Stranger Things Season 04 episode 1

 

The first episode of Stranger Things' fourth season, "The Hellfire Club," is the show's twenty-sixth overall. It debuted as the opening episode of the first volume on May 27, 2022.At school, El faces bullying. Joyce unfolds an enigmatic parcel. A tenacious player upends D&D night.

Dr. Martin Brenner gets up on September 8, 1979, and gets ready for work at Hawkins National Laboratory by going through his morning ritual. He went inside the Rainbow Room at the lab, where several kids were having fun. Ten was playing with a Magic 8 Ball when he walked up to him and asked whether he was ready for additional lessons. Ten gave Brenner a "all signs point to yes" look while shaking the ball. They passed Dr. Ellis, a woman, and Six, another test subject, in the corridor. Ten and Brenner started their experiments. Ten was given the task of using his precognitive powers to observe what Brenner was sketching on his pad.

Five months after the Byers left Hawkins, on March 21, 1986, the family and Eleven—who is now known publicly as "Jane Hopper"—live in the tiny Californian hamlet of Lenora Hills. Eleven writes to her lover, Mike Wheeler, explaining how she's settling into life on the west coast with her new family. El has been given a school assignment to create a hero diorama, and she chooses to recreate her "late" father, Jim Hopper, along with the cabin they shared. Joyce Byers is currently a telemarketer who works from home, selling encyclopaedias. Although Joyce says she "loves the freedom," she is actually annoyed that her clients keep hanging up on her. Will Byers has been painting a great deal, especially on a confidential.

Jason delivers a eulogy in honour of Heather Holloway, Jim Hopper, and Billy Hargrove, among the others who perished in the "Starcourt Mall fire." That night, in the championship basketball game, he uses it as motivation to lead his team to victory. Mike and Dustin, taken aback to learn that the game is scheduled for that evening, try to convince Lucas to support Eddie's concurrent campaign. Lucas, however, is adamant that he must attend the championship game and requests that Eddie postpone the campaign until the following night so that he may attend his game. Reluctantly agreeing, Mike and Dustin are irritated with their pal. Joyce opens a parcel she received from Russia when she is in California.

El lies and claims to have tripped, but Ms. Gracey becomes irate when she notices Angela and her friends averting eye contact. After that, Ms. Gracey brings Angela to the principal's office, where Angela lies and begs El to say she wasn't at fault, but El is too distraught to say anything. Will dashes in, telling El they can fix the project as the audience disperses, but El just sits there crying as she picks up a broken-in-half figure of Hopper. As Max heads to the Hawkins school counselor's office, she sees Chrissy Cunningham, who appears to be in distress, exiting the room. It was discovered in her workplace that Max was receiving low marks due to changes in her family and mental health.

After after, Lucas runs into Max in the hallway and tries to get her to talk by asking her to his basketball game. According to Max, there's nothing wrong with her breaking up with him. She acts like a ghost, he remarks, and it doesn't even seem like she's here anymore. Max, hurt, politely declines his offer and informs Lucas that people change. As she walks into the girl's lavatory, she finds Chrissy in one of the stalls who appears to be unwell. She offers assistance, but Chrissy declines. Chrissy witnesses a horrifying delusion in which her mother is screaming and attempting to enter the toilet cubicle after Max leaves her by herself in the bathroom. She stares as hideous feet emerge from under the cubicle door. 

When the campaign comes to a close, Dustin and Erica are the only two players still alive, and while the party is thinking about leaving again, the two players are adamant about killing Vecna. Dustin tries to hit, but misses the shot, and Erica defeats the boss with a crucial blow. Both teams are happy when they win their games, but Lucas is disappointed when he sees his sister Erica and other Hellfire Club members enjoying the triumph together. Max is in her caravan with her mother, who appears to be intoxicated and asleep. When Max hears the dog barking for food, he walks to his pen, gets the scraps, and gives him some food.

As Chrissy waits, she goes in search of Eddie after hearing the grandfather clock's warped chimes. Chrissy discovers her mother's warped visage when she unlocks a door. Instead of being in Eddie's caravan, Chrissy seems to be living out her horrific memories in her own house. She sees her father with his mouth and eyes stitched shut. Eddie discovers the drug back at the caravan site, but he's shocked to see Chrissy standing there, unconscious and in a kind of trance. Eddie is trying in a hurry to wake Chrissy, and the lights flicker. Chrissy is being followed in her trance by an unidentified figure that beckons to her. The thing has cornered her.