It will just feel like another "gotcha" moment, as well as a retread of one of the show's laziest decisions.Īm I mad that Hopper is still around? No, not really. And honestly, if they kill him again, it won't have the same impact as when they offed him the first time. That man is staying alive for the foreseeable future. Why would the show kill a character it's already fake-murdered? You really want me to believe that they'll put us through the whole, "Oh no, Hopper died" thing again? No way. Every time we see Hopper in danger in Stranger Things 4, the peril won't feel as real.
Not killing Hopper undermines the emotional resonance of the reaction to his death, as well as the general stakes of the show. Other examples include Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, Loki in Thor: The Dark World, and Glenn in The Walking Dead (at least, until his actual death, which just pissed people off).įaking us out with Hopper's death cheapened the risk I thought "Stranger Things" had taken. Instead, the show opted for the classic franchise cop-out: Kill a beloved character to elicit an emotional reaction, but don't actually commit hard enough to follow through. Unfortunately, faking us out with Hopper's death cheapened the risk I thought Stranger Things had taken. It was a gutsy ending that completely changed the course of the series, and I was impressed that Stranger Things was willing to take that risk. Hopper's death - the latest in a long string of painful memories tied to Hawkins - was also the final straw for Joyce, leading her to move her family to California. Eleven's heartbreak at losing her father figure was crushing, as was the scene in which she read a letter Hopper had left her. The fallout from Hopper's death managed to be both upsetting and poignant. Hopper returns in "Stranger Things 4." But should he? Credit: Courtesy of Netflix I mean it in a "this choice does disservice to your story" way. I don't mean that in a "he was in a massive explosion and couldn't have survived" way. That still doesn't change the fact that Hopper should be dead. The newer trailers for Stranger Things 4 continue to hammer that point home, showing Hopper fighting Demogorgons in what can only be described as Upside Down fight club - which honestly sounds pretty cool. Then, in February of 2020, a teaser confirmed that Hopper was, in fact, still alive and imprisoned in Russia. We never saw his body - rule number one of confirming an onscreen death! - and his storylines with Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Eleven felt unfinished.
Still, I couldn't escape the nagging feeling that there was a grain of truth to the theories about Hopper. There was no way Stranger Things would rely on this trick again in a less interesting way, right? They'd also kept the fate of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) post-Season 1 a mystery, although it was pretty clear to the audience that she was alive. After all, Stranger Things had already faked Will's (Noah Schnapp) death in Season 1 as part of a government cover-up. One of the guards refers to an unseen prisoner known as "the American," a line that quickly led fans to unleash a slew of theories that Hopper wasn't actually dead.ĥ big questions we had watching the 'Stranger Things 4' trailer We find ourselves in a Russian prison, where guards unleash Demogorgons on prisoners. I marveled at the season's twists and turns, sat wide-eyed through the climactic battle with the Mind Flayer, and shed several tears when Hopper sacrificed himself under Starcourt Mall.īut before I could even process that ending, I was blindsided by the post-credits scene. Stranger Things 3 had just dropped, delivering a near-perfect summer binge. Here it is: Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour) should have stayed dead. And with Season 4 of Netflix's smash hit fast approaching, I figure it's high time for me to officially pick that bone.
Plucky kids uncovering government secrets and fighting monsters from alternate dimensions, all wrapped up in '80s nostalgia? I can't get enough.īut boy oh boy, do I have a bone to pick with the ending of the show's third season. Before you get mad at me, let me make one thing clear: I love Stranger Things.