The Upside Down is coming for you. With just one week until the highly anticipated return of Stranger Things, “Seven Stranger Days” takes you behind the scenes and inside the lives of your Hawkins favorites with insight from the cast, the crew and even the Duffer brothers. Check back daily to secure your spot in the Hellfire Club — this is one ticking clock you won’t want to run from.

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November 6, 1983, is a day that will live in infamy in Hawkins, Indiana. That fateful evening when Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) and his bowl haircut went missing changed the humble Midwestern town forever. Tortured police chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour) is stirred from his morning of “coffee and contemplation” to help Will’s mom, Joyce (Winona Ryder), find her son... by speaking to him through Christmas lights. With the help of Eggo-loving “superhero” Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Will’s friends back home, the search unlocks Hawkins’ deepest secret: Another town filled with monsters, spores and Demogorgons (charmingly known as the Upside Down) exists beneath the sleepy Indiana burb. For three seasons, we’ve watched Will and his friends grow up, become pretty damn good babysitters and face foes ranging from your typical corrupt mayor to the freakish Mind Flayer. Ahead of the Season 4, Volume 1 premiere of Stranger Things on May 27, we’re breaking down everything you need to remember about Hawkins, from A to Z.

A

America (“You can’t spell America without Erica”) You don’t want to mess with Lucas Sinclair’s (Caleb McLaughlin) precocious younger sister, Erica (Priah Ferguson). She calls it like she sees it and drives a hard bargain — especially when Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) enlist her help against the Russians in Season 3. As they bribe her with ice cream — she requests an endless supply from Scoops Ahoy — Dustin questions her patriotism. She replies with the incredibly apt, “You can’t spell America without Erica,” and from there, the beloved Scoops Troop is born — and the Russians are (temporarily) defeated.

Curtis Baker/Netflix

B

Barb We first meet Barbara “Barb” Holland (Shannon Purser) in Season 1. A close friend of Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), Barb feels like she’s being left behind when Nancy starts dating the popular and pretty Steve. Then, one night at a party, Barb really is deserted. After accidentally cutting herself, the teen sits on the pool’s diving board, where her blood drips into the water and attracts the Demogorgon (a monster from the Upside Down; more on that later). With Nancy, ahem, otherwise engaged, there’s no one there to save Barb, and the creature drags her into the Upside Down and kills her. In Season 2, Barb’s parents hire private investigator Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman) to try to find their beloved daughter. Murray works with Nancy and Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) to uncover the role that Hawkins National Laboratory played in Barb’s death, finally giving her the justice she deserved. #JusticeForBarb

C

Caleb McLaughlin The young actor portrays Lucas Sinclair, a core member of our favorite supernatural-battling teenage crew. With his exceptional spying and sleuthing abilities, Lucas has proven himself time and again to be a perfect ranger for the gang, always doing his best to stay one step ahead of the horrific (and constant) dangers that plague Hawkins. In Season 2, he develops a romantic relationship with Max (Sadie Sink) shortly after her arrival in town, which quickly descends into rocky territory when she ditches him to hang out with El. But by the Season 3 finale, they all team up once again in the singular mission to defeat the Mind Flayer. As Season 4 picks up six months later, we’ll catch up with Lucas as he starts high school and discovers another layer of dangers inside his town — perhaps more sinister than anything he’s seen yet.

READ MORE: ‘Stranger Things’ Cast Teases ‘Terrifying Threat’ at Season 4 Premiere

D

Demogorgon The demon lord Demogorgon is one of the most fearsome creatures in Dungeons & Dragons, making it the perfect enemy for a game run by Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) in his parents’ basement. The same night the Demogorgon defeats Will’s character in Mike’s D&D campaign, Will is abducted by a fearsome monster and taken to the Upside Down. Mike and the rest of Will’s friends begin referring to the bloodthirsty creature as the Demogorgon, kicking off a connection between the show’s antagonist and enemies from the fantasy role-playing game that’s continued throughout the series.

E

Eleven We dread to think what kind of mess Hawkins would be in without Eleven there to save the day. Again and again and again. Taken by Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) as a baby and raised in Hawkins Lab, she goes by “Eleven” based on the 011 tattoo on her arm. Also known as Jane Ives or El, Eleven is the gang’s entry point into the Upside Down, as she can open and close the gates leading to Hawkins’ alternate dimension and boasts telekinetic and telepathic powers. However, Season 3’s showdown with the Mind Flayer renders her powerless, and she moves to California with the Byers family after her adoptive father Hopper is presumed dead.

F

Finn Wolfhard The Canadian actor plays one of the prominent Stranger Things kids: Mike Wheeler. Mike is a kind and compassionate guy who would do anything for his friends and never misses a Dungeons & Dragons night. He’s emotional yet understanding and immediately forms a strong connection with El upon their first meeting. The duo wind up dating (read: making out a lot) by Season 3. But Season 4 is set to put their relationship to the test, as El heads west with the Byers family and Mike stays put in Indiana.

G

Gaten Matarazzo The now 19-year-old takes on the role of lovable nerd Dustin Henderson. He is both smart and creative — two skills that are pretty handy when it comes to getting out of dangerous situations — and will stop at nothing to keep his friends safe. In Season 3, Dustin stumbles upon a dangerous threat when he accidentally intercepts a top-secret communication via a radio he built to stay in touch with his camp girlfriend Suzie (cue The NeverEnding Story). As trouble escalates, he becomes a key player in uncovering the truth about the Starcourt Mall. As the upcoming chapter gets underway, we’ll find Dustin joining the Hellfire Club at Hawkins High School and investigating the sinister and mysterious Creel House alongside his friends.

H

Hopper James “Jim” Hopper (David Harbour) is Eleven’s adoptive father and Joyce Byers’ current romantic interest. As the former Hawkins chief of police, Hopper’s been at the center of the mysteries surrounding the Upside Down for the entirety of Stranger Things. At the end of Season 3, we’re left thinking Hopper is dead, following the destruction of the Russian gate to the Upside Down that presides below the newly built Starcourt Mall. In Season 4, we’ll find out if Hopper survived the explosion that appeared to take his life and where he ended up if he did. From the trailer, it looks very snowy. 

READ MORE: Fans Will ‘Love to Hate’ New ‘Stranger Things’ Villain

I

“I dump your ass”  Mike Wheeler has been smitten with Eleven ever since he took her into his home and nicknamed her “El” back in Season 1. After she sacrifices herself for the gang at the end of the first season, he calls her every day for 353 days on his two-way radio hoping she’ll hear him (she does). Talk about devotion! The young couple finally go to the Snow Ball together once she returns for good in Season 2, but Hopper strongly urges Mike to keep his distance in Season 3. Sensing something’s off, El dishes the devastating blow of “I dump your ass.” They work things out in the end — maybe the Mind Flayer wasn’t all bad after all — but this breakup was a huge rupture in their relationship, one that may have ripple effects yet to be seen. 

Curtis Baker/Netflix

J

Joyce Byers Mom to Will and Jonathan, Joyce Byers is one of the fiercest residents of Hawkins. Case in point: She figures out how to communicate with Will through Christmas lights while he’s stuck in the Upside Down and sets out to rescue him. She also helps exorcise the Mind Flayer from her son after its minions kill her loving boyfriend Bob Newby (Sean Astin) in Season 2. While she might want a normal life, Joyce is always on alert for new supernatural threats. In Season 3, she notices that her magnets are losing strength, leading Hopper to discover that Russians have infiltrated Hawkins to try to access the Upside Down. Imagine getting all that just from some fridge decorations? After Hopper’s apparent death, Joyce adopts Eleven and moves her family to California to get away from the painful memories and horror of Hawkins.

K

Keery, Joe We’ll never not associate Joe Keery with Steve Harrington’s perfectly coiffed hair. We meet Steve in Season 1 when he and his beautiful mane are dating Nancy Wheeler, but he really secures his fan-favorite status when he becomes a member of “the party” in Season 2. While joining forces with Mike, Dustin and the rest of the gang, Steve pulls double duty as both a teammate and a begrudging babysitter. In Season 3, Steve works at Scoops Ahoy inside the Starcourt Mall alongside Robin and ends up uncovering a secret Russian plot to open up a portal to the Upside Down — you know, just a regular day at any summer job. When we last saw him, he was starting a new gig at the video store with Robin, but we’re sure late VHS returns won’t be the worst horror he’ll face in the upcoming chapter.

The Evolution Of Steve 'The Hair' Harrington In ‘Stranger Things’

L

Lifeguard  When the summer heat starts sizzling, the Hawkins Community Pool is an oasis for anyone looking to cool off. But it’s also the domain of lifeguard Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery), who rules the roost while the mature women of Hawkins ogle his bare chest, rippling muscles and soft curls. He manages to seduce Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono), Mike and Nancy’s mom, for some “private” swimming lessons, but their rendezvous never comes to pass. Thanks to the Mind Flayer, there’s no breaststroke for Mrs. W. Aside from bringing Hawkins’ older ladies to the pool, Billy is the resident Hawkins heartthrob. Unfortunately, he’s also quite volatile, an extreme firecracker and abusive to his stepsister Max. He may be the charming and promiscuous bad boy, but he has his own trauma to work through, rooted in the physical abuse inflicted on him by his father. While he manages to make amends for some of his past behavior by sacrificing himself to defeat the Mind Flayer in Season 3, his presence lingers in Season 4, as Max struggles to cope with his death.

M

Max Mayfield Max Mayfield — known as MADMAX at the arcade due to her killer high scores — makes her first appearance in Season 2, when she moves to Hawkins after her mother remarries. Forced to live with her volatile stepbrother, Billy Hargrove (RIP), Max often keeps to herself, turning to skateboarding and video games instead of socializing — that is, until she gets swept up with our favorite Demogorgon-fighting crew. It takes a minute for her to get down with the supernatural vibes of Hawkins, but soon enough she’s battling the Mind Flayer alongside her new friends, while also finding time to develop a romance with Lucas. In Season 3, Max and Eleven team up when El’s in desperate need of some girl talk. They eventually join forces with the boys again once they realize that the Mind Flayer is possessing Billy and forcing him to do its evil bidding. The upcoming chapter finds Max mourning the death of her stepbrother and most likely running into some supernatural danger herself — she is in high school now, after all. 

N

The NeverEnding Story When Dustin spends a month at camp and comes home talking about his brilliant new girlfriend, his friends think he’s making her up. But Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo) is so real that Dustin is even able to contact her via ham radio to enlist her help in cracking a Russian code. Before she’ll lend her genius, however, Suzie insists Dustin show his love by joining her in singing the theme song for The NeverEnding Story, a 1984 film about a boy sucked into the world of a fantasy book. The duet may have helped save the world, but that doesn’t stop Dustin’s friends from making fun of him for it.

SEE PHOTOS: From Erica to Eleven, This Is How Old the ‘Stranger Things’ Kids Are Now

O

Owens, Sam  Dr. Sam Owens (Paul Reiser) succeeds Dr. Brenner as the head of Hawkins Lab in Season 2, thereby inheriting the responsibility to contain the spread of the Upside Down. Yay, promotions! Joyce brings Will to see Dr. Owens for help with Will’s PTSD (and possession), and they realize there’s a hive mind connecting the Mind Flayer to its hosts — including Will. By the end of the season, Owens helps save Joyce, Will, Mike and Hopper (we miss you, Bob!) from Demodogs and organizes Hopper’s formal adoption of Eleven. He also covers up the gate below Starcourt Mall at the end of Season 3 and relocates the Byers family to California. Busy dude. 

P

Papa Before he arrives in Hawkins in Season 1, Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) worked for years for the CIA on Project MKUltra at the town’s National Laboratory, exposing test subjects to extreme conditions in an attempt to find people with psychic powers. When one of his subjects, Terry Ives (Aimee Mullins), becomes pregnant, Brenner steals her daughter and renames her Eleven, subjecting her to the same cruel experiments. He plays the role of Eleven’s father, having her call him “Papa” during her years at the lab. When Brenner is attacked by the Demogorgon in the Season 1 finale, it seems likely he’s dead... but stranger things than survival have happened in Hawkins. 

Q

Quinn, Joseph  Behold, your Dungeon Master. Joseph Quinn joins Season 4 of Stranger Things as Eddie Munson, Hawkins High’s resident head of the Hellfire Club — the school club dedicated to all things Dungeons & Dragons. Rocking long, dark locks and rings on nearly every finger, Eddie seems to run the Hellfire Club with a metal flair, especially since, in the trailer, we see him jam out on his guitar on the roof of a home in the Upside Down. In the clip, he also rides his bike through Hawkins’ alternate dimension with Nancy, Steve and Robin. To what end? We’ll see on May 27.

R

Robin Buckley Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) is a Scoops Ahoy employee in Season 3 with a wit drier than anything her BFF Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) can cook up. She’s also an indispensable part of the Hawkins clan, helping to crack a Russian code that leads to the discovery of a gate to the Upside Down underneath the Starcourt Mall. Despite her initial frustration with Steve, Robin eventually grows to enjoy his company and is fully integrated into the Hawkins gang. A scrappy, sarcastic girl, she lets Steve down gently when he tries to admit his feelings for her and also comes out to him as gay. She and Steve form a tight bond, often going to each other for romantic advice about their crushes. In Season 4, while working at Hawkins’ Family Video rental store, Robin joins her new friends as they investigate the terrifying new enemy Vecna.

S

Soviet We have our first glimpse at the Russians’ arrival in Hawkins in Season 3, when they open their own gate to the Upside Down and capture a Demogorgon. This subplot is set to continue in Season 4, as it appears something is brewing at a secret Soviet facility on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Considering the entire experimental program that involved Eleven was expanded as a response to growing tensions during the Cold War, it’s fair to say that the Soviet Union has been a character of its own throughout Stranger Things. 

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T

The Hawkins Post  The Post is a trustworthy, local source of journalism. Well, at least to editor in chief Tom Holloway it is. Nancy and Jonathan join the paper as interns in Season 3 but find that the newsroom is rife with misogyny. Nancy, as the only young-woman journalist, has a great summer fetching sandwiches for her co-workers. But she also finds a way to flex her investigative skills, as she looks into a lead that helps her connect clues about the Mind Flayer and her “Flayed” (aka possessed) co-workers. To be honest, though, Tom and the bigoted Bruce are kinda improved by the possession.

U

Upside Down It’s impossible to enter the universe of Stranger Things without contemplating the existence of the Upside Down, an alternate dimension that exists parallel to our own world and is controlled by the Mind Flayer. The Upside Down’s gate is accidentally opened in Season 1 when Eleven, an experimental subject at Hawkins Lab, makes contact with a Demogorgon via her supernatural powers. Through the past few seasons, we’ve seen a number of characters travel to the Upside Down and back — most notably Will Byers, who spends several days there, making contact with his mother, Joyce, by manipulating the electricity in his home. (Christmas lights letter board, anyone?) As time goes on, others want to get their hands on the energy that can be harnessed in the Upside Down, and as we head into the final chapters, it’ll be up to our favorite heroes to close the gates once and for all. We hope...

V

Vecna  One of the most notorious villains in Dungeons & Dragons, Vecna has been part of the game since 1976. The wizard Vecna used his magic to achieve immortality by becoming an undead creature known as a lich. While he was thought to have been destroyed long ago, he was able to obtain enough power to become a demigod. Vecna appears in Season 4 as both the final enemy in a game run by the Hellfire Club and a monster who serves as the season’s primary antagonist.

W

Will Byers Will Byers throws Hawkins into a supernatural tailspin when he disappears into the Upside Down in Season 1. Throughout the entire first chapter, his friends and family work tirelessly to rescue him, making contact across dimensions through flickering electricity. He’s eventually rescued and brought back to the right side of the world, but he’s forever changed by his time in the Upside Down and continues to be haunted by visions and creatures. With the help of his friends, Will and the others defeat the Mind Flayer in Season 3, after which he escapes to California with Joyce, Jonathan and Eleven. But since this is Stranger Things, we’re sure West Coast living isn’t going to be all sunshine and good vibes.

X

(E)xperiments  Plenty of strange things have gone down at Hawkins National Laboratory, headed by Dr. Martin Brenner. During Brenner’s time there, under the watchful eye of the US Department of Energy, he and his staff looked to expand the government’s scientific knowledge to gain an upper hand in the Cold War. After the fateful MKUltra experiments, Brenner raised several test subjects at Hawkins Lab, including Eleven. All the test subjects possess special abilities like El’s and were referred to by numbers instead of names. The children lived rigorous, structured lives at the lab, punctuated by lessons, training and the occasional bit of free time. They were pitted against one another constantly to determine who was the most powerful. Could Season 4 bring us more insight into El’s life in the lab and the other numbered children she grew up with? 

Y

Yertle the Turtle Yertle is Dustin’s pet turtle that he removes from his little terrarium when he brings home Dart in Season 2. “Is Dart another cute reptile?” we hear you ask. Not quite. In fact, Dart ends up being a baby Demogorgon with a taste for cat. “Sorry, Yertle, temporary eviction,” Dustin explains in the third episode, “The Pollywog.” Viewers were a little worried about the turtle’s fate when he wasn’t spotted on-screen again — an understandable concern, given what happened to Dustin’s family cat Mews (sorry, little buddy). But the Stranger Things writers’ room put an end to the mystery in a tweet a few years ago, sharing that Yertle the Turtle “is safe. He’s here with me. We’re scrolling through Twitter together. He’s trolling cyber-bullies. It’s a great time.” Phew! 

Z

Zany Out of the entire Hawkins gang, who can juggle sharp investigative skills with a working knowledge of the Russian language and conspiracy theories? The zany Murray Bauman can! The quirky yet earnest investigator steals the show every time he appears on-screen. But while he’s more than capable of executing a plan — whether that means offering love advice to teenagers like Nancy and Jonathan or helping the Hawkins kids out with their problems — he’s also the most absurd character you’ll find as far as the Stranger Things cast goes. Just when you think he doesn’t get any wilder, he pulls a crazy stunt you don’t see coming. There’s never a dull moment with Murray around, and since we know very little about him, we’re ready for a zany spin-off!

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