No . overall No. in season Title Directed by Written by Original release date `` Chapter One : The Vanishing of Will Byers '' The Duffer Brothers The Duffer Brothers July 15 , 2016 ( 2016 - 07 - 15 ) On November 6 , 1983 , in a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory in the town of Hawkins , Indiana , a scientist is attacked by an unseen creature . While bicycling home from a Dungeons & Dragons session with his friends , 12 - year - old Will Byers encounters the creature and vanishes . The next day , a buzz - cut young girl wearing a hospital gown steals food from a local diner . The owner , Benny , takes pity on her and feeds her before calling social services . From a tattoo on her arm , he learns that her name is Eleven . A woman posing as a social worker arrives and murders Benny . Armed men search the diner for Eleven , but she escapes . Will 's mother Joyce believes she hears Will 's voice on a distorted phone call , but her phone short circuits . Will 's friends Mike , Dustin , and Lucas search for Will in the woods and find Eleven . `` Chapter Two : The Weirdo on Maple Street '' The Duffer Brothers The Duffer Brothers July 15 , 2016 ( 2016 - 07 - 15 ) The boys bring Eleven to Mike 's house , where she sleeps in the basement . The next day , Mike nicknames her `` El '' . She says that `` bad people '' are looking for her and refuses to meet Mike 's parents . Scientists from the laboratory find a substance oozing from the walls of Joyce 's home . At Mike 's home , Eleven recognizes and points out Will in a photo . Dustin and Lucas want to inform Mike 's parents about Eleven , but she uses psychokinesis to stop them . While searching for Will , Mr. Clarke , the boys ' science teacher , discovers a scrap of a hospital gown outside the laboratory grounds . Nancy goes with her friend Barb to a party at her boyfriend Steve 's house . Will 's brother Jonathan investigates the woods where Will went missing . Hearing screaming , he runs to help but finds only Steve , Nancy , and their friends roughhousing around Steve 's swimming pool . He secretly photographs them . Barb , left alone by the poolside , vanishes . Joyce receives another call from Will , hears music from his room , and sees something coming through the wall . `` Chapter Three : Holly , Jolly '' Shawn Levy Jessica Mecklenburg July 15 , 2016 ( 2016 - 07 - 15 ) Barb wakes up in an empty and decaying pool . She screams for Nancy and attempts to climb out but is dragged down by something unseen . Joyce strings Christmas lights around her home to talk to Will , who can turn them on and off . Hawkins Lab director Dr. Martin Brenner allows Hopper to view the lab 's security camera footage . Hopper realizes it is fake . He and his deputies research Hawkins Lab , Brenner , and a woman named Terry Ives who claimed her daughter was taken by Brenner . Eleven has a flashback in which Brenner , whom she calls `` Papa , '' has her put in solitary confinement for refusing to telekinetically harm a cat . Nancy worries about Barb , who is missing . Steve and his friends discover Jonathan 's photographs . They destroy them and his camera . Nancy recovers a photo of Barb by the poolside and returns to Steve 's house to search for her . Nancy finds Barb 's car and sees the creature in the woods . Joyce establishes a code with Will using the lights , which he uses to tell her that he is alive but unsafe . He tells Joyce to run as a creature begins to climb through her wall . Will 's apparent body is discovered in the water at a quarry . `` Chapter Four : The Body '' Shawn Levy Justin Doble July 15 , 2016 ( 2016 - 07 - 15 ) Eleven proves to the boys that Will is still alive by making contact through Mike 's walkie - talkie . Joyce goes to the morgue to view the body and refuses to believe it is Will . The boys give Eleven a makeover so they can sneak her into school . Joyce hears Will in her living room wall . Tearing away the wallpaper , she sees him behind a membrane . At school , Eleven uses Mr. Clarke 's ham radio to channel Will talking to his mother . Joyce demolishes the wall with an axe but reveals only her front porch . Nancy discovers a figure behind Barb in Jonathan 's photo . Jonathan realizes that the figure matches his mother 's description of the creature : a humanoid figure with long arms and no face . Nancy tells the police about her missing friend and subsequently admits to her mother that she slept with Steve . When she tells Steve about the police , she is irritated that he cares only about not getting in trouble with his father . Hopper confronts the state trooper who found Will 's body and beats him until he admits he was ordered to lie . Hopper goes to the morgue and finds that Will 's supposed body is a dummy . He breaks into Hawkins laboratory . 5 5 `` Chapter Five : The Flea and the Acrobat '' The Duffer Brothers Alison Tatlock July 15 , 2016 ( 2016 - 07 - 15 ) Will 's father Lonnie assures Joyce her experiences are hallucinations . Hopper discovers a portal in the basement of the lab but is knocked out by the lab 's guards . He wakes at home and discovers a hidden microphone . Sheriff 's deputies inform Hopper that Barb 's car was found , but Hopper finds the state 's involvement suspicious . The boys determine Will is trapped in an alternate dimension Eleven calls the `` Upside Down , '' and he is being pursued by a monster similar to a Demogorgon . After Will 's funeral , science teacher Mr. Clarke tells the boys that a high - energy spacetime tear could create a passage between dimensions . Using their compasses , they search for a disruption in the Earth 's electromagnetic field . Eleven remembers encountering the creature during a lab experiment , and afraid , she redirects the compasses . Lucas notices and confronts her . Mike defends her , he and Lucas fight , and Eleven telekinetically flings Lucas off Mike . While Dustin and Mike tend to the unconscious Lucas , Eleven disappears . In the woods , Nancy and Jonathan find a wounded deer . The creature drags the deer away , and Nancy follows the trail of blood to a portal to the Upside Down . She crawls through and discovers the creature feasting upon the deer . She snaps a twig and draws the creature 's attention . 6 6 `` Chapter Six : The Monster '' The Duffer Brothers Jessie Nickson - Lopez July 15 , 2016 ( 2016 - 07 - 15 ) Jonathan pulls Nancy back through the portal and saves her from the monster . Later , Steve sees them together through her bedroom window and assumes they are dating . Nancy and Jonathan resolve to kill the monster and purchase supplies from an army surplus store . During a fist fight with Steve , Jonathan inadvertently assaults a police officer and is arrested . Joyce and Hopper track down Terry Ives , who is catatonic and tended by her sister Becky . Becky explains that Terry underwent Project MKUltra testing while unknowingly pregnant ; she believed her daughter Jane was kidnapped by Brenner at birth . Joyce and Hopper conclude Eleven is likely Jane . Eleven shoplifts Eggo waffles . She recalls being asked to contact the monster and accidentally opening the portal to the Upside Down in the laboratory basement . While searching for Eleven , Mike and Dustin are ambushed by school bullies Troy and James . Troy holds Dustin at knifepoint and demands Mike make a suicidal jump into the lake where Will 's body was discovered . Mike jumps but is levitated to safety by Eleven , who scares away the bullies . Lucas realizes agents from the laboratory are heading to Mike 's house . 7 7 `` Chapter Seven : The Bathtub '' The Duffer Brothers Justin Doble July 15 , 2016 ( 2016 - 07 - 15 ) Lucas warns Mike via walkie - talkie that government agents are en route . Mike , Dustin , and Eleven flee . Eleven telekinetically flips a van that blocks their path , and the kids escape . Lucas reconciles with Mike and Eleven . Joyce and Hopper are called to the police station because of Jonathan 's assault . Jonathan and Nancy reveal their knowledge of the monster to Joyce and Hopper . The group contacts Mike and his friends and they rendezvous . They ask Eleven to search for Will and Barb , but her earlier feats have left her too weak to find them . To amplify Eleven 's powers , they break into the middle school and build a sensory - deprivation tank . Eleven finds Barb 's corpse with a slug - like creature crawling out of her mouth . With Joyce 's help , she finds Will alive , hiding in the Upside Down `` Castle Byers , '' his backyard fort . Hopper and Joyce break into Hawkins Laboratory but are apprehended by security guards . Nancy and Jonathan resolve to kill the monster and steal their hunting gear back from the police station . In the Upside Down , the monster breaks into the fort where Will is hiding . 8 8 `` Chapter Eight : The Upside Down '' The Duffer Brothers Story by : Paul Dichter Teleplay by : The Duffer Brothers July 15 , 2016 ( 2016 - 07 - 15 ) Hopper gives up Eleven 's location so that he and Joyce can enter the Upside Down . They find Will unconscious in the Upside - Down town library . They pull a tendril out of his throat , perform CPR , and revive him . Nancy and Jonathan booby - trap the Byers ' home , then cut their hands to attract the monster with their blood . Steve arrives , intending to apologize to Jonathan about their fight , but the monster attacks . The monster springs the trap but escapes back to the Upside Down . Eleven and the boys hide in the middle school . Mike asks Eleven to a school dance , the Snow Ball , and kisses her . The military storms the school to re-capture Eleven , but she kills them and collapses . As Brenner cradles her , the monster attacks , apparently killing him . The boys hide Eleven in a classroom . The monster corners them , but Eleven pins it against a wall . She says goodbye to Mike , disintegrates the monster , and vanishes . Will is hospitalized and reunited with his mother , brother , and friends . Hopper is reluctantly picked up by a black car . One month later , Nancy and Steve are back together , and both are friends with Jonathan . Hopper leaves Eggo waffles and other food in a box in the woods . Will coughs up a slug - like creature and has a vision of the world as the Upside Down , but he hides this from his family .

Question: who died in the first episode of stranger things
Answer: Benny