Stranger Things #401 Chapter One: The Hellfire Club Teleplay

Inside “The Hellfire Club”

A masterclass in cross-cut stakes: one town, three arenas, and a clock you can’t outrun.

The Stranger Things #401 Chapter One: The Hellfire Club teleplay runs three story engines in parallel and keeps tightening the bolts. In the cold open, Brenner’s controlled world collapses in minutes, ending on a chilling image of young Eleven, blood-smeared and ferocious, standing alone among the dead.

In the daylight world, the social map of Hawkins shifts fast: pep rallies, championship pressure, and Hellfire’s “Cult of Vecna” finale on the same night. Eddie refuses to postpone, declares “This is my year. Eighty-six,” and turns the outsiders into a true club, not a consolation prize. Meanwhile in California, Joyce is grinding through telemarketing when a battered parcel arrives: a creepy Russian doll, stamped and traveled, and very much not a coincidence.

The climax is pure Stranger Things rhythm: the basketball game and the D & D roll cut together like destiny. Erica steps in, drops a natural twenty, and for a second it feels like the kids can win by sheer nerve.

Then the episode yanks the lights out. Chrissy’s visions turn into a full nightmare, and a humanoid monster finally makes contact in a scene that plays like a curse with stage directions.

If you want the blueprint for how this episode balances teen comedy, small-town politics, and supernatural horror without dropping a plate, this teleplay is it.