Ross Duffer

Joyce Byers visits Chief Hopper to report her son Will as missing, growing increasingly frantic as Hopper dismisses the disappearance as a typical case of a runaway or a domestic issue. The scene highlights the friction between Joyce's maternal desperation and Hopper's cynical, small-town apathy before the gravity of the situation begins to settle in.

A kind-hearted diner owner tries to feed and communicate with a mysterious, non-verbal young girl who has wandered into his restaurant. The stakes rise as he discovers a strange numerical tattoo on her wrist, suggesting she has escaped from a traumatic situation.