Stranger Things Season 4 Timespan Confusion, Explained
The fourth and latest installment of Netflix's series Stranger Things was released in May of this year. As expected, the two-volume season did not disappoint, and as usual, the ending of the season sent fans online in a frenzy to discuss what took place and what they believe is still to come.
In the case of Stranger Things, it is common for small details and clues to be missed in all the excitement and action that takes place. The Duffer Brothers are notorious for their brilliant Easter Eggs hidden throughout the show, and in season 4 they included many, many references to classic horror movies that they enjoyed growing up. Deciphering the clues they leave can take a while, but in the end, the pieces usually fit together and make sense. However, fans are battling to make sense of one major part of season 4.
There appears to be some major confusion surrounding the timespan of season 4. Some things make sense, and the timespan is definitely over just a few days, but fans seem to be battling to determine exactly how long certain events took.
This confusion is probably due to the season being split into different plotlines, making it hard to keep track of time for fans. To break it down, the fourth season is set in March 1986, which is 8 months after the events of season 3. The first plotline is set in Hawkins and revolves around the leader of the Hellfire Club, Eddie Munson, who is accused of murders he did not commit. Most of the Hawkins gang are a part of this sequence of events and try to help prove that Eddie is innocent, eventually discovering that the killings were by Vecna, a powerful evil being.
At the same time in the second plot line, Mike travels to California to visit Eleven, Will, and Jonathan. After learning of the events taking place in Hawkins, Eleven agrees to go with Dr. Bremmer and Sam Owens to a secret facility in the hopes of regaining her powers but ends up being held captive. The boys make it their mission to track her down and rescue her.
The final plot line follows Joyce and Murray who travel to Russia to rescue Hopper after learning that he is possibly alive and being held in a Soviet prison camp where captives are forced to fight Demodogs.
With the plot jumping so frequently between different characters and locations, it's understandable that there is so much confusion around the timespan. After much debate online, fans have been able to conclude that the events of season 4 take place over a week, from March 21st to March 29th, with the day of the 28th being skipped as the epilogue fast-forwards to the next day. Although others disagree, saying that the dates are actually earlier in March, the majority of fans agree on the initial timeline and can only hope that the Duffer Brothers will take to Twitter to clear the confusion.