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My dear readers,
If you're new to this series, hello! If you've read the other installments, welcome back! I so appreciate you being here:)
I've been working on this series since 2022, which was a minute ago, so I thought it might be helpful to begin with a recap of events featured in previous installments. Feel free to skip this page, if you don't need your memory jogged. And, it goes without saying but I'm saying it anyway, if you haven't read what's come before you'll be missing out on lots of story threads and character nuances. Up to you to decide whether or not you're okay with that!
Now, on to the recap:
DREAMIN' AGAIN features events of Season 1 while introducing my original MC, Julie Henderson, Dustin's older sister. She, Nancy, and Barb are the best of friends who get wrapped up in Upside Down business in tandem with the brothers. A romantic tension between Julie and Steve takes center stage, too. Though they share an instant attraction, Julie doesn't want to be just another notch in Steve's bedpost and is determined to keep him at arm's length. He's a persistent boy, though, and incredibly helpful in a fight against a demogorgon.
Also, Mr. Henderson haunts the narrative, as he was killed in 1982 in an accident at Hawkins National Laboratory. His loss left a gaping hole in his kids' lives, and we see how Julie grapples with that while trying to be the big sister the brothers need.
The gang is able to get Will back, but the girls lose Barb. They also believe they've lost El; however, an interaction between Julie and Hopper hints at hope for the girl still being among them.
AULD LANG SYNE is a brief, holiday interlude around Christmas and New Year's. This little snippet is meant to showcase more of the tension and budding romance between Julie and Steve with sweet moments as well as a NYE complication. You meet Julie and Dustin's grandparents, Gram and Grandad, who are fairly important secondary characters you'll see throughout the rest of the series.
With TIME IN A BOTTLE, I wanted to have some fun sharing scenes from what the summer of 1984 might have been like in Hawkins. Julie's summer job is to babysit for the Sinclairs, and, as you may expect, she does her fair share of hanging out with both Steve and Nancy. Julie has also been given permission, by Hopper, to secretly visit the cabin to socialize with Eleven and help the girl with her reading.
While at the cabin, Julie learns more about the accident that killed her father, and it kick-starts her own investigation into what really happened to him, which Hop isn't really happy about because he believes she should stay out of it. What she uncovers—paired with an incident with Dustin being brought to the Lab at the behest of Dr. Brenner—leads to a big revelation: the Henderson kids were exposed to MKUltra experimenting in utero, and it remains to be seen if that means they, too, have psychokinetic abilities of any kind.
As for Julie and Steve's friendship, this installment ends with a significant fight between them, where Julie reveals her feelings for him but still insists they can't be together because it won't end well. She asks that he give her some time and space.
So, in THESE DREAMS, it's the fall and the new school year has started. It's late October, and Julie and Steve haven't talked or hung out since their summer fight, which is really starting to weigh on her. Also weighing on her are the intense migraines she's experiencing. Add to it strange dreams she has of walking through and around the Upside Down, and she's got a lot on her mind. Oh, and she was able to work it out that an internship at the police station will count as credit hours for school, so she and Hop are able to, covertly, investigate her dad's accident together.
And then unfolds the events of Season 2. Plus: Julie and Steve finally get together, it's revealed the Henderson kids do have psychokinetic abilities (time travel included in that), and Julie has an interesting conversation with a man who seems to know a lot about those abilities and what's been happening in Hawkins. The thing is: who is he?
HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT is meant to be a peaceful time in the lives of our Hawkins gang before Season 3 wreaks havoc on them all. There's a chapter featuring Christmas and their Secret Santa gift exchange; there's a new hire, Officer Galle, at the station; Julie struggles in her training to get a good grip on her new-found powers; the upperclassmen go to prom; and Steve graduates! This is also the installment when Julie and Steve begin planning, just for fun, a roadtrip to end all roadtrips, which becomes a comfort activity for Steve in later installments.
PHOTOGRAPHS & MEMORIES tells the tale of Season 3, starting at the beginning of June on the first day of summer when Julie does something stupid and goes to the Lab because she thinks she'll uncover more answers to the mysteries that surround her dad's death and the eerie hints dropped by the strange man who spoke to her in the fall. She accidentally travels back in time—into an interaction with her dad, which bears a heavy consequence.
Julie, essentially, believes she's responsible for her dad's death, and she begins to isolate herself from those who love her best and who she can't bring herself to tell about what it is she's done. There's a lot of Julie-Steve angst in this installment, and they actually reach a point where they have to decide: is this the end for them, or will they be able to make it through?
As for her powers, Julie learns that she has healing capabilities, though life takes a turn for the unexpected so she doesn't get to explore that too much. The Russians are doing their thing at Starcourt, Billy's been taken over by the Mind Flayer, and Officer Galle is trying to be a good mentor to Julie—or is he? He reveals his true colors and the fact that he was test subject 000 at the Lab when he assaults Julie, insisting she needs to pool her powers with his to go up against a threat Hawkins hasn't even seen yet.
In the final battle with the Mind Flayer, a time warp is created, as Julie is trying to use her powers to defeat the monster, and she's visited from a future version of herself. The future self tries to pass along a warning but, ultimately, is unable to and disappears back to her time. All Julie is really able to glean is that there's yet more trouble ahead for her and Steve. The Mind Flayer is defeated, everyone believes Hop has died, and Julie and Steve finally have a heart-to-heart about everything that's happened over the summer. Good news: they emerge stronger from it and more committed to each other.
Their conversation happens at Gram and Grandad's, which is important because it's also at their house that Julie receives a package that Grandad's been keeping for her. It was given to him by Mr. Henderson, shortly before his death, and it was meant to be given to Julie right before her senior year. In the package is all the Montauk mail Mr. Henderson intercepted; in other words, all the correspondence regarding the science of time travel that Dr. Brenner never got access to, despite the doctor working to figure out how psychokinetic abilities could make such a feat possible. Julie shares this mail with Dustin so they can learn all about time travel.
This installment ends much as Season 3 actually does with the Byers and El still moving to California and everyone being sad about it.
Finally, HEY, TOMORROW is all about Season 4. By March 1986, Julie has spent so much time honing her powers (so, if she ever has to go up against Officer Galle, again, she won't be the weaker one) and practically memorizing all the information about time travel. She's also joined the cheer squad (something mentioned at the end of PHOTOGRAPHS & MEMORIES), Nancy is in charge of the student newspaper, Steve and Robin are at Family Video, and the brothers are well into their freshman year.
Vecna comes onto the scene, of course, and all the same people are targeted, though Julie, too, is hearing the clock and maybe seeing things that aren't there. They all learn more about the Creels, Officer Galle's connection to them, and the origin of the MKUltra program (different from the explanation given in the show/play). Julie starts piecing together some coincidences pointing to the idea that somehow Will is still deeply connected to the Upside Down and that it couldn't have been an accident that his disappearance was the start to everything.
In the midst of the murders and the gang trying to figure out how to defeat Vecna, Julie is swapped out with a version of herself from the future. While the Julie of '86 disappears into the future, future-Julie takes her place among the gang. It's then that we learn two distressing things: Julie doesn't have powers like she used to, and significant memories are missing—she has no recollection of her friendship/relationship with Steve at all. While the rest of the gang sets into motion a plan to take out Vecna, Julie must get back to her own time and return the Julie of '86 back to hers.
When that swap happens at the Lab—Julie and Steve going together while the others split up to the Creel house and the Upside Down—a complication emerges in the form of Officer Galle, who doesn't let '86 Julie and Steve leave the Lab without a literal fight. When it looks like Julie really has become the stronger one with her powers, Officer Galle pulls a gun, and Steve takes a bullet for her. He's practically dead when Julie channels her powers, pushes herself past her limits, and does all she can to bring him back. Though she's able to save him, it comes at the price of the memories of their relationship and her powers.
They both end up in the hospital, coming-to after being in comas for a few days, and have to hear the news of what's happened since Vecna wasn't able to be stopped. Hawkins is a mess, Julie doesn't know what's happened to her or why she no longer has her MKUltra abilities, and it seems like Dr. Owens might be her best chance at getting back what she's lost. It ends with her deciding to go out to Camp Hero with him and Agent Stinson, and so we come, at last, to the start of this final installment...