Jonathan valiantly yanked Nancy back through the portal, saving her from the clutches of the monster. Shaken to her core by the ordeal, she begged him to stay with her for the night. Little did they know, Steve spied them together through Nancy's bedroom window, mistakenly assuming they were an item.
Nancy and Jonathan, determined to vanquish the monster, ventured to an army surplus store to purchase supplies. Unexpectedly, Steve and his cronies confronted them there, resulting in a tense altercation that escalated into a fistfight between Steve and Jonathan. In the heat of the moment, Jonathan accidentally clobbered a police officer and was swiftly arrested.
Elsewhere, Lucas was enraged at Eleven and Mike after being knocked unconscious by the former. He declared his intention to search for Will alone, ignoring Dustin's efforts to broker peace.
Meanwhile, Hopper convened with Joyce to share his findings. They realized that the child from the laboratory was not Will but was somehow intertwined with the case. They tracked down Terry Ives, a catatonic man cared for by his sister Becky. Becky revealed that Terry had been unwittingly subjected to Project MKUltra testing while pregnant, and she believed her daughter Jane had been abducted by Brenner at birth. Joyce and Hopper concluded that Eleven was likely Jane.
Elsewhere, Eleven stole a pack of Eggo waffles, her mind wandering back to the fateful day she was tasked with contacting the monster. Inadvertently, she had opened a portal to the Upside Down in the laboratory basement.
Mike and Dustin, on the hunt for Eleven, were ambushed by school bullies Troy and James. Troy held Dustin hostage with a knife, demanding that Mike make a suicidal leap into the lake where Will's body had been discovered. Mike took the plunge, but Eleven swooped in, levitating him to safety and scaring off the bullies.
Meanwhile, Lucas stealthily scouted the Hawkins Laboratory from a vantage point. His heart pounded as he spied a fleet of Hawkins Power and Light vans exiting the lab, realizing that his friends were in grave danger.
