To say a lot has happened in Hawkins over the years would be an Upside Down understatement.

On Nov. 26, the first four episodes of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things premiere on Netflix. It has been over three years since the previous season ended, and almost a decade since the series first premiered in July 2016.

As the final season of Stranger Things debuts, creators Ross and Matt Duffer told The Hollywood Reporter that they were bringing things “full circle” with the remaining episodes.

“There are a lot of mysteries we set up and then intentionally did not answer in those early seasons,” teased Ross, with Matt adding that “season 4 is also highly relevant,” especially episodes 7 and 9.

With the end of Stranger Things about to begin, here’s a look back at where we left the Hawkins gang, including who’s alive and who’s in a coma.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Stranger Things season 4!

 

Mike and Eleven are still together

In the first season, Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) kissed, and season 3 began with the two having been officially dating for a few months.

At the end of season 4, Mike and Eleven are still a couple after spending most of the season in a long-distance relationship following Eleven’s move to California.

They reunite and finally return to Hawkins to confront the evil growing in their hometown. In the season finale, Mike tells Eleven he loves her for the first time, which gives her the strength to save her friends.

 

The core members of The Party are still friends

Mike, Will (Noah Schnapp), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) have been through a lot over the four seasons, and they spent some time apart in season 4, with Mike and Will in California.

Back home, Lucas is torn between his Hellfire friends and his spot on the Hawkins High basketball team. While the former would mean he is with his best friends, the latter would shed him of his geek title and ensure his popularity in high school, something the whole group has struggled with throughout the show.

Lucas sees the divide grow between the group when they invite his sister to replace him in Hellfire instead of attending his championship game. However, Lucas pushes his grievances aside when he realizes his new friends are coming for his old ones when they mistakenly believe Hellfire is satanistic — and Lucas is the only one who can warn them.

Together, they work to save Max (Sadie Sink), who has been distancing herself from the crew the whole season due to her grief, when she’s captured by Vecna.

Despite everything they’ve been through, the bond between the friends is still strong, as they face Vecna one last time.

 

Vecna is alive

Yes, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), the main villain from season 4, is still alive. He was wounded, but he will be back to create more chaos in season 5.

In season 4, through Eleven’s memories of her time in the lab, audiences find out that Vecna is actually Henry Creel, a boy who killed his mother and sister and let his father take the blame. It turns out that Henry is One, the first child the lab ran experiments on. He earns Eleven’s trust and convinces her that the two can escape their confinement together.

Unbeknownst to Eleven, Vecna has an ulterior motive. He ultimately reveals he wants them to rule the world with their powers and destroy others once they escape.

Eleven denies him and, in their fight, accidentally opens the first gate into the Upside Down, turning Creel into the first resident of the shadow dimension: Vecna.

 

Max is in a coma

Following her battle with Vecna, in which Max was saved by running toward the sound of her friends playing Kate Bush‘s “Running Up That Hill,” Max was put in a coma, and even technically died for one minute before Eleven used her powers to bring her back to life.

Max may have ended the season with broken bones and no vision, but she almost didn’t survive the ordeal at all.

“It was discussed as a possibility. For a while, that is what was going to happen,” Ross said on the Stranger Things after show of killing Max. “We wanted to end it with a little more of a question at the end of the season. It’s still really dark and if Max is going to be okay, we just don’t really know. We wanted to leave it up in the air moving forward into Season 5.”

 

A giant rift has opened up in Hawkins

A rift has opened up in Hawkins, blurring the lines between the Upside Down and the real world.

At each of Vecna’s sites where he killed, a gate has been opened. When he was able to kill Max — even if it was just briefly — he was able to open a fourth gate. Red glowing fissures opened across Hawkins, connecting in front of the town’s public library.

The supernatural event is covered up by the military, with the news reporting that it was a 7.4 earthquake that shook the town.

 

Eleven has her powers back

Eleven lost her powers at the end of season 3, but she got them back in “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab,” the seventh episode of the fourth season. The entire season, the show’s hero worked to regain her abilities with the help of her “Papa,” Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine), who guided her while she was in a bunker the entire season.

Eleven uses her powers to save Max and coax her back to life after her heart stops. Now, she will have them dialed up to 11 for the season 5 showdown with Vecna.

“She has better control over her powers and can use them in more innovative ways. The closest example, I’d say, is probably the Force,” Matt told Empire in October 2025, referencing the mysterious energy in Star Wars.

 

Eddie died in the season 4 finale

One beloved member of the friend group fans shouldn’t expect to see is metalhead Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), who sacrificed himself so the gang could escape the Upside Down in the season 4 finale.

Though he and Dustin have completed their part of the final mission in distracting the Demobats, Eddie breaks from the plan and leads the bats in another direction away from Dustin. By the time Dustin, who is injured, realizes and gets to Eddie, it’s too late, and the rebellious teen is already bleeding out from his wounds.

Eddie dies in an emotional scene as he says bye to Dustin, who looked up to him throughout the season.

 

Hopper and Joyce finally kissed

At the end of season 3, Hopper (David Harbour) was captured by Russian soldiers and taken to a prison in the Soviet Union. In season 4, Joyce (Winona Ryder) discovered that Hopper was still alive, and traveled to Russia to rescue him.

Joyce discovers that the prison Hopper is in is practically a Demigorgon zoo. As a result, the two don’t need to run back to the U.S. to help the kids fight Vecna — they can access the Upside Down from the Soviet Union themselves.

Hopper and Joyce — with the help of Joyce’s friend Murray (Brett Gelman) — fight the Demigorgons housed at the prison, eventually succeeding and weakening Vecna back home. In the end, they catch Yuri’s (Nikola Djuricko), another person helping the group out, plane just in time to return home.

Notably, the two finally kissed in the season 4 finale. Hopper and Joyce are seen holding hands in the last scene of the episode.

 

Jonathan and Nancy are still together

Despite being in a long-distance relationship, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) are still together, but the road ahead of them doesn’t look easy.

Nancy and her ex, Steve (Joe Keery), have a complicated romantic past. Meanwhile, Nancy thinks Jonathan is going to join her at Emerson College, but he never applied. Those complications aren’t even the most stressful for the couple, as they have reunited just in time to vanquish Vecna once and for all.

 

Will has a psychic connection with Vecna

Will has had a psychic connection with Vecna ever since they met in the Upside Down in season 1 — something that was shown in the first scene from Stranger Things season 5.

In the final minutes of season 4, their psychic link is still strong, with Will being the first to sense Vecna’s presence — portrayed by the familiar tingle down his neck — as the Upside Down takes over Hawkins.