Did Eleven die in Season 1

Talk about being a friend — Eleven, who was by far the most interesting part of Stranger Things, sacrificed herself at the end of Stranger Things Season 1 in order to defeat the dreaded Demogorgon from the Upside Down and save Will, and probably their whole little town. But where did Eleven go at the end of Stranger Things Season 1? She used her telekinetic powers and then — boom! It was all over from there.

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How did 11 survive season1?
Is Eleven dead in Stranger Things?
Which episode does Eleven come back?
Who saved Eleven Season 1?

Eleven (or El, as the boys call her) got her powers through her mother. In the early '70s, Eleven’s presumed mother, Terry Ives, was involved with governmental experiments with psychedelic drugs. But Terry didn’t know she was pregnant during the experiments, and Eleven was born with crazy powers. She was abducted by Dr. Martin Brenner and made into a human guinea pig, and eventually, somehow, she made contact with a creature in another dimension. Will slipped into this dimension — the Upside Down — and she felt responsible for letting it break through to the other side. That’s why, ultimately, Eleven is the one to defeat the Demogorgon. Not only is she the only one who can do it, but she wants to help these people who have been so kind to her. Eleven sacrificed herself and brought herself back to the Upside Down to save everyone else in Season 1, but in Season 2, we have every reason to believe that this adorable bundle of telekinetic power and Eggo waffle consumption is back.

In the very first trailer for Season 2, Eleven’s hand is seen ripping through the gooey ectoplasm of the Upside Down wormhole, meaning she will emerge from the mess, ultimately standing in the hallway of Hawkins Middle School. Hooray for Eleven!

But while it’s great that Eleven has emerged from the Upside Down, there are still problems in Hawkins that she’ll have to deal with. For starters, that Demogorgon may be dunzo, but how do we know that there aren’t more? There are new creatures in the Stranger Things Season 2 trailer, and new creatures mean new battles. It’s also important to remember that just because that Demogorgon is dead, that doesn’t mean Hawkins is all good now — there is still some sort of giant rift in the space-time continuum that allows the Upside Down to terrorize a nice Midwestern town. In the final trailer for Stranger Things Season 2, Eleven is clearly out of the Upside Down but in the woods, scampering in the trees and finding special Eggos in boxes hidden in the forest (presumably from Hopper, the tough sheriff with a heart of gold).

It would be wonderful if this wormhole mess could be put to rest and Eleven could just live a happy life. Her alleged birth mother is in a vegetative state and Eleven doesn't have a birth certificate, anyway (Brenner made sure that Eleven could always be his perfect little experiment), so it would be hard to reunite them. Hopper always seems to care more than he lets on, and if he's the person leaving Eleven Eggos in the forest like I think he is, he cares deeply for this damaged little girl named Eleven. He's damaged, she's damaged — they could really use each other, huh?

Also high on the list of things I'm looking forward to when Eleven makes it out of the Upside Down is her eventual reunion with Mike (especially Mike), Lucas, Will, and Dustin. These kids are the only friends she's ever had, and if she needs to lock down this wormhole to keep Hawkins safe forever, Eleven is certainly going to need all of the help she can get.

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Stranger Things was almost a totally different show from what fans know it to be now. Before co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer knew whether or not their '80s sci-fi series would get a second season, they had actually planned to kill off some of the show's most important characters. As hard as it is to imagine, Eleven was supposed to die in Stranger Things Season 1, the showrunners reveal in a new behind-the-scenes book. And Eleven was not the only character whole almost got axed.

In a newly published behind-the-scenes companion book to the series, called Stranger Things: Worlds Turned Upside Down, the Duffer Brothers reveal how their original plan for Stranger Things totally shifted along the way. Most shockingly, as revealed via NME, Ross Duffer shared that Eleven was meant to die in the first season finale:

Eleven was going to sacrifice herself to save the day. That was always the end game.

As fans will recall, Season 1 ended with Eleven fighting against the Demogorgon, disintegrating it and then mysteriously vanishing. That was originally meant to be Eleven's death scene, but the Duffer Brothers decided to keep Eleven alive after Netflix picked up the series for a second season:

But once we realised that the show was potentially going to go on longer than one season, we needed to leave it more up in the air, because deep down we knew the show just wouldn’t really work without Eleven. And at that point, we knew how special Millie was. If there was going to be more Stranger Things, Eleven had to come back.

And Eleven was not the only fan-favorite character who was originally meant to bite the dust in Season 1. According to the new book, the Duffers were also planning on Steve Harrington dying in the show's first season, but that changed thanks to the talents of actor Joe Keery. The Duffers decided to keep Steve around, and it turned out to definitely be the correct decision because the former bully has now become one of the most fan-beloved characters on Stranger Things.

Of course, Stranger Things did kill off a character in its first season, and that led to a whole lot of fan outrage. Remember the #JusticeForBarb hashtag? Neither the Duffer Brother nor actress Shannon Purser predicted that viewers would latch on to her minor character's death so ferociously, but it caused the Duffers to refocus Season 2 a bit to go into Barb's death more and launched Purser into unexpected stardom. Now imagine if Eleven and Steve also dies in Season 1 — the fans would have gone even wilder!

The Duffers also said that they were originally going to kill of Sean Astin's Season 2 character Bob Newby after just four episodes, but Astin proved so likable that they kept him alive until the eighth episode and gave him a heroic death to boot.

Season 3 of Stranger Things is currently in production, with a promo clip teasing that the new season will revolve around a new shopping mall in Hawkins and may premiere around the summer of 2019.

How did 11 survive season1?

Having been raised as a lab rat by Brenner – who she called Papa – Eleven finally escaped. Mike and his friends Dustin and Lucas found her in the woods and took her in, hiding her in Mike's basement and feeding her Eggos.

Is Eleven dead in Stranger Things?

Alive: Eleven (and the rest of the Hawkins crew)

Which episode does Eleven come back?

Eleven Reunites with Mike and Will | Stranger Things 4 Episode 8 - YouTube.

Who saved Eleven Season 1?

Kidnapped at birth by Dr. Martin Brenner, Eleven was raised in Hawkins National Laboratory to enhance her psychokinetic abilities inherited from her mother. In the fall of 1983, El escaped the lab and was found by Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson, and Lucas Sinclair, who were looking for their missing friend, Will Byers.