"Dear Billy" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Seven days

In the Byers household in California, Will, Jonathan, and Mike are kept inside by what appear to be government officials who refuse to say where El has been taken. They do let on that El has been taken into a special program to start regaining her powers to help save Hawkins, but how long that may take is unknown. In the meantime they'll be under supervision of Agents Harmon and Wallace and they will be unable to speak about the situation-- an impossible task, according to Mike. Mike receives a letter from El and he reads it in the other room; it's proof that she's there of her own volition. She writes that she's going to become a superhero again.

In Hawkins, Nancy and Robin arrive at the high school to reunite with the others just as Max, still reeling from her hallucination, points out where she saw the grandfather clock. The truth is that she never entered the hallway; Steve and Dustin found her seated in the guidance counsellor's office, locked in a trance. She draws the conclusion herself-- since Chrissy and Fred had the same symptoms and died a week after their headaches started, she might have no more than a day left to live.

Answer: The 1950s

When a noise is heard in the halls of the high school, Steve is the first to grab a weapon-- a lamp-- and head out to see who's stalking the group through the building, but the fear turns to relief when it turns out to be Lucas who, after biking eight miles to find them, is able to give his intel. He admits to being with Jason and his friends all day, and they've gone off the rails. They're hunting for Eddie, but they think Dustin knows where he is, and he does. Unfortunately, they all have bigger problems in the meantime.

The next morning, Erica has to answer the door to find Jason standing there. Jason asks where Lucas is, but Erica has no idea, and more than that, she's been covering for him. She notes that she figures he's with Dustin, and that's enough for Jason to realize that he's been tricked.

Lucas is absolutely with Dustin (and Steve) trying to make sense of the Victor Creel articles that Nancy and Robin located. Creel, as Dustin notes, may be the only true survivor of Vecna's curse, and if that's the case, they need to speak to him. More than this, it implies that the Upside Down has existed for quite a long time. They just can't figure out why Vecna would attack a family in the 1950s and then wait to attack some teenagers in the 1980s. Nancy, fortunately, has a plan. She and Robin, posing as students from the University of Notre Dame, are headed to Pennhurst Asylum to speak to Victor Creel's director.

Once Steve realizes he's not being brought along to the asylum he argues with Nancy about being stuck in the babysitter role once again. She reasons that the man they're going to speak to is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, so she and Robin will have to look the part of scholars to win him over.

Answer: Pizza parlour

At a motel in Alaska, Joyce tries to call back to the kids and finds a busy signal. Murray forces her off the phone though. They're there for a ransom deal, he reminds her, and they need to be on time.

In Russia, Antonov tells Hopper where he needs to head to rendezvous with Yuri; he needs to head west through the forest until he finds a church with a grey roof. By tomorrow night, Hopper could be home. Antonov gives his initial odds of escape 50:1.

In California, the agents in the house already start to wear on the guys. As Jonathan goes to get a drink he gets an idea to call for pizza. In the bedroom, Mike confides in Will that before the police came, he and El had a big fight and the situation weighs on him. Will reminds him that she'll be okay. They should worry about Hawkins instead. Jonathan tells the boys his idea and they give Surfer Boy Pizza a call, getting through to Argyle, one of their delivery boys.

In Hawkins, Max signs her last envelope and hands them over to their addressees and tells them not to open them yet. They're fail-safes, she says, if things don't work out. That's when Max gets the idea to go to East Hawkins and guilts Steve into driving her out that way. As she gets into the car, she hears the clock.

Answer: Robin

Nancy and Robin arrive at Pennhurst Mental Hospital and Nancy starts to turn on the academic charm, but their contact, Director Hatch, reminds them that there's a long process to be undertaken before they can get approvals to be in the same wing of the building as Victor Creel. Hatch is sympathetic to their plight though, and he offers that they tour the facility with them to speak to patients in the low-security wing. It's not really enough, but there's not much to be done.

That's why Robin, frustrated that they're not getting anywhere by playing nice, gives a long and emotional speech (and a lie) about their circumstance and reiterates that if it were anyone but women coming for this approval, they'd be allowed in, but the truth (or lie) was that they were denied several times over. Much to Nancy's surprise, the impassioned request works.

Answer: An airplane

Pulling up to the Fish 'N' Fly hangar somewhere in rural Alaska, Joyce and Murray find their contact, Yuri, who seems jovial enough despite the circumstances. They present their $40,000 of ransom money and let him count it while they watch on. While the pair shiver in the cold, he offers them some coffee. It could be a while adding the bills up.

In Russia, Hopper decides to take his moment. He snaps the head off his sledgehammer and heads off for a replacement, ambushing one of his captors and painfully removing his ankle shackles. As he's about to succeed he's caught out by one of the guards leading him to blow up a box of dynamite and, barely, escape on the back of a waiting snowmobile.

Answer: Music

After a silent drive, Steve drops Max off at her house and she says she'll only take twenty seconds; all she's doing is dropping off the letters she's written for her family. As she leaves, she spots her mother hanging laundry outside and she lets her know, nervously, about the letters, only to be opened if something happens. As her mother comes in for a reassuring hug, the sky quickly covers over in darkness and Max finds that she's actually in an embrace with Vecna, trapped in another waking dream. He reminds her that her time has almost come as she falls back into reality.

On the grounds at Pennhurst, Nancy and Robin are brought through the gardens and to the music room. As Hatch tells them, music seems to have a calming effect on the broken mind. The right song, especially one with personal meaning, can prove to be a salient stimulus. But some are beyond a cure.

The girls are brought to Victor Creel's cell and Robin and Nancy manage to finesse their way into a discussion, with Creel, alone. They're brought through the dark corridors and given the rules, especially the instruction to stay five feet from the bars at all times. After the guard leaves, the girls tell Victor that they're not there under official duty as reporters; they're there because they believe him. And as he turns to face them, they discover that he has no eyes.

Answer: Coffee

In California, Argyle heads to the Byers household with his deliveries while the guys pack their bags. Before they enact their plan, Mike and Will reconcile their differences, realizing that they need to approach this as friends like they used to. The apologies end when they believe they hear Argyle's van pulling up, but the truth is that the pizza hasn't arrived-- it's a group of armed soldiers. They take down Agent Wallace while Agent Harmon protects the boys long enough to get them out of the house. Argyle arrives just in time to take them into his van and drive off, evading capture.

In Alaska, Yuri finishes counting the money, verifying that it's all there. Joyce insists that he go get Hopper, but Yuri decides to call 'Enzo' first. It's then that he reveals to Antonov that he's made a change in his plans, pocketing the $40,000 but also giving away Hopper's location to his warden. As it turns out, there's a good bounty on escaped prisoners and a better one on corrupt guards.

Hopper ends up taking the snowmobile to the rendezvous point and locating the church with the grey roof in the middle of a small village. What he finds is a place to hide out with, to his shock, real food. It's a short-lived reprieve. With Yuri giving away the location, the guards surround him in short order.

At the Fish 'N' Fly, both Murray and Joyce, drugged by the coffee offered to them, fall unconscious. The greatest bounty, it appears, is on Americans wanted by the KGB. They'll be reunited with Hopper, but not in the way they necessarily wanted to be.

Answer: False

Nancy and Robin start with the nightmares, explaining to Victor Creel what the others have been experiencing. He mocks the pair for alleging he simply survived the incident that occurred in his family's life; he's still in Hell, he claims.

Back in the 1950s, Victor and his family moved into a new home, a massive house that appeared to be from a fairy tale. Alice, his daughter, loved it. Henry, his son, didn't like it. They had one month of peace in the house before their nightmare began; dead animals started appearing nearing the house on a regular basis. The Creel family suffered encounters from what Victor believed to be a demon and the nightmares appeared to become real.

Victor became convinced that the demon was hiding and nesting in their home, and its curse fell to the Creel family. On the night everything changed, his wife, Virginia, was the first to die; the demon lifted her to the ceiling, broke her bones, and took her eyes while the family watched on. Victor tried to get the kids out of the house, but he emerged into a waking dream of the war in which he killed an innocent family. He was sure, then, that the demon would take him. But it didn't yet.

Instead, he followed the sound of the radio back to his home. While he was away, the demon had killed Alice in much the same way as Virginia. Henry remained alive, but he'd slipped into a coma. He would die a week later.

During his early days imprisoned in Pennhurst, Victor tried to kill himself as well, smuggling a razor blade into his cell to do the deed. He brought it to both of his eyes before Director Hatch stopped the bleeding and prevented his suicide.

The conversation with Victor stops there as Director Hatch, having spoken to the girls' alleged professor, reveals that he knows they're not there for their thesis. They can finish their talk in his office while they wait for the police.

Answer: Her step-brother's

Steve, next, drives Max to the Roane Hill Cemetery on her request. As Max leaves the car and walks towards Billy's grave, Lucas pleads with her to talk to him. He doesn't want a letter from her; he just wants her to let the others help.

Alone in front of Billy's grave, Max takes out the letter she wrote for him and she reads it out loud, explaining first off what's happened in her life since he was killed and then what's happening to her now. She laments that she can't tell anyone why he's dead; she thinks back on the memory from Starcourt Mall regularly and wishes she could've saved him. She knows that they didn't really like each other, but she wishes they could've gotten past it and liked each other like a real brother and sister.

Max admits to trying hard to be happy over the past several months, but part of her might have died when he did. She apologizes to him as dark clouds roll in and block out the sun. Steve, worrying that something is amiss, goes to check on Max and finds that she's in what may be her last trance.

Max, in Vecna's nightmare, watches as Billy emerges from the dark fog and tells her that he's been waiting for her apology. Bloody and looking like he did the day he died, he tells Max that she can admit to having wanted him dead but she can't. He tries to get her to concede to her hope of following into death and he reveals he's there to end her suffering once and for all.

But it's not Billy at all. It's Vecna. She runs through the cemetery of her nightmares while, in the real world, Steve instructs Dustin to get on the walkie and alert the girls. It's the code red situation they feared.

Answer: Running Up That Hill

Nancy and Robin, being escorted to Director Hatch's office, try to impress upon the man that their friend is in danger. As they pass back through the music room, however, Robin realizes that Victor gave them a clue-- the radio in their house that brought him back to reality. Hatch had told them, earlier in their tour, that music can reach parts of the brain that words can't. It's the key; the lifeline. Nancy and Robin make a break for it, running across the grounds to their car. The pair make it in time to speed off.

The girls get back to the vehicle just in time to hear Dustin on the walkie, and it's at the last possible moment. They tell Dustin what he needs to hear.

Max, racing through the darkness, hides herself for as long as she can and cries for the others to help her. It's too late though. As the red lighting of the Upside Down finally reaches her, she wanders into the fog and to the ruins of the old Creel house waiting there, coming across the grandfather clock and the bodies of Fred and Chrissy. Vecna asks if she'd like to join them as she's grabbed by a trio of tendrils and restrained against a column.

In the real world, moments before Max levitates off the ground in Vecna's grip, Dustin places her headphones on her head and plays her favourite song, Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill". The music blasts through the Upside Down, tearing open a passage home, and hearing her friends on the other side, Max finds the strength to lash out, break free of her restraints, and run back to them, somehow surviving her almost-certain fate.