The group followed their compasses, believing if they went 'North', they would be lead to the Gate. However, Eleven was manipulating the compasses for the boys' safety because she considered it too dangerous to enter the Upside Down. When the boys realized that Eleven had been doing this, they argued about her; Mike was more sympathetic and trusted her, while Lucas was critical of her help. The two boys ended up fighting; Eleven used her powers to push Lucas off Mike and into the air, injuring him. This angered Mike and left Eleven upset, who vanished from the scene.

basement. Mike, acting as Dungeon Master, summoned a Demogorgon, which ultimately defeated Will's character. While they looked for the missing dice, Mike's mother Karen insisted it was time for his friends to leave; and shortly after this, Lucas, Dustin, and Will cycled home. On the way, Dustin challenged Will to a bike race home for one of his X-Men comic books, and shortly after, Will went missing. The boys investigated their friend's disappearance that evening and accidentally encountered an escaped Eleven, who they allowed to stay in Mike's basement, making a pillow fort for her to sleep in. Dustin did not seem to have a good relationship with Lucas's little sister, Erica, despite being social with her. When Dustin tried to get in touch with Lucas to inform him about D'Artagnan, Erica did not bother to help Dustin and turned off Lucas's Supercom.Despite learning his pet is from the Upside Down, Dustin refuses to believe Dart could be dangerous. By the spring of 1986, tech-savvy Dustin's long-distance relationship with Suzie is still going strong, and he's now part of the Dungeons & Dragons group, Hellfire Club, along with Lucas and Mike. Their dedication to the club subjects Mike and Dustin to the tirades and demands of the club's Dungeon Master, Eddie. [4] When Eddie becomes a suspect in the murder of fellow student, Chrissy Cunningham, Dustin and his friends discover an entity from the Upside Down known as " Vecna" is responsible for Chrissy's death. As Vecna begins committing murders around Hawkins, Dustin and his friends work together to investigate Vecna and stop him. However, upon discovering Vecna's true identity and motives, Dustin and his friends formulate a plan in an attempt to kill Vecna. Dustin joins Eddie, Robin, Steve, and Nancy in venturing into the Upside Down where he and Eddie distract the Demobats guarding Vecna's hideout, the Creel House. However, while fighting the Demobats, Dustin gets injured where Eddie ends up being killed after preventing the Demobats from entering in the real world through a gate. In the original pilot script, Benny Hammond is at a couple of points referred to as "Benny Henderson", which could suggest that Benny and Dustin were originally planned to be part of the same family.

The group reached a deserted field, where Lucas, Mike, and Eleven reconciled. After they realized the laboratory was still looking for them, they hid in an abandoned bus. Chief Hopper found them, taking them to the Byers According to the original script, Dustin's character was conceived as an overweight boy with glasses who was the victim of frequent bullying at school. But most of the traits of the character were rewritten by the Duffer Brothers after it was decided Gaten Matarazzo was to be portraying the character. In the process, Dustin evolved into a buoyant nerdy character who'd resolve internal conflicts among his friends. Gaten's medical condition, cleidocranial dysplasia was also written into the character. [6] Casting He sighs, "Sure... I'll volunteer, Henderson." Dustin's face lit up. He pounced on Steve, screaming out thank yous. It took probably weeks for him to be convinced, little did he know who he'd meet there. After school, Dustin and Lucas waited in a parking lot near the arcade to see if Max would come and play at the arcade. With Lucas's binoculars, they saw Max arrive at the arcade where she argued with somebody in the car before she gave the finger as the car drove off. Dustin and Lucas then followed her into the arcade and saw her playing a game at the arcade, coming to the conclusion that she is "MADMAX."As of August 2023; Dustin is tied with Eleven as the character with the most variants in Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales, each having four. Hopper has three, while Lucas, Max, Dustin, Mike, Will, Nancy, Steve, Robin, Joyce, and Murray all have two. The rest of the characters each have one. In Season 3, Dustin gets a new hat from Camp Know Where while his old hat from the previous seasons is seen in the bedroom of his girlfriend, Suzie; meaning Dustin probably gave her his old hat as a way to remember him. Following the gruesome death of her stepbrother Billy Hargrove at the hands of the Mind Flayer, Max spent nearly nine months in depression and solitude, causing estrangement in all of her friendships. Even despite their distance, Dustin tried to reconnect with her and in the last school day before Spring break, Dustin tried to invite her to the Hellfire Club led by Eddie Munson and when an apparently-enthusiastic Max asked if she could have one of the club's "cool t-shirts," Dustin replied that every member would receive a free t-shirt before realizing Max was being sarcastic. Upon learning of the death of Chrissy Cunningham in the Munson trailer, Max immediately shared this with Dustin rather than anyone else. Though Max was skeptical of Eddie's innocence, Dustin stubbornly insisted that Eddie would never harm anyone. The duo reunited with Lucas and their older allies (Nancy, Steve and Robin) to find Eddie, who helped them realize that Chrissy was murdered through supernatural means, specifically by an entity residing in the Upside Down, and they dubbed Chrissy's killer "Vecna," after a villainous "dark wizard" from Dungeons and Dragons.