The first volume of "Stranger Things" Season 4 ended with a jolt that reverberated throughout the Internet (what's a vecuna?). The Netflix hit left fans with a few cliffhangers while they wait for the July rerun. Here's what the ending of the first volume left each member of the Hawkins gang with.

In Season 4, Eleven struggles with his self-image and questions whether he is a hero or a monster capable of gruesome acts (something foretold in flashbacks at the beginning of the season). There is also an important stand-alone adventure in which he is tricked by scientists Dr. Owens and Dr. Brenner into reliving his time in Hawkins' lab. The purpose of immersing himself in the past as one of "Dad's" subjects is to relearn how to use his powers to take on the season's villain, Vecna. He suffered a stroke-like injury during a battle at the Star Court in Season 3, which caused his brain to forget how to access his powers.

Throughout the new experiment, Elle befriended an orderly who told her some of the secrets Brenner had kept from her, including the first subject in the history of the experiment, Number One. The orderly, who became close to Eleven because she was the most powerful test subject, tricked her into removing the chip implanted in her skin. He was a man named Henry Creel, who had come to Brenner after killing his parents. He was the one who slaughtered the lab's children and attendants in revenge.

Wang believes himself to be an apex predator and wants to exterminate the human race because it would upset the balance of the world. He asks Elle to join him, but she refuses and defeats him in a psychic versus psychic standoff. In a way that answers the world-building question of the entire show, Elle throws Wan into the Upside Down and opens the first gate at Hawkins. Now Wan/Henry Creel has become Vecna, and he opens a gate around Hawkins to unleash the Upside-Down monsters and destroy the world.

This confrontation is the last we see of Elle, and she remains in the experiment of living in the past. Whether remembering this battle and learning the truth about Vecna will help her regain her power in the real world will be seen in Volume 2. We can also expect a big battle between the two strongmen in the finale of Volume 2.

Mike, the Byers brothers, and Jonathan's new (and hilarious) friend Argyle are caught in the crossfire of a government faction that believes it is actually Elle who is killing teenagers in Hawkins. With the help of an agent, they escape the firefight and receive a hint from a dying man who tells them where Elle is in the bunker. The boys on the run need a computer, so they head to Salt Lake City to hire Susie, Dustin's girlfriend and a fan of "The Neverending Story" (opens in new tab). She finds out that the bunker is in Nevada, and the final shot of this group shows them heading to find Eleven and hopefully bring her back to Hawkins. Also, Mike and Elle have a big fight and he apologizes and maybe actually wants to tell her he loves her (a refreshing teen-level issue for the show).

Throughout the season, the remaining Hawkins gang members in Hawkins investigate Vecna and make sure D&D leader Eddie Munson (open in new tab) is not falsely arrested for a murder in town. The mission lands the group's teen contingent, plus Eddie, in the Upside Down after they are sucked into one of Vecna's new gates under Lover's Lake.

While the teens are looking for a way out, we learn tons of new details about the mystical dimension. The Upside Down has copies of everything in the real world, but when Nancy looks for her weapon stash in the mirror in her room, it's not there. There is also old wallpaper in her room, an old stuffed animal she gave away, and her diary has no entries after November 6, 1983. The exact date is when Eleven first made contact with the dimension, and may now be trapped in the past in some way.

The foursome eventually use Will's light manipulation tricks to signal the young kids in the real world by having Dustin use the lightbright to spell out letters. He directs them to the first gate Bekna created when the monster killed cheerleader Chrissy in Eddie's trailer. Robin and Eddie go through the gate, but Nancy falls into a trance before they get there. Vecna takes aim at her and channels her guilt over Barb's death.

Volume 1 ends with Nancy still in Vecna's trance and Steve placing her body in the Upside Down. For those worried that the super sleuth may not make it out alive, there is a great theory that Robin saves her when she sees Nancy's favorite cassette tape while snooping around Nancy's room in episode 4. If Nancy comes out of her trance, she could enter Vecna's mind (the red smoke area) through the same back door as Max and tell the crew all about Vecna being Henry Creel, since she saw the whole backstory.

Max, Lucas, and Dustin are dealing with the police (and their ultimately attentive parents) on the surface while the older kids are stuck in the Upside Down. After Erica figures out that they are obviously lying, they fill her in and get help from another very smart mind, prompting them to the realization that Becna is killing them to make a strong spiritual connection with the teens and rip a hole between dimensions and open more gates. This great discovery, plus helping them find another gate out of the Upside Down, is a major showcase for the kids in Episode 7.

(Also, a shout out to Max, who didn't do much in the finale but was the season's MVP. Sadie Sink's performance was amazing and Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" topped the streaming charts. It's all great stuff.)

The faction not dealing with some element of Vecna's plan in Season 4 is the adults, who are focused on getting Hopper out of a secret Russian prison. Joyce and Murray deal with a number of things in the first volume, including somehow coming up with a $40,000 ransom, meeting a smuggler in Alaska, being betrayed by that smuggler, taking him down in a moving plane, and surviving the subsequent plane crash. They finally reach the prison, where they witness Hopper and the other prisoners being preyed upon by demogorgons.

Fortunately, Hopper has plenty of experience defeating monsters, and he ignites his spear with some alcohol and a lighter. While he is holding off the demogorgon, Murray and Joyce take over the prison's control room and open the door so that Hopper and his former guard Enzo can escape. The final scene depicts an emotional reunion between Hopper and Joyce.

There is not much to theorize about their story in Volume II other than the question of how on earth they will escape the Soviet Union and return to Hawkins. However, the Russians' involvement in the storyline is still a huge question mark, especially what they plan to do with the demogorgon they captured outside of the prison fight. The teaser at the end of the first volume shows Hopper in front of a tank carrying a strange creature and what appears to be a mini-tornado; the tank is also seen in the last teaser of the second volume, which shows Hopper in front of a tank with a strange creature on it and what appears to be a mini-tornado.