After Netflix‘s recent announcement, it is now no secret that one of the greatest and most popular web series in recent memory, Stranger Things is finally going to release on this OTT platform with its long-awaited fourth season in the months of May and July divided into two parts. The first volume of Stranger Things 4 will release on May 27 with the first 5 episodes while the second one will arrive on July 1 with the last 4 episodes on Netflix. Now that it is confirmed about the arrival of Stranger Things 4, you may want to recollect all the pandemonium and phenomenon that happened in Stranger Things Season 3 so that you can enjoy the upcoming season without forgetting anything vital. So, without further ado, let’s enjoy a quick recap about what exactly happened in Stranger Things Season 3.
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Stranger Things Season 3: The Beginning!
The third season of Stranger Things was released back in 2019, a whole year after season 2 arrived. So, in the end of season 2, we witnessed that everything seems “fine” and everyone is safe and happy. It was a happy ending. Then, at the beginning of season 3, we saw how Mike & Eleven have become official lovers and furthermore, they have become addicted to each other as we saw Mike go to Eleven every day to make out and smooch.
It proves that their relationship has grown much in the last year (in the time between seasons 2 & 3). Talking about young love, Lucas & Max have becomes also a couple. Moreover, Dustin also found love with a girl named Suzie with whom he communicates via radio.
Apart from these young couples, we saw Joyce was very puzzled due to the fact that her fridge magnets fall down continuously while Hopper struggled to be a proper parent of Eleven who is now a teenager and he tried badly to suggest her and Mike put the brakes on their relationship exploration but he failed to express his words to them.
It was the 1980s so the shopping mall was absolutely new and trendy back then. Hawkins also got its first shopping mall named Starcourt Mall in which fan-favorite Steve, the former boyfriend of Nancy (Mike’s elder sister), got his first job at Scoops Ahoy with his classmate Robin.
Things get really stranger from here!
As we all can expect, nothing goes easy and simple in Hawkins. While trying to make contact with Suzie via radio, Dustin suddenly heard a message in Russian which he found suspicious. When Steve, Dustin & Robin translated this mystery message, they came to know that there are Russians in Hawkins who are actually using Starcourt Mall to reopen the Upside Down!
So as we all are habituated with this, the trio of Dustin, Steve & Robin headed to the mall to investigate. Lucas’ sister, Erica also joined them. After a few moments, they became stuck in an underground elevator, and soon, they were taken as prisoners by the Russians. Fortunately, Erica & Dustin managed to escape somehow but Steve and Robin were captured as hostages and they were interrogated, beaten, and even forced to consume truth serum. After some time, the duo of Steve & Robin were saved thanks to Dustin & Erica’s intelligence and cleverness.
On the other side, we saw that Max’s elder brother Billy worked at the community pool where he met Nancy and Mike’s mother, Mrs. Wheeler. Both Billy & Mrs. Wheeler were physically attracted to each other. After a day or two, in the evening, Billy crashed his car while driving back from her house and accidentally became the victim of the demon known as the Mind Flayer. He became possessed by that demon just like Will was in the Stranger Things Season 2.
And, how do we forget the lovely couple, Nancy & Jonathan? We saw that both of them managed to secure internships at The Hawkins Gazette where Jonathan was respected by the colleagues for his impressive photography but Nancy, on the contrary, faced insults and humiliations by the stuff as they were not taking her journalism seriously at all. Anyway, the stranger thing is that they decided to interview an elderly woman named Mrs. Driscoll, who claims that she found a weird rat and the rat, as we all know, actually had been possessed by Mind Flayer.
Eleven Vs Mind Flayer (Possessed Billy) – First Encounter of S3!
When Eleven spied on Billy and suspected him that he is possessed by the demon, Mind Flayer who returns to harm them again, she along with the duffer gang trapped him in the pool sauna to check whether Billy can tolerate the heat as we already are aware of the fact that The Mind Flayer can’t withstand the heat and it needs cold surroundings to live well.
After a few moments, the group witnessed that Billy was affected by the heat as obvious but still he had the power to break the door and confront them. Eleven tried to attack billy by using her abilities but it was just for a moment until Billy overpowered her and tried to choke her to death.
Thanks to Mike who saved his girl by hitting an iron bar on the head of possessed Billy. Then, as usual, Billy went to kill Mike but Eleven using her powers stopped him and threw him out of the room breaking the wall into pieces. The Mind Flayer escaped for that time as it was weakened.
Eleven Vs Mind Flayer (Physical Incarnation) – Second Encounter of S3!
After some time, we saw the gang united with Jonathan and Nancy and all of them were then aware of the existence of Mind Flayer. When they went to Hopper’s cabin, the Mind Flayer found them and attacked them. From Jonathan’s melee attack to Nancy’s Shotgun shots, everything seemed pointless to the power of the demon. Only Eleven tried to do some damage with the help of her abilities still the demon bit her leg with one of its trunks or hands or whatever those were.
Though the part of the demon was removed from her body, it seemed like she had lost her powers since then. Just like you, we also really hope that in Stranger Things Season 4, Eleven will get her powers back.
Stranger Things Season 3 Recap: Coming to the End!
After some investigations, Hopper discovered that Hawkins’ town mayor was allowing the Russians to use the mall to smuggle some unknown liquid substances. It is also a notable fact that Hopper and Joyce had already known about the Russians’ plan to reopen the hellish Upside Down in the previous episodes thanks to Alexei, a Russian scientist who confessed everything and Hopper’s journalist friend Murray translated his Russian words into English so that Hopper and Joyce can understand them. Hopper & Joyce along with Murray and Alexei then ran to the Fun Fair Carnival of Hawkins to unite with the group of children. Unfortunately, they ran into a Russian enforcer who killed Alexei for betraying them.
Stranger Things Season 3 Recap: What Exactly Happened in Season Finale?!
The final episode of Stranger Things Season 3 starts with Hopper and Joyce joins with the group of children at the Starcourt Mall and they planned to split into groups to follow the divide & conquer method in order to kill the Mind Flayer and close the gate to the Upside Down.
Hopper, Joyce, and Murray rushed to infiltrate the underground Russian base so that they can get access to the operations room to close the gate thanks to Dustin’s real girlfriend Suzie who helped them unknowingly with anything.
On the other hand, the duffer gang stayed in the mall to get ready to face the demon. And, then the physical incarnation of Mind Flayer with its assistant Billy entered the mall to attack them.
After some failed attempts, the group of children was easily defeated and Eleven was knocked unconscious. Billy offered her to the Mind Flayer as a gift.
But things took a turn when Eleven used her leftover powers to discover a beautiful childhood memory of Billy inside his mind where he is at the beach with his late mother. Eleven also saw him fight against the Mind Flayer internally and finally, he sacrificed himself to the Mind Flayer to save Eleven. Man! I have to admit what a character development Billy had in just a single season!
Anyway, back to the underground, Hopper & Joyce were attacked by the Russians while they were attempting to close the gate. Hopper fought with an enforcer and led him near the machine by which the gate was opened to give Joyce time to close the gate. Then, unfortunately, there was no way Hopper could get away from that place so he sacrificed himself along with killing the enforcer so that Joyce can close the gate. After that, Joyce closed the gate and the Mind Flayer was also destroyed just after killing Billy.
After these tragic events, we saw in the final scenes of Stranger Things Season 3 that Joyce & her family moved out of Hawkins to Cali, taking Eleven with them to stay out of the awfulness of all these events and to live a new normal peaceful life. Before going with the Byers, Eleven sobbed in the grief of the late Hopper while reading his letter in which he wrote previously to suggest Eleven limit her making out with Mike. However, we now have known that Hopper is not dead apparently as we have seen in the teaser of Stranger Things Season 4. Anyway, then the Byers family went away and the Stranger Things Season 3 ends here.
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Therefore, this is the Stranger Things Season 3 recap that you needed to refresh yourself again in order to enjoy season 4 without any confusion. Just like you, we also can’t wait for May 27 when the first volume of Stranger Things Season 4 will arrive on Netflix. Let’s wait for more mysteries, surprises, thrills, and adventures of the Upside Down. Anyway, we hope that you have loved reading this recap of Stranger Things Season 3 and found it helpful enough. If it really so then don’t hesitate to express your valuable thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks for visiting and appreciating our work.