Explained

Jason Carver spends the first act of Stranger Things season 4 looking like exactly the kind of character the show usually treats as background scenery: the popular basketball captain with the perfect girlfriend and a bright future. Then Chrissy Cunningham dies, and Jason Carver becomes something far more dangerous — a grieving teenager convinced he’s

Suzie Bingham spends most of Stranger Things season 3 as a punchline. Dustin talks about his summer camp girlfriend so often, and describes her in such over-the-top terms, that nobody in his friend group believes she’s real. Then, in the season’s most unexpected scene, Suzie Bingham turns out to be exactly who Dustin said she

Dr. Sam Owens takes over Hawkins Lab right after Dr. Brenner disappears, and everything about his introduction is designed to make audiences suspicious of him. He works for the same government agency, occupies the same office, and inherits the same mess Brenner left behind. Then, gradually, Stranger Things does something it rarely does with authority

Victor Creel spends most of Stranger Things season 4 as a local legend before he ever appears on screen — a supposed madman locked away for killing his own family. By the time Nancy Wheeler and Robin Buckley actually sit down with him, the show reveals a much sadder truth, and casting horror icon Robert

Argyle shows up in the very first episode of Stranger Things season 4 as a laid-back California pizza guy, and by the end of the season he’s helped save the world. He was never meant to be one of the show’s central figures, but Eduardo Franco’s performance turned him into one of season 4’s most

Erica Sinclair wasn’t built to last. She was written into season 2 for a handful of scenes, purely to give Lucas a family and a little sibling to tease him. Nobody on Stranger Things expected her to become one of the show’s most quoted characters, but that’s exactly what happened, and Priah Ferguson’s performance is

Bob Newby’s death closes out season 2, and it remains the moment fans point to as Stranger Things’ first genuine gut-punch. Bob wasn’t a kid with psychic powers or a battle-hardened cop — he was a mild-mannered RadioShack manager who fell for Joyce Byers and got pulled into a fight he had no business surviving.

Robin Buckley’s coming out happens in a Starcourt Mall bathroom stall, stripped of any big musical cue or dramatic staging, and it’s still one of the most talked-about scenes Stranger Things ever produced. What makes it more remarkable is that the character wasn’t originally written this way at all — Robin’s storyline changed direction mid-production,

Chrissy Cunningham’s death happens before the opening credits of season 4 have even finished settling in, and it does more work in that single episode than most Stranger Things storylines manage across an entire season. She’s the first person Vecna ever kills on screen, and her death is the moment that tells the audience exactly

Billy Hargrove’s sacrifice closes out Stranger Things season 3, and it remains one of the most divisive character beats the show ever attempted. For two seasons, Billy is written as one of the cruelest people in Hawkins — abusive toward his stepsister, hostile toward Lucas, and generally miserable to be around. Then, in the space