Stranger Things Episode 1.08 Chapter Eight: The Upside Down

Dr. Brenner holds Hopper and Joyce for questioning while the boys wait with Eleven in the gym. Back at Will's, Nancy and Jonathan prepare for battle.

Joyce and Hopper are detained in the Hawkins Laboratory and interrogated by Brenner. Hopper negotiates a deal: He will give up El's location, in exchange for neutrality and access to the gate. Brenner, assuming they won't survive, agrees. Joyce and Hopper enter in Hazmat suits, traveling extensively, and discover the creature's nest. They find Will there, unconscious with a slug-like creature down his esophagus, and revive him.

Nancy and Jonathan turn the Byers home into a trap for the creature, then cut their hands to attract it. As they wait, Steve - having had a change of heart - unexpectedly arrives, intending to apologize to Jonathan about their fight. As the three argue, the monster attacks. An energised Steve realises he has to help attack it before it can kill Jonathan and manages to trap it. Jonathan sets it on fire, injuring it, but it escapes back to the Upside-Down. El and the boys hide out in the middle school. Mike asks El to a school dance, then kisses her. Following Hopper's information, Brenner arrives with agents.

As the kids attempt to escape, they are surrounded by the "social worker"'s agents. El squeezes their brains, killing them. As Brenner recovers a weakened El, the monster enters, attracted to blood on the floor and kills Brenner and the other agents, cornering the kids in a classroom. El pins it against a wall, and both vanish. Will is hospitalized and reunited with his mother, brother and friends.

As Hopper exits the hospital, a black car pulls up and he reluctantly gets in. A month later it is Christmas; Nancy has gotten back together with Steve and both are friends with Jonathan, giving him a new camera for Christmas. Hopper leaves an office Christmas party with leftovers, which he leaves in the woods in a concealed box along with waffles, like the ones that El liked.

Will and his friends have resumed their Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. After returning home to eat dinner with Joyce and Jonathan, Will excuses himself to wash his hands. In the bathroom he coughs up a slug. Will briefly sees the world like the Upside-Down, and then calmly returns to dinner.