After almost three years, we’re officially back in Hawkins, Indiana! And that’s not the only location we’re visiting in Stranger Things season 4, as a handful of our favorite characters are now residing across the globe. As for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), she’s living in the fictional town of Lenora Hills, California alongside the Byers family, and Jim Hopper (David Harbour) is now a prisoner out in Russia. With so many of our main players out of Hawkins, this is truly the craziest season yet!
Spoilers ahead for Stranger Things season 4 part 1.
Stranger Things season 4 is split into two parts, with the first seven episodes premiering on Netflix in the early hours this morning and the next two scheduled for a July 1 release. Fans are really blessed with this batch of episodes because they are action-packed and so emotional! It’s exactly what we wanted out of a new season of the sci-fi show.
Speaking of emotional, we all know the finale of season 3 is a tearjerker. After Hopper “dies” in the explosion at the Starcourt Mall when Joyce (Winona Ryder) closes the gate to the Upside Down, the Byers family packs their bags and gets ready to leave Hawkins behind. Joyce has so many reasons to move away from the cursed town after all the things that happen between seasons 1 and 3.
But of course, as the season 3 finale mid-credits scene teases and what has now been confirmed by Netflix, Hopper is very much alive! He’s just very far away living in snowy Russia in prison. In season 4 volume 1, Joyce is on a mission to save Hopper after a letter is delivered to her that reveals he’s not dead. She enlists Murray (Brett Gelman) to help and the two go on an adventure of a lifetime to Alaska and then to Russia.
Joyce and Murray are able to get to Hopper in the final episode of Stranger Things season 4 volume 1! Yay! It’s assumed they’re going to be able to save him as they fight off the prison guards, though we don’t see exactly how yet. This will no doubt be a big storyline in volume 2.
Although Joyce and Hopper reunite in Stranger Things season 4 volume 1, unfortunately Hopper does not get to see Eleven. He doesn’t leave Russia just yet by the end of episode 7, but we’re really hoping that he gets to travel back to America in volume 2 and can reunite with his daughter. Eleven doesn’t know Hop is still alive and is pretty busy trying to regain her powers.
If Stranger Things season 4 doesn’t end with Eleven and Hopper back together again, I’ll be so angry! I’m so looking forward to that moment.
Stranger Things returns with season 4 part 2 on July 1.
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