How Many Kids Were In Hawkins Lab (& How Many Are Dead?)

Warning: SPOILERS for Stranger Things season 4.

Kali was older than Eleven and demonstrated a different set of powers, but the fact of the matter was that Kali and Eleven were both test subjects together at Hawkins Lab, as evidenced by Terry Ives' memories. But they weren't the only ones, and now Stranger Things season 4 sheds even more light on how many there really were, as well as what happened to them all. Thanks to the season's opening sequence and the memories Eleven re-experiences thanks to the Nina Project, audiences can determine how many there really were.

So far, it's been confirmed that at least 18 kids were part of Hawkins Lab's experiments, with multiple children - including twins - being younger than Eleven. Only a handful are specifically identified in season 4 - Six (who weirdly replaced Francine, the person who was Six in the Stranger Things: Six prequel comic), Ten, Two, and of course, One. Later on in volume 1, it's confirmed during the Nina Project flashbacks that there were 18 children.

How Many Kids Number One Killed At Hawkins Lab

Psychic children in Rainbow Room in Stranger Things

It was heavily implied in Stranger Things season 4 that Eleven went berserk and killed everyone in the Rainbow Room - test subjects and scientists alike, leaving only Dr. Brenner alive. However, that wasn't what really happened at Hawkins Lab in 1979, which became the subject of the episode "The Massacre at Hawkins Lab". Instead, Eleven managed to wrangle the inhibitor device dampening One's powers, and One, presumably in retaliation for years of servitude to Dr. Brenner, killed all of Brenner's subjects. All in all, One killed 16 kids, given that Kali is still alive years later (assuming there were, in fact, only 18 test subjects, though there could've been more) and that Eleven defeated him.

How Eleven Defeated One (Did She Send Him To The Upside Down?)

Young Eleven in Stranger Things Season 4 Hawkins Lab Flashback

Memories are the key to Eleven's powers, particularly to how strong she is. In Stranger Things season 2, Kali explained to Eleven that she needed to use her anger to make herself more powerful, and it's presumed she learned that from One, who also gives Eleven similar advice in season 4's flashback sequences to Hawkins Lab. One told young Eleven that she needed to harness the power of a memory that makes her sad and angry. At the time, the memory she used was one of her mother, Terry Ives, coming to Hawkins Lab to rescue her, but that wasn't enough. Ultimately, the memory that worked was the one of her birth (which she may have been able to access by harnessing One's powers, when he was infiltrating her mind).

When she was born, Terry told Eleven/Jane that she loved her. It was the first and perhaps only time in Eleven's life that she felt unconditional love, which ties back into her feeling hurt and betrayed when Mike couldn't say he loved her at the start of the season. Being able to feel that love is what enabled her to fight back against One — pushing him back and sending him into another dimension. It's unlikely she sent him to the Upside Down; instead, it seems she sent him into a separate dimension that later became the Upside Down audiences know (Hawkins 1983) when Eleven opened the original gate at Hawkins Lab.

Next: Is Stranger Things Season 4 The Last One?

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