Stranger Things 4 dives deep into Eleven’s past — here’s what you need to remember

polygon.com:

It’s been three years since our last trip to Hawkins, so it’s not surprising that many of us found ourselves needing a recap of where the Netflix drama left off before diving into Stranger Things 4. But in order to get the most out of the new supersized episodes, it’s not only important to remember the events of season 3, but also Eleven’s life before the main events of season 1 even started.

As Millie Bobby Brown told Jimmy Fallon in early May, Stranger Things season 4 is going “to dig deep into [Eleven’s] beginning, and how she became who she is with the people around her.” The first teaser and the first eight minutes of the season premiere also focus on Eleven’s past, showing flashbacks to her time at Hawkins Lab (and a very violent incident we’ll get into below).

As Stranger Things creeps closer to the fifth and final season, we’re likely to get more concrete answers to all the show’s lingering mysteries, and details about Eleven’s origins are high on our need-to-know list. The last time Stranger Things focused heavily on her past was season 2, which aired way back in 2017, so you’re not alone if you’ve forgotten the crumbs the Duffer brothers have already left behind. Plus, there’s the 2019 prequel novel, Suspicious Minds, which revealed a lot of information about her parents that you wouldn’t know if you’ve only watched the show.

To help prepare you for Stranger Things 4, we’ve rounded up everything we already know about Eleven’s past, from what happened to her biological parents to her first brush with the Upside Down.

Eleven’s mother, Terry Ives, was one of the test subjects in MKUltra, which was a real-life CIA-sanctioned program in which the government conducted mind control experiments on people. In the