Stranger Things released its latest season in two parts. Volume 1, which consists of seven episodes, came to Netflix on May 27, 2022. The second half was released on Friday, July 1, 2022, with two episodes to wrap up the season. The first two episodes and the last three episodes were written and directed by the seriesâ creators The Duffer Brothers. If you havenât watched any of Season 4 yet at this point, be warned that this article may contain some spoilers pertaining to Volume 1.
With everything going on in this season, keeping the newly introduced characters straight can get tricky. This article will help do the heavy lifting for you so you can keep âRunning Up That Hillâ.
Related:All Major âStranger Thingsâ Deaths (So Far), Ranked From Least to Most Heartbreaking
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Joesph Quinn as Eddie Munson
Eddie is the eccentric and enigmatic leader of âThe Hellfire Club,â the D&D group that Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) joined during their first year at Hawkins High School. Played by English actor Joesph Quinn, Eddie is determined to graduate, after being held back at least once or twice in previous years, but his true passion is his D&D campaign, in which he creates a villain named âVecna.â
After he witnesses the horrific possession and subsequent brutal murder of his classmate Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien), Eddie is the main suspect in the police investigation and is forced to go into hiding. Dustin and Max (Sadie Sink) are able to convince the rest of the gang of Eddieâs innocence as more bodies begin to pile up. He reluctantly follows them into the âUpside Downâ in order to find a way to defeat the one responsible for the deaths⊠Vecna.
Grace Van Dien as Chrissy Cunningham
Chrissy is on the Hawkins High School cheerleading squad and is dating basketball team captain, Jason Carver (Mason Dye). In contrast to her outwardly âperfectâ appearance, she has some serious internal struggles. Max overhears her throwing up in the school bathroom, implying that she may be pregnant. In addition to this, she begins to have visions of her mother attacking her about her weight.
Chrissy turns to Eddie Munson to purchase drugs to help deal with her anxiety over these waking nightmares she has been experiencing. She follows him back to his trailer home, where he lives with his uncle, in order to procure âsomething strongerâ than marijuana. Itâs there that she is possessed and killed by Vecna, becoming his first victim in this season.
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Mason Dye as Jason Carver
Played by Mason Dye (Teen Wolf), Jason Carver is the stereotypical âjockâ type. Heâs a senior at Hawkins High and the captain of the championship-winning basketball team. He butts heads with Eddie at school because of their vastly differing personalities, but after Chrissyâs death, he becomes unhinged and starts a lynch mob to hunt down Eddie.
He convinces himself and others that Eddieâs âHellfire Clubâ is in fact a satanic cult, and is responsible for the several recent deaths in Hawkins. This not only increases the heat falling on Eddieâs shoulders, but also puts a target on the backs of other members of the club.
Eduardo Franco as Argyle
After Joyce (Winona Ryder) relocated to California with Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Will (Noah Schnapp), and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Jonathan becomes friends with Argyle. Played by Eduardo Franco (Booksmart), Argyle serves mostly as a comic relief character. He works as a delivery driver for Surfer Boy Pizza.
His personality contrasts with Jonathanâs quiet and shy demeanor, and he has been compared to Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) from the 1982 film Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Despite some of his stoner-based follies, he becomes an invaluable member of the gang as he ferries them around in his pizza delivery van.
Logan Riley Bruner as Fred Benson
Fred Benson, played by Logan Riley Bruner (Vox Lux) is Vecnaâs second victim. He works with Nancy on the Hawkins School Paper and joins her when she goes to investigate Chrissyâs death. Fred has unreciprocated feelings for Nancy, as he isnât shy about pointing out Jonathanâs perceived flaws, but ultimately he is respectful of her boundaries as a peer.
Vecna targets Fred because of his guilt over a car accident that happened the previous year, which resulted in the death of another boy and a scar on Fredâs face. After the car crash, instead of going to the police, he ran home and now harbors guilt and paranoia that everybody in town blames him for the death of the other boy.
When he and Nancy go to the trailer park, Vecna lures him into the woods, where he taunts him with horrifying images before eventually killing him in the same manner as Chrissy.
Related:11 'Stranger Things' Moments That Prove Joyce and Hopper Need to End Up Together
Elodie Grace Orkin as Angela
Angela (Elodie Grace Orkin) is a minor antagonist in this season. She is a popular girl that bullies Eleven in her new school. While her screen time is relatively brief, her role in the show serves as a catalyst for progressing the plot. After she pushes Eleven too far, embarrassing her in front of Mike, who is visiting for spring break, Eleven attacks her with a roller-skate, giving her a well-deserved concussion and broken nose.
Not only does this incident cause Eleven to question whether or not she is a âsuperheroâ or a âmonster,â but it also alerts the different government agencies to her new location in California after she is arrested for assault. Dr. Owensâ (Paul Reiser) team is able to reach her first, and they intercept Eleven on her way to juvenile detention. Owens is able to convince her to come with him in order to save Hawkins (and the world).
Robert Englund as Victor Creel
After Chrissyâs death and Eddieâs disappearance, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) decides to do some investigation around the trailer park where the death occurred. When she speaks with Eddieâs uncle, Wayne (Joel Stoffer), he reveals that this isnât the first time a murder like this has happened in Hawkins. He tells her about a man named Victor Creel (Robert Englund), who murdered his wife and two children in the same fashion back in 1959.
Nancy and Robin (Maya Hawke) manage to procure a visitation with Creel, who is currently a patient at the Pennhurst Mental Hospital. He explains to them that he believes the murders were supernatural in nature and that many strange occurrences began shortly after he and his family moved into the house inherited from his late uncle. After he reveals that he attempted to rejoin his deceased family by taking razor blades to his eyes, he is able to give Nancy and Robin a clue as to how they might be able to protect themselves from Vecna.
Tom Wlaschiha as Dmitri Antonov
Played by Tom Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones), Antonov, also known as âEnzo,â is Hopperâs (David Harbour) only hope to escape Kamchatka, a Russian gulag he is being detained at. As one of the guards, he begins to form a bond with Hopper, so he sends a cryptic message to Joyce to let her know that Hopper is still alive, and orchestrates a ransom for his release with a known smuggler.
When that goes south, he finds himself marked as a traitor and imprisoned in the same compound he formerly worked at. Together, he and Hopper have to find a way to escape before they are offered up as food for a Demogorgon in a gladiator-style arena.
Nikola ÄuriÄko as Yuri Ismaylov
Known as the âPeanut Butter Smuggler,â Yuri (Nikola ÄuriÄko) is enlisted by Dmitri âEnzoâ Antonov to assist with smuggling Hopper out of Russia and into Alaska after Hopper makes his first attempt to escape from Kamchatka. Joyce and Murray (Brett Gelman) arrange to meet him in Alaska at his outpost âYuriâs Fish and Fryâ with $40,000 for Hopperâs return but wind up getting drugged and kidnapped by Yuri.
He contacted the higher-ups at Kamchatka to inform them they have a corrupt guard (Enzo), and that he can also bring Joyce and Murray (who are wanted by the KGB after the events in Season 3) to them in exchange for a large bounty.
Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna/One/Henry
In the last episode of Volume 1, Vecna is revealed to be Henry Creel, the assumedly deceased son of Victor Creel. While Victor was convinced that a demon had possessed his new home, it turns out that it was Henry all along, displaying supernatural abilities. Played by Jamie Campbell Bower (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street), Henry/Vecna was taken in by Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) after the deaths of his family and his fatherâs incarceration.
In flashback scenes where Eleven is re-living her life at the Hawkins Laboratory, Henry is seen as a nameless orderly, offering her guidance and advice. He later reveals to her that he has a tattoo on his wrist similar to hers, that reads â001,â and convinces her that Brenner cannot be trusted. During her attempt to escape, she removes the implanted chip in his neck that inhibits his powers, setting him free to unleash his rage on the staff members and other children at the Hawkins Lab.
Volume 2 of Stranger Things Season 4 has been available on Netflix since July 1, so if you havenât gotten around to watching those last two episodes yet, itâs highly recommended that you do so before you accidentally stumble upon spoilers. The finale for the season really sets things up for a much darker, and much anticipated Season 5, which will begin its writing process next month, in August.