when do they get will back in stranger things

In Stranger Things Season 1, the characters “get Will back” in the final episode, when Joyce and Hopper find him in the Upside Down and resuscitate him.

Quick answer

• Will disappears in Episode 1 of Season 1 (“The Vanishing of Will Byers”).

• He is rescued and brought back to the real world in Episode 8, the Season 1 finale (“The Upside Down”).

• In the show’s in‑story timeline, Joyce and Hopper find him on November 12–13, 1983, and bring him home.

A bit more context

• Will spends most of Season 1 trapped in the Upside Down, hiding in places like the Upside Down version of his house and Castle Byers while the Demogorgon hunts him.

• His friends and family only see brief signs that he is alive (lights flickering, phone calls, visions) until Eleven locates him remotely and Joyce/Hopper physically reach him.

After he comes back

• Even after they get Will back, he is not completely “okay”: at the end of Season 1 he coughs up a slug and briefly flashes back to the Upside Down, hinting that something of that world is still inside him.

• That lingering connection becomes a major plot point in Season 2 and later seasons, where Will can sense the Mind Flayer and Vecna because of what happened to him while he was missing.

TL;DR: They get Will back in the Season 1 finale, when Joyce and Hopper rescue him from the Upside Down and revive him.