WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Stranger Things: Into the Fire #4 from Jody Houser, Ryan Kelly, Le Beau Underwood, Triona Farrell and Nate Piekos, on sale now.
Netflix's Stranger Things has provided fans with quite a bit of excitement and horror in its three seasons thus far, but the universe has been expanded in comics such as the Six miniseries. Now, Into the Fire offers a detailed look at life outside Hawkins, Indiana, as well as the ripple effects of the nefarious MKUltra program.
With the latter running for just four issues and moving the story along from the '70s to the '80s, here's how it catches up to and ties into the Netflix series.
Kali's Mission
In Season 2, Kali (aka Eight) and Jane/Eleven found each other and joined forces. They were hunting down personnel who made their lives hell in the program, but Eleven eventually returned to Hawkins and her 'family,' as she didn't want a life of revenge.
In Into the Fire, Ricky (Three) and Marcy find Kali's crew in Chicago and send her to Dr. Morris, who may have info on Marcy's twin, Jamie/Nine, a pyrokinetic.
Kali does reveal to Ricky that she and Eleven had a temporary alliance, stunning Ricky because he knew her as young Jane. He knew her potential as well, so this inspires him to go find others like Eleven later on. As Kali suspects, Ricky might be even willing to head to Hawkins, but all she and her posse want is to continue with their MKUltra kill-list.
Brenner's Sins
Into the Fire also reveals Dr. Brenner ordered all other subjects to be disposed of, as they weren't as powerful as Eleven. He felt she was his golden egg and all resources should be placed into making her a weapon. Morris was in charge of killing Jamie, as her fire-powers had grown unstable -- but instead, he sent her to another doctor to sedate.
This informs exactly why Brenner was obsessed with Eleven and how he lured young girls into the program by pretending to be a father-like figure in their lives. This genocide also fits his ruthless character because to him, these test subjects were indeed numbers, not people.
Morris eventually pays the price when Ricky mind-controls him into suicide, angry that Brenner was already dead from Season 1.
Jamie's Upside Down
Francine/Six had telepathic powers and she ventured into the Upside Down, seeing the Demogorgon in Six. Ironically, it does seem she may have projected this onto Nine. Kali also created a fairytale world to calm Nine down as a kid, per Brenner's request, but she wasn't as stable with her powers back then. Now, 16 year-old Jamie has combined the Upside Down with the fantasy land Kali left her.
Into the Fire also shows snapshots of the Demogorgon in her memories, as well as key flashbacks of Eleven and her mom trying to free her. Jamie doesn't realize what all these puzzle pieces are, but diehard fans do -- and it shows what happens when Brenner lets kids control other kids with abilities they can't handle.
When Jamie's eventually rescued by Ricky and her sister, the concept of family calms her down as well, paying homage to Eleven and the Hawkins crew.