In its fifth season, Stranger Things features an obscenely large ensemble of beloved characters and performers. The series began its run with an already formidable, wide-ranging assembly of characters all the way back in season one, and has only added to it since then, resulting in the cavalcade of nearly 20 main players on the board during its final season. As such, it is undoubtedly incredibly difficult to craft meaningful arcs in a given season for each of these characters, while interlacing them with one another and the larger world-ending stakes of the narrative at-hand. But even with all of that said, I have to ask; what is going on with Jim Hopper in this season of Stranger Things?
Portrayed by David Harbour, Hopper has been a headliner of Stranger Things from the very beginning. He is one of the very first adult characters audiences were introduced to in the very first episode of the first season, “The Vanishing of Will Byers.” Since then, he has been a consistent fan-favorite, having received his own spinoff media (such as the Adam Christopher’s Hopper-centric novel, Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town), and launching Harbour himself to being an incredibly popular actor who is now appearing in big-budget movie franchises such as The Avengers. So with all of that, it makes it incredibly strange that the final season of Stranger Things has thus far treated the character as such a seeming afterthought.
Early on in this season, Hopper gets trapped in the Upside Down when a routine crawl goes sideways, and as of this writing, he’s still there. That’s far from a problem, but what is a problem is his characterization in the Upside Down, where he has been subsequently paired up with his adopted daughter, Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown. Every scene with Hopper thus far seems to either feature him reflecting upon various parts of his troubled past and acting depressed, or flat-out preparing to kill himself in one way or another. If the plan is to kill Hopper off, then the series could not be telegraphing it more. But beyond that, all of this is bizarrely counterintuitive to everything that has happened to this character over the previous couple of seasons.
At the end of season three, Hopper seemingly died, sacrificing himself so that the others could escape when the Russian-made machine that had opened a portal into the Upside Down underneath Hawkins Mall was exploding. The character even got a whole sad music tinged posthumous monologue to end the season, seemingly cementing his fate. However, in season four, it was revealed that actually he was fine, and had simply been taken captive by the Russians. This resulted in a season-long adventure for some of the other characters as they attempted to free him, and a full season of introspection and growth for Hopper as a character. It all culminated in the final episode, where Hopper quite literally faced off against the demons of his past and became the knight in shining armor that his friends needed him to be, picking up a sword and fighting the Demogorgon.
It was a satisfying, hard-earned victory for the character, to the point that it even made his whole retconned redemption feel like it was worth it. But now, in season five, the character as presented feels completely incompatible with the iteration that triumphed at the end of season four. Instead, he’s shutdown, deflecting, and seems constantly on the verge of suicide and/or self-mutilating sacrifice. It’s even revealed that he entered the Upside Down in the first episode of this season with a bunch of explosives strapped to him and has just kept it on ever since, ready to blow at any moment.
This is all the stranger given that, you know, he already died once, so I’m not sure how much water is left in that well at this point. Maybe all of this is leading somewhere; there’s still a second-half of the season set for release at the end of this month, and maybe it’ll feature a payoff of sorts to all of this that allows the character’s arc more resonance. But as it currently stands, the final season seems to be hanging Hopper, one the show’s most beloved characters, out to dry.