Season 5 of Stranger Things is almost here — and considering it’s been more than three years since we last checked in on Hawkins, no one can be blamed for forgetting exactly how chaotic Season 4 really was.

To fully prepare for Stranger Things Season 5, it's essential to revisit where the show left off back in 2022. At the start of Season 4, eight months after the Battle of Starcourt, Hawkins is still reeling,

It’s been three and a half years since the most recent season of “Stranger Things” kicked off in May 2022. The first episode of the hit series’ fifth and final installment — delayed by dual Hollywood strikes and the mounting production value of a show that’s ballooned from surprise breakout to blockbuster franchise — opens in the fall of 1987.

By the end of season four, the gang is all reunited in Hawkins. Joyce ( Winona Ryder) and Hopper (David) are back from Russia – where the former police sheriff had been imprisoned while presumed dead – and are finally an item, having confessed their feelings for one another.