underneath Starcourt. They watch Russians attempt to open a portal to the Upside Down, but then Steve and Robin are captured and drugged. Joyce and Hopper learn through Grigori and the town’s mayor that the mall is actually a front for Russians to buy abandoned property in Hawkins. The pair then search one of the abandoned properties, and once again face off against Grigori. They get away, and manage to take a hostage with them, Alexei, a Russian scientist. El attacks the Mind Flayer, which runs off to the mill, where it’s been dragging people to be possessed. Dustin has a girlfriend, Susie, he connects to through walkie-talkies and a radio tower. When Max and Eleven track down Billy and Heather, the other lifeguard, they see them at Heather’s parents’ house. Season 2 continues the ongoing battle against the Mind Flayer, who first tried to possess Will but was stopped when Eleven closed a portal it used to reach our world. There was new romance, new friends, plus the revelation that Hopper is alive and trapped in a Russian prison somewhere.

In the first season of Stranger Things, being 12 years old was a moment of suspension in air. Mike and Dustin and Lucas and Will (Finn Wolfhard, ...

You may click on “Your Choices” below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR’s sites. If you click “Agree and Continue” below, you acknowledge that your cookie choices in those tools will be respected and that you otherwise agree to the use of cookies on NPR’s sites. NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic.

It's been three years since we last saw Netflix's megahit horror series, but in Hawkins, Ind., only six months have passed and the monsters are still ...

While the Duffers have kept the details of “Stranger Things” much the same, they have strategically shifted the show, too. (I’m revealing that after a close reading of Netflix’s spoiler memo.) The nine hours have their moments; a midseason scene in which the combative Max (Sadie Sink) escapes the monster’s grip is particularly affecting. Drawn, once again, from the lore of Dungeons & Dragons, it’s a humanoid with a passing resemblance to a “Star Trek” Borg queen and a habit of levitating teenagers before cracking all their limbs. Things become even more spread out when a rescue mission is mounted for Jim Hopper (David Harbour), the former police chief and Eleven’s adoptive father, who survived Season 3’s cataclysmic finale and is in a Soviet prison. That’s the route film franchises take, and “Stranger Things” often feels more like a film franchise than a television series. And the many devotees of “Stranger Things” have been lucky, because as the show’s fourth season — which premieres with seven of its nine episodes on Friday — demonstrates, the Duffers’ expertise and crowd-pleasing instincts significantly exceed their storytelling imagination.

When can Stranger Things fans in Denmark expect Stranger Things season 4 to arrive on Netflix? Read on to find out when you can enjoy the fourth season!

Now here is where things get a bit complicated. Meanwhile, those in Denmark will be able to begin watching the series first thing on Friday morning. The wait for new episodes of Stranger Things is nearly over.

Three years after witnessing the Battle of Starcourt, you might need a refresher.

In the end, military helicopters swoop into Hawkins as Owens lead a military team into Starcourt while Joyce and the teens flee to safety. Eleven takes the Mind Flayer fragment out of her leg, but she finds herself powerless just as Flayed Billy and the Mind Flayer, which is now an enormous spider monster, arrive at the mall. Eleven also learns that the Mind Flayer is targeting her and her friends as revenge for closing Hawkins’ previous gate to the Upside Down. Joyce eventually realizes that her son and his friends might be caught up in the Starcourt business, so she and Hopper hurry to the mall. In so doing, however, Dustin picks up a Russian transmission, which he brings to Steve ( Joe Keery) and Robin ( Maya Hawke), who is Steve’s coworker at Scoops Ahoy, the Starcourt Mall ice cream parlor. “In this most vulnerable time, a new and horrifying supernatural threat surfaces, presenting a gruesome mystery that, if solved, might finally put an end to the horrors of the Upside Down.”

Joseph Quinn (Eddie Munson). Also known for starring in literary adaptations and period costume dramas (namely Dickensian, Game of Thrones on HBO, or 2019's Les ...

Playing Russian prison guard Dmitri is Tom Wlaschiha, who starred in several titles produced in his home country of Germany since the ‘90s before appearing in 2001’s Enemy at the Gates - the first of many notable period dramas (like 2005’s Munich or 2013’s Rush) and war movies (like Valkyrie from 2008) he has appeared in. Confrontational teen Jake is played by Logan Allen, whose first taste of the horror genre prior to joining the Stranger Things cast was an episode of the Shudder original anthology series Creepshow in 2019. She also played Sharon Tate opposite Matt Smith’s Charles Manson in 2018’s Charlie Says, had major roles on the Netflix series Greenhouse Academy and NBC’s The Village, and starred in and directed her own 2020 short, Monsters and Muses. As Sullivan - a lieutenant colonel seeking to finally end the supernatural phenomena in Hawkins - we have Sherman Augustus, who has encountered supernatural phenomena onscreen plenty of times before, such as in 1995’s Digital Man and Rumpelstiltskin, Virus (also starring supreme Scream Queen Jamie Lee Curtis) from 1999, and HBO’s Westworld, to name a few. Look for his name in just about any article related to Batman. Following his role in S. Craig Zahler’s Dragged Across Concrete, he landed recurring roles on OWN’s Queen Sugar and the Arrowverse’s Black Lightning and a starring role on Starz’s true crime drama BMF. Also known for starring in literary adaptations and period costume dramas (namely Dickensian, Game of Thrones on HBO, or 2019’s Les Misérables miniseries, most notably) is Joseph Quinn, who stars as Dungeons & Dragons player and Hellfire Club leader Eddie Munson on Stranger Things Season 4. Logan Allen (Jake) U.S. audiences may also recognize him from the Sundance TV miniseries The Last Panthers or as Hungarian-American Physicist Leo Szilard, opposite Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush as Albert Einstein, on Season 1 of National Geographic’s Genius. You can never tell what the outcome will be when a hit series adds new members to its ensemble, but in the case of Stranger Things cast, it has been a real treat so far, such as when Sadie Sink and Dacre Montgomery joined the gang in Season 2 or when Maya Hawke came aboard the following season. Tom Wlaschiha (Dmitri) Nikola Djuricko (Yuri)

Stranger Things season 4 debuts on Friday. Here's how you can watch the long-awaited fourth installment online and all you need to know about it.

Are you excited for Stranger Things season 4, part 1? That fanbase has since grown exponentially, resulting in it becoming one of the most popular shows of this generation. Arguably the biggest show on Netflix of all time, it premiered back in 2016 to rave reviews and it quickly established a passionate base of fans.

The show has had tons of memorable music moments across its run, from David Harbour's Jim Hopper hokily Dad-dancing to Jim Croce's “You Don't Mess Around With ...

Duran Duran - Girls on Film Bush's “Running Up That Hill” is definitely the most memorable entry to the Stranger Things season 4 soundtrack, featuring several times for reasons we're unable to get into here because, you know, spoilers. Doris Day - Dream A Little Dream of Me

Stranger Things season 4 volume 1 is out now and the ending is wild! We're breaking down the final moments of episode 7 involving Vecna, Eleven, and more.

However, she’s able to use her powers and she almost kills him, but instead opens a gate to the Upside Down and throws him in there. We then cut to Peter being thrown into the Upside Down and completely transforming into Vecna as thunder and lightning hits him. We also finally learn how El opened up the gate to the Upside Down which started the events of season 1 ahead of Will’s (Noah Schnapp) disappearance. When El walks into the Rainbow Room and sees everything that the orderly had done, he starts to explain. As Eleven starts to remember her time back in the Rainbow Room, she recalls meeting an orderly who goes by Peter Ballard (Jamie Campbell Bower). He’s kind to her in her memories, and they even form a plan to escape Hawkins Lab together. After he killed his parents and sister, Peter woke up in a coma to a very intrigued Dr. Brenner, who took him. Vecna is introduced in the premiere of Stranger Things season 4 as he follows the popular cheerleader named Chrissy (Grace Van Dien). By the end of the episode, he possesses her mind and brings her into the Upside Down to end her “suffering.” This just means he kills her, which is really disturbing and sad. She walks into the Rainbow Room and sees the orderly in there, as it’s revealed he’s the perpetrator. She hears about a man named Victor Creel (Robert Englund) who’s living at the Pennhurst Mental Hospital after allegedly murdering his family back in the ’50s. She thinks he might know something about what’s going on in Hawkins now, and she and Robin (Maya Hawke) go talk to him at the asylum. Meanwhile, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) uses her journalism skills back in Hawkins to try and find a lead on the murders. The doctors put Eleven in an isolation tank to recall her memories in order to regain her powers. As the murders continue happening in Hawkins, Dr. Owens (Paul Reiser) goes to see Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) to try and convince her to come back to save the day again.

Eleven and the residents of Hawkins have a new monster to contend with from the Upside Down, one whose reign of terror shouldn't be taken lightly.

Vecna needed more than that and so he started to test his abilities further in order to become a predator "for good," like with his beloved Black Widow spiders. Then, as he was falling through the Upside Down, One became the creature Vecna after lightning struck him in such a way that it changed his skin and made him into the monster he is now. The question that looms over the first half of Stranger Things' fourth season is who exactly Vecna is, and why the monster is terrorizing the town of Hawkins.

Agent Harmon – killed by the Army. The first three characters are students at Hawkins High School. They sadly get possessed by Vecna and are killed by him. As ...

Max almost dies in Stranger Things season 4 part 1, but fortunately she ends up surviving. Max’s favorite song, “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush, is what allows her to escape the Upside Down and ultimately saves her. Max walks through the Upside Down and eventually finds Vecna’s space, and he’s surprised she made it over there. They run over and she starts levitating, and as they desperately try to wake her up, we see what’s going on in Max’s mind. Jonathan, Mike, Will, and Agent Harmon are able to escape with the help of Argyle (Eduardo Franco), but unfortunately Harmon soon passes away while they’re fleeing town. When we meet Creel (Robert Englund) at Pennhurst Hospital, he remembers how his family was killed back in the 1950s. Though many parts of Stranger Things are fun, lighthearted, and humorous, it is a sci-fi action series at its core, and season 4 is without a doubt the darkest and scariest one yet. Hopefully we’ll get more answers in season 4 part 2! Now that season 4 part is officially out, we now know who unfortunately loses their lives and who gets to make it out alive. Police officers are disturbed and clueless when they see the bodies. They also start to see a grandfather clock in random locations, with the time ticking away. As Max (Sadie Sink) discovers when she looks through the school counselor’s files, Chrissy (Grace Van Dien) and Fred (Logan Riley Bruner) were both facing troubles and had gone to the counselor for help.

The first installment of the supernatural sci-fi drama is crucial to revisit prior to watching 'Stranger Things' Volume 1 of Season 4.

Max’s trauma becomes a primary focus in Stranger Things 4: Volume 1, but the details that led to said trauma are not as paramount as the aftermath. We break down all of the major moments from Season 1 — and a few from the second and third seasons — that are worth revisiting to better understand everything that goes down in Volume 1. But if there’s one thing from Season 3 that affects the events of Season 4 the most, it’s Max Mayfield’s (Sadie Sink) storyline. Season 4 alludes to much of what needs to be remembered from Seasons 2 and 3 via dialogue or flashbacks. This narrative loop renders much of what happens to our daring, Dungeons & Dragons-obsessed kiddos of Stranger Things in Seasons 2 and 3 as “filler” — B-plots compared to the greater scheme that the show ambitiously began to tell in Season 1. Season 4 circles back to Season 1, tying up several loose ends from El’s (Millie Bobby Brown) superhero origins that never seemed to resolve in Seasons 2 or 3 and probing deeper into storylines established in Season 1.

Netflix introduces a new big bad in the sci-fi hit's fourth chapter - but what's his backstory?

In the other dimension, One bursts into flames as he is struck by beams of crackling energy, and ultimately becomes Vecna. A zoom-in on the tattooed '001' on his forearm leaving no doubt as to who he once was. We've yet to see the final two episodes of Stranger Things 4, so it's a mystery as to whether Eleven, Nancy, Dustin and co defeat Vecna in this chapter. And something tells us Vecna's a little too important to just be the Mind Flayer's lackey... While floating, she finds her consciousness trapped in a memory from 1979, reliving painful events that occurred at the Hawkins National Laboratory, like when she was picked on and beaten by Two and some of the other kids. Later in Vol 1, Dustin, Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Erica (Priah Ferguson) get to talking about Vecna's potential motives, and how he seems to be creating new portals to the Upside Down with each one of his kills. When they get to the house, though, they discover that the guns aren't there, before Nancy quickly deduces that they're actually in the past. While credited as Peter Ballard, an orderly at Pennhurst Mental Hospital, the place where Victor resides, Jamie Campbell Bower actually plays the older version of Henry, who reveals his true identity to Eleven – and Nancy in the Upside Down, too – in episode 7. "A Five-star general with the power to open gates." Her attempt to stop them with drugs inadvertently left her more vulnerable to the dark being, and he crushed her. If you're reading this, then you've presumably watched the entirety of Vol 1 already and want to make sense of the story that's just unfolded in front of you. In true Stranger Things style, the youngsters steadily sniff out clues about their adversary across Volume 1, from the connotations of his Dungeons & Dragons-inspired name to the mysterious way in which he claims his victims. Each of the chapter's trailers gave us a good look at the antagonist, but Netflix has made sure to keep who he is, and what he's doing exactly, under wraps.

Stranger Things season 4 is here and so much happens to Eleven, Hopper, Joyce, Dustin, and more! We're recapping every episode of volume 1 right here.

In the process, she opens up a gate to the Upside Down and throws Number One in there. Nancy and the gang get to her house in the Upside Down to get the guns and Steve hears Dustin’s voice from the real world. Out in the Upside Down, she’s standing in a swimming pool and is met by Vecna’s voice. Though the guard doesn’t budge, he and Joyce manage to get the upper hand again and Joyce opens the door so Hop and Dmitri can get out just in time. He tells her that the other kids are going to try and kill her and that Brenner will just let it happen. The cops go out to the water to investigate what happened and to find Eddie. He explains why remembering her trauma is so important, telling her that she has “demons in [her] past.” But he warns her to take it one memory at a time because she can get lost in the “darkness.” A woman comes out of the car and asks to take El, and when they open the back doors, El tries to escape. He suggests to the agents that they should order pizza, and they agree. Max seems to have a headache as she pops some Tylenol and when she’s in the bathroom, she hears a girl in one of the stalls in distress. They have a game that night and they’ll be facing “the curse of Vecna,” which is a pretty big deal to everyone. When he wakes up, everyone at the lab is dead until he gets to the Rainbow Room. He sees a young Eleven there with blood all over her hospital gown and blood dripping from her eyes.

The penultimate season of "Stranger Things" is split into two parts, with the second half consisting of just two episodes.

It was originally going to be eight episodes, and we asked Netflix if they would be open to us having another episode, Episode 9. Which they were super supportive of." When Will 'Stranger Things' Season 4 Part 2 Be Released?

The cast and crew traveled to more locations than ever before to film the fourth season, with the fictional Hawkins, California, and Russia recreated in Atlanta ...

The vastness and the variety of desert there was really surprising. To get a behind-the-scenes glimpse, we chatted with the show’s production designer, Chris Trujillo, about the filming locations that brought the horrors to life—and some of the destinations’ non-scary, vacation-worthy appeal, too. I knew there was something special about it, but [taking] this special extended tour of all the different flavors of New Mexican desert was incredible.

So what's everyone in Hawkins up to six months after the Battle at Starcourt Mall? Things are a little different without Eleven and the Byers family, but mostly ...

She receives a mysterious package from Russia with a doll inside of it — inside the doll is what looks to be some sort of ransom note. And then, finally, her eyes seem to explode into the back of her head. Chrissy starts to hear her mother knocking on the bathroom stall, but suddenly her voice changes, and her “mother” screams at her that she’s a fat pig. He tells her that he wants to end her suffering, and he puts those creepy long fingers over her head. That monster from the bathroom is there — his creepy long fingers and the fact that he’s stalking Chrissy in some nightmare scenario (all that food on the table covered in mold and bugs is him taunting her with her eating disorder) gives some real Nightmare on Elm Street vibes — this is our new big bad, our Vecna. He follows her around until she’s trapped. The boys are growing further and further apart. He also has no time for excuses when Mike and Dustin inform him that Lucas can’t be a part of the final night of Eddie’s big Vecna Campaign for the Hellfire Club because it’s the same night as the big championship basketball game. Before he gets there, she hears the ticking of a clock and then actually sees a grandfather clock lodged in a tree. So what’s everyone in Hawkins up to six months after the Battle at Starcourt Mall? Things are a little different without Eleven and the Byers family, but mostly people are trying to move forward. Lucas is sick of being bullied and feeling like a loser and wanted things to change in high school. You’ll recall that season three ended with an epic battle at Starcourt Mall in which the Mind Flayer — now less of a Shadow Monster and more of a “Covered in the Melted Flesh and Bones of Hawkins Citizens” Monster — was foiled in its mission to kill Eleven before eradicating every living thing in our dimension when Billy sacrificed himself and Joyce and Hopper were able to blow up that Russian laser beam those guys were using to open a gate to the Upside Down. You remember all of that, right? Brenner walks into the Rainbow Room and standing over all the horror and death, there’s our little Eleven, her hospital gown covered in blood, with more of it pouring out of her eyes.

The first part of Stranger Things season 4 has arrived, but when can fans expect the next two episodes of the season to premiere? When does Part 2 come out?

Are you excited for Stranger Things season 4 part 2? If you have already binged your way through the first seven episodes, you’ll probably want to know when episode 8 (and the rest of Part 2) will debut. Yes, every episode of Stranger Things 4 is at least an hour long, making for a lengthy and thrilling watch.

A fresh crop of synthy '80s tunes highlight the soundtrack of Stranger Things season 4. Listen to all the atmospheric tracks here.

The soundtrack is produced by Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, and Timothy J. Smith. That comes through in the many time-specific Easter eggs littered throughout the season but more importantly it comes through the music. Operating under an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mantra, Stranger Things season 4 is absolutely packed with ’80s-set science fiction, horror, and adventure.

Who dies in 'Stranger Things' Season 4? Does Max (Sadie Sink) die in 'Stranger Things'? Will Steve (Joe Keery) die? Will Nancy (Natalia Dyer) die?

Stranger Things Season 4 opens with a flashback to Hawkins Lab back in 1979. When the first volume of Stranger Things Season 4 ends, Nancy is very much in danger. Stranger Things Season 4 Part 1 ends with Nancy’s (Natalia Dyer) escape from the Upside Down foiled by Vecna. He whisks her to the Upside Down version of the Creel House where Nancy learns the truth about his origins. However Max certainly comes the closest to dying in Stranger Things 4. As you’re making your way through Stranger Things Season 4 Part 1, you might find yourself desperately worried about the fate of your favorite character. Stranger Things Season 4 is darker, meaner, and more brutal than any season before.

"Chapter One: The Hellfire Club" serves as a wild, nightmare-fueled first episode for Stranger Things Season 4, and we're here to recap it all.

Back in the trailer, Eddie is petrified to find Chrissy standing in the middle of his living room, eerily still with only her eyes flickering in the back of her head. As Vecna reaches his hand out to Chrissy, her body floats to the ceiling of the trailer. Murray – with his usual chaotic energy – tells her it could be a threat and asks if she can undress the doll and look for a wire. She turns around and to Chrissy's horror, her eyes are white, and her skin appears to be rotting. Poor Lucas looks out to the bleachers, and obviously, Mike and Dustin are nowhere to be found. Petrified, Chrissy scrambles to the corner of the stall as the lights begin flickering and her mom's voice becomes distorted, and the bathroom stall door violently shakes, as if someone is trying to get in. She runs into the other room hoping to find Eddie when she bursts into what appears to be her house. Eleven is writing a letter to Mike (Finn Wolfhard) telling him that she is "twice as happy now" and that she has given California a chance. Meanwhile, "Dusty-Bun" and Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo) are still going strong, and Robin (Maya Hawke) and Steve (Joe Keery) are still besties who are both looking for love, but there is one member of the party who is noticeably absent: a grieving Max (Sadie Sink) broke up with Lucas and has almost completely retreated from the party ever since Billy's death. Eerie music quietly begins to creep in as suddenly, Chrissy hears the voice of her mom, asking her if she is ready to try on her dress. He slowly walks down the hallway and is horrified to see all the children and the guards, brutally murdered, their bodies bloody and mangled. And of course, what the hell happened to Hopper (David Harbour)? But before we get to that, let's unpack that wild, nightmare-fueled first episode.

Netflix has been pretty tight lipped about the villain of Stranger Things Season 4. Here's everything we know about Vecna after Part 1!

“Vecna was, in his time, one of the mightiest of all wizards. From the Eye and Hand of Vecna entries in the Fifth Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide: As Vecna, he uses these mental abilities as a way to psychologically weaken and lure in his victims – much in a way that Pennywise, Freddie Kruger, and Pinhead do. With that information, it’s no wonder why he targeted Max, who’s grieving the loss of Billy, and Nancy, who still feels guilt over Barb’s death all the way back in Season 1. The second victim we see in Season 4, Fred Bensen, was involved in a fatal car accident that clearly left him with some residual trauma and guilt. It’s also at the Creel House that Henry realized the extent of his powers; not only does he have strong telekinetic abilities, like Eleven, but he can also see into the minds of others, giving him the ability to both tap into their memories and force hallucinations on them. Henry proceeds to fall through that gate, going into the Upside Down, where he’s turned into the Vecna that we know today. However, it’s at that new home – which we now know as the Creel House – where Henry developed a fascination with spiders, and honed a cynical view of the world and humankind, one that rejects the traditional societal structures. Victor was arrested for the murders, but Henry still ended up in the care of Brenner. But before all of that, he was just a kid – and a Creel at that, the once-mysterious family introduced in Season 4. He was born Henry Creel (played by Raphael Luce as a child and Jamie Campbell Bower as an adult), and as his odd behavior worried his parents, the family moved to Hawkins for a fresh start. His identity was a mystery until the last episode of Season 4 Part I, where all was revealed.

Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven and Noah Schnapp as Will Byers in "Stranger Things." (CNN) Netflix added ...

The opening scene of the new season shows Millie Bobby Brown's character, Eleven and several children covered in blood. "We are deeply saddened by this unspeakable violence, and our hearts go out to every family mourning a loved one." Netflix had previously released the first eight minutes of the "Stranger Things" Season 4 premiere.

The most Stranger Things needle drop reminds that Kate Bush saves lives. A recap of 'Dear Billy' episode 4 of Season 4 of Netflix's 'Stranger Things.'

The memories give her the strength to break free from Vecna and she runs toward that clearing in the mist. Instead of taking the $40,000 and picking up Hopper, he calls the warden of the prison, tells him where Hopper is hiding, that the guard Antonov is the one who helped him escape, and he also drugs Joyce and Murray and plans on turning them over to the KGB. So, yeah, Yuri’s a real asshole. A small clearing forms in the mist, and Max can see the scene at the cemetery — she can see her friends. It does not go smoothly, but Hopper is a broody action hero now (I prefer rough around the edges, secret softy Hopper, but this Hopper is also good), so he peels off on the snowmobile and makes it to the church where Yuri is supposed to pick him up. She falls to the ground and into her friends’ arms. Sure, Robin isn’t thrilled that she has to wear Nancy’s clothes to keep up this little psych student ruse, but they need to look like serious academics to impress Dr. Hatch, the director of the asylum, to convince him to let them speak to Creel. Also, those uncomfortable clothes inspire Robin to give a rousing speech about how women in the field of psychology aren’t taken seriously and how this is her dream. Thank god that song is such a goddamn jam because it really adds some drama to the entire conclusion of the episode. She sees her mom hanging laundry and … whoops, nope, she ends up in a warm embrace with Vecna himself, who is telling her that she’s going to get what she deserves and that no amount of letters she writes will change things. He needs her to know that she can talk to him. It’s full of regret that they didn’t get a second chance to become friends, to become real siblings. Max has her own idea of how she wants to spend her time while they wait for some ray of hope from whatever Nancy and Robin — excuse me, Ruth and Rose — can get out of Creel. First, she writes everyone she cares about a good-bye letter. Max does not tell the boys that her hallucinations are getting worse and instead tells them she has a second stop to make: The cemetery.

Netflix added a content warning for Stranger Things season 4's premiere episode which depicts a massacre involving kids, following a shooting in a Texas ...

“But given the recent tragic shooting at a school in Texas, viewers may find the opening scene of episode 1 distressing. The sequence depicts multiple dead children covered in blood. We are deeply saddened by this unspeakable violence, and our hearts go out to every family mourning a loved one.”

Spoiler Alert. Netflix. [Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Stranger Things Season 4 “Chapter One: The Hellfire Club.”] A lot ...

Stranger Things has A LOT of characters at this point — and is still introducing more — so it can sometimes get a little unwieldy. Joyce receives a parcel from Russia containing a babushka doll, inside of which is a note implying Hopper is still alive (because, of course he is). There’s some fun back and forth on the phone with Murray ( Brett Gelman) as he talks Joyce through the best way to crack open a ceramic doll that may or may not contain an explosive. It’s a perfect recipe for the type of fear-mongering that Eddie read about earlier in the episode. If there’s anyone in a similar situation to Eleven, it’s Max ( Sadie Sink), who has become isolated since the loss of her step-brother Billy. At one point, Lucas describes her as a “ghost,” wandering the school halls alone as if she isn’t even there. This is highlighted in a scene of public humiliation when she tries to enact revenge on her bully, Angela (Elodie Grace Orkin). Eleven reaches out her arm and yells… But it’s clear from the off that this season is going to be much darker than the others. So the shake-up at the end of the third season — which saw Hopper ( David Harbour) seemingly sacrifice his life and Eleven lose her powers before moving out of Hawkins with the Byers family — is a promising indicator for Season 4. Over in Hawkins, Mike and Dustin ( Gaten Matarazzo) are also adjusting to high school life. And while Will ( Noah Schnapp) is still there to offer Eleven comfort, he appears distracted by his own high school dilemmas (and potential romance?). Eleven’s school life is hell: She’s a social outcast, bullied and belittled by her classmates, even when giving a heartfelt presentation about her adopted dad Hopper. In her letters to Mike, Eleven breaks her own cardinal rule — friends don’t lie. It also means that the events of the third season are a long distant memory and might require a catch-up for viewers hoping to jump back in. In hindsight, a town being ravaged by a monstrous Demogorgon is almost passé compared to the pandemic we’ve been in since early 2020.

In light of the Uvalde mass shooting, Netflix has issued a timely content warning for Stranger Things' season 4 premiere.

But in the wake of what happened in Uvalde, it’s hard not to see both shows as having tapped into something profoundly broken about the country they’re produced in — all at one of the most difficult times imaginable. Both in and out of the larger context that’s revealed as the rest of Stranger Things’ latest season unfolds, the Hawkins lab massacre plays very much like the show’s take on a school shooting due to its focus on helpless children losing their lives in classrooms. Though Stranger Things 4 is mostly set in 1986, the season’s premiere — “Chapter One: The Hellfire Club” — opens a few years earlier, back when Hawkins National Laboratories were still up and running experiments on Eleven and other children with enhanced abilities.

Stranger Things Season 4 Part 1 dials the fan-service to a new level, however it let one fan-favorite relationship fall by the wayside.

Max and Eleven join together to give their respective boyfriends the cold shoulder, and become close friends following an epic mall montage to "Material Girl" by Madonna. As the rest of the season plays on, they two never officially get back together, however they are seen bantering and repairing their relationship. She is seen brushing off Lucas’ invitation to his grand basketball game and walking through the school hallways blasted Kate Bush through her headphones. What happened between Max and Lucas in the time between Season 3 and Season 4 of Stranger Things. Keep reading to find out. Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) and Eleven have ridden off to sunny California with Joy (Winona Ryder) finding a new work-from-home job, leaving her Hopper-induced heartbreak behind in Hawkins, Indiana. Lucas has found his calling on the basketball team, prioritizing the sport over playing Dungeon and Dragons and hanging out with social piranhas Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Mike – who are otherwise as nerdy and tight-knit as we left them in the prior season. Throughout the new season of the hit Netflix series, Max (Sadie Sink) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) seem to have called it quits following the tumultuous happenings of the previous season which saw Max’s step-brother Billy Hargrove (Darcy Montgomery) sacrificing his life to the Mind Flayer to protect the ragtag group of teens.

The oft-nostalgic Netflix series succeeds in Season 4 by treating adolescence as the torturous experience it is for those who don't fit in.

But the misery of high school calls for horror, naturally: “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and the “It” miniseries are a few of the callbacks in Season 4, and the terror is as much psychological as it is physical. There is plenty of fun to be had in “Stranger Things 4,” which both celebrates and parodies a decade that pushed conformity, conservatism and questionable style. The end of high school, and with it, the potential disbanding of this tightknit group. New to the party is metalhead and Dungeons & Dragons “Hellfire Club” master Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn). He’s accused of committing a string of heinous murders around Hawkins. The long-haired outcast contends that “Forced conformity [is] the real monster,” and he’s not entirely wrong. The music includes speed metal by Extreme, some “Detroit Rock City,” stoner anthems by Musical Youth, one-hit wonders Dead or Alive and Falco. And of course, Kate Bush’s “Running Up that Hill,” which sets the tone for a moving sequence with Max. Because the oddest thing about “Stranger Things” might be its capacity to keep surprising us. The true source of the murderous evil is Vecna, a ghoulish man/creature who resides in the Upside Down and thrives on destroying the residents from the inside out. Dustin’s genius gal pal Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo) returns, and the scene in her Mormon household is one of the best. Odes to the goofy nostalgia of “Ghostbusters” and “Goonies” worked when the gang was younger, then nods to “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” mall culture and “Indiana Jones”-style adventure as they aged. And thank goodness for Erica (Priah Ferguson). Lucas’ mouthy 11-year-old sister is not as emotionally battered as the older kids, so she emerges as a sharp weapon against Vecna. The brilliance of “Stranger Things 4” is that rather than gloss over the unpleasantry, it leans hard into their clumsy, painful transition. (The hair is particularly bad.