hopper should have stayed dead. nothing feels earned.
genuine question. now that we know the ending of stranger things, what purpose does hopper coming back to life after his fakeout death in season 3 actually serve for the story?
if the duffers were going to take the route of el’s story being about found family and learning how to keep going after extreme trauma and abuse, then hopper being alive does make sense. hopper and el’s relationship would have been central to that message. yes, el has joyce, but hopper occupied a completely different emotional position in her life: father, protector, etc. his survival could have meant something.
added to that is the fact that season 4 does not explore el's relationship with joyce at all - they literally hug at the end when they reunite in hawkins and that's it. joyce supposedly occupies a 'mother' figure in el's life but we never see that relationship on screen. heck, joyce being a mother figure to el was a stronger theme in SEASON ONE when joyce had literally only just met her. now el literally becomes their supposed adoptive daughter but we just see nothing of that relationship. in season 5 there is that one brief scene at the beginning during el's training sequence but again, the purpose of that scene is not establishing relationships but really just moving the plot forward.
but now that el is gone, any purpose that found family arc had kind of disappears with her.
they spend seasons rehashing hopper’s trauma about sarah over and over again,and then at the very end his conclusion is basically just telling mike “yeah, you just have to move on from these things.” that’s it. that’s the payoff. so what was the fucking point of all of it?
like genuinely, what role does hopper serve in the story now that el is gone?
you could argue that it’s so joyce can get her happy ending, or so hopper can have a new found family with will and jonathan. but even if that’s the intention, the writing completely fails to support it. hopper has literally zero relationship with will and jonathan by the end of the show. we do not see them meaningfully interact at all until the epilogue and that little graduation sequence. it’s a cute montage, sure, but it completely glosses over the fact that these characters have no established relationship.
while watching season 5 with my parents, they literally asked me who jonathan was and whose kid he was. they forgot he was joyce’s son. that’s how badly joyce and jonathan’s relationship is handled -they basically don’t have one on screen anymore.
and joyce’s character writing this season is especially bad, but honestly this problem starts way earlier, like season 3. joyce gets flattened into a function of the plot instead of a person, and hopper gets flattened into a trauma machine who never meaningfully evolves. so nothing about the way their story ends feels earned. it feels like the show insisting something is emotional without actually doing the work.
if they wanted to preserve literally any sense of stakes, hopper should have stayed dead after season 3. that would have actually meant something. it would have removed the fuckass russia plot. it would have told the audience that actions have consequences and that no one is protected by plot armour forever. it would have made the danger feel real.
instead we got a corny fakeout death that had zero lasting impact on the story. and now that eleven is gone, there is genuinely no narrative reason hopper needed to come back at all.
nothing in this season feels earned whatsoever.