ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - How Stranger Things Uses Death to Tell a Story - and Who's Gonna Die Next

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

ScreenCrush The Podcast tackles all the movie and TV hot topics, offering reviews and analysis of Marvel, Star Wars, and everything you care about right now. Hosted by Ryan Arey, and featuring a panel of industry professionals.

A Stranger Things has a reputation for killing characters, but after four episodes of season five, nobody's dead yet. But every time someone does die in this show, that death always means something. Some deaths are symbolic or for the show's story, or they just move our main characters in a particular direction. So we're going to talk about how the brothers duffer use death to tell a story, and what that tells us about who's going to die at the end of this season. Hey, welcome back Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie. Now let's talk about these crucial deaths in Stranger Things, and who else the show's likely going to kill off before the end.

important that every death resonates in a big way. First, let's take a look at who they've killed so far and explain why these people had to die. First, Barb as the sacrificial virgin. So the first major death in Stranger Things was a little bit on the nose. Nancy Wheeler is one of the show's most important characters, but she doesn't start off as a cool gunwielding hero. She's a bit of a goody-goody who just wants to fit in. But Nancy is changed by Steve Harrington and the supernatural death of her best friend Barb. So when Steve invites Nancy to hang out, she drags along Barb Holland along with her. Unfortunately, Barb isn't all that interested in shotgunning beers and throwing each other into the pool. So she spends the hangout being a bit of a killjoy, and she tells Nancy that this whole cool girl thing isn't her.

This isn't you. Sadly, for Barb, being uptight does not save her in the end. As she's heading home, Barb gets snatched by a demigorgon. Now, Barb is the stereotypical sacrificial virgin. This is a trope in horror movies, where a character loses their virginity and invites death into their life, which of course is a metaphor from Adam and Eve, eating from the Tree of Knowledge, realizing they're naked, and suddenly they know they're going to die someday. So as Nancy is losing her virginity, Barb is being pulled into the upside down. And if it wasn't clear enough, the show even jumps back and forth

between these two scenes. Stranger Things isn't shaming Nancy, though, because Barb's death is actually about something much bigger, the death of innocence in Hawkins. With Barb's death, both the upside down and Stranger Things are sending a message. No one is too pure to die in this town. And the show isn't done reminding us of this death. According to Time Magazine during a set visit, they visited the upside down and found Barb's corpse corpse corpse corpse's corpse's corpse's death will still play a part in this story. Her death also took Nancy from a cautious straight-A student to a serious fighter, ready to take on Vecna in the upside down. Had she not felt responsible for her friend's death, she may not have gotten so involved. The creators of Stranger Things, the Duffer brothers, even said that they wanted Nancy to have more skin in the game.

We wanted Nancy to have some real direct connection to the supernatural going on. So with Nancy being more important than ever, going into season five, Barb's unwilling sacrifice may have been exactly what Hawkins needed to win the final battle. Now, to celebrate our love for this show, we have just designed new Stranger Things parody merch for our merch store. We have this nostalgic, Choose Your Own Adventure book called Journey to the Upside Down. There's also a peanut special shirt, Your Next 11, with the Stranger Things gang, drawn as the Peanuts gang. And finally, we have the kids as Scooby-Doo and the gang running from a Demogorgon. And I want to let you guys know right now, we are also having a massive Black Friday sale all week long. We have designed brand new holiday designs like this new Doug ornament where he looks like Snoopy from the Charlie Brown Christmas special.

Happy Life Day, Bone Saw versus the Human Spider, Fox Force 5T, and that's my secret. I'm always working with the hole hunched over his desk. In addition, for this week only, we have a ton of deals on the store, 40% off all apparel, 15% off collectible. Buy three get one free mug and pint glasses. Buy two shirts get one 50% off. And hoodies, hats, and bags are all 25% off. But wait, there's more. 30% off all our Star Wars parody merch

and superhero merch and storewide, all product is 25% off. This sale ends at the end of Cyber Monday week, so if you've always wanted to get a screen crush shirt, now is the time to buy. Links are below. In Stranger Things Season 2, Bob Newby was introduced as Joyce Byers' new love interest.

And while Sean Aston wasn't exactly the most thrilling character that season, he was clearly a nice guy and good for Joyce and her boys. He'd even begun to be a father figure to Will. Sadly, though, the sweetest people in Stranger Things are usually the first to die. In season two, Will becomes infected with a virus that has taken over his body, which was actually the mind flare. So while attempting to treat this virus, Bob, Joyce, Mike Hopper, and Dr. Owens find themselves

trapped in the Hawkins lab when the power goes out and a pack of demigorgans are bearing down on them. So Bob gets a heroic moment where he offers to go to the breaker room and restart the power. And that ends up being the last thing. thing he ever does. After getting the electricity going again, Bob almost makes it to safety before a demodog burst through the door and mauls him while Joyce watches. And if that wasn't bad enough, Bob's body is shown one more time with multiple demo dogs feasting on him. Now, like Barb, the Duffer brothers always had Bob marked for death. Bob was interesting because he was always designed and created to die very early on. Originally, he was going to be killed by a possessed will,

but that changed when Sean Aston sent in a tape for the role. Even the duffers drew a line at killing off everybody's favorite Hobbit in just a few episodes. The original plan was for Joyce to have an annoying loser boyfriend. But with Sean Aston, Bob became a lovable character who stuck it out for eight episodes. And that also meant that Will couldn't be the one to kill Bob because, let's face it, everybody would have totally hated Will. We changed it obviously for Demo Dogs to kill him. At that point, we're like we can't have even a possessed Will kill Bob.

Also, like Barr, Bob didn't die for nothing, narratively or symbolically. Bob's death served two main purposes. First, it cleared the way for Joyce and Hopper to get together. It kind of sucks for Bob. Actually, it really sucks for Bob, that not only did he die, but also Jim Hopper swooped in and got with Joyce. But this was also a relationship that audience and wanted to see since season one. But Bob's death also reinforced that Joyce can't ever have anything normal, and the same goes for everyone else. With Bob, Joyce had found somebody nice, reliable, and maybe a bit boring, but it was really the first bit of normalcy that Joyce was.

it ever had on the show. But that was never going to last. Bob's death was a reminder for everyone in Hawkins that a normal life just isn't going to happen. And it also destabilized Will and Jonathan and their home life, which has a direct effect on season three. So let's talk about Billy Hargrove. And let's be honest, he was a horrible person even before he was possessed by the Mindflayer. Billy was introduced in season two with his step-sister, Max Mayfield, and he was immediately a villain. Not only did he constantly terrorized Max, but he also tried to use his car to run over Mike, Dustin, and Lucas. And he didn't really seem to be kidding in that. scene. Max had to yank the wheel and swerve out of the way. Even when Billy wasn't being a violent

bully, he came off as an egomaniac and kind of gross. Here I am. That made it difficult to ever feel bad for Billy, even with his death being so disturbing and his eventual attempt to redeem himself. So in season two, Billy clearly had anger issues and a rough home life, but he was mostly just a messed up high school bully. That changed in season three when the mind flayer took over his brain and turned him into a killing machine, or at least somebody who helps the Mindflare kill. Now, while possessed, Billy brings Heather Holloway and both her parents to the Mindflayer. But after finding a bloody whistle in Billy's room, Max and Eleven started to catch on. Eventually, they learned the sad truth. Billy's mother left when he was young and his father is abusive.

Elle also discovered that Billy was possessed by the Mindflayer and he wasn't killing by choice. So this ended in the epic season three finale in the Star Court Mall and Billy's death. During the battle, Elle used Billy's memories to temporarily break the mindflare. control. In that brief lucid window, Billy decides to sacrifice himself to the mindflayer, which impaled him multiple times. Before he died, though, Billy even apologizes to Max. Now, his death was one of the most important moments in the show. In season four, we see just how much guilt Max carried over Billy's death, especially because she had stood there watching. Vecna exploits weakness, especially emotional weakness, and this grief made Max the perfect victim for Vecna. Vecna even

taunts Max by claiming she wanted Billy to die. And it's a lot. turns out might have been true to an extent. I would pray that something would happen to him. But Max isn't just any kill for Vecna, she's going to be the final kill he needs to finally merge Hawkins in the upside down. And now that one kill, Billy, might have doomed the entire world. So the most shocking death of season four was Max Mayfield,

but she's not completely dead yet, and it's unlikely they're going to kill her in the final season. Knowing Vecna needs one more kill to merge Hawkins in the upside down, the kids hatch a plan. While Nancy, Stephen Robin go in guns ablazant to destroy Vecna's body in the upside down, Max will act as bait. After all, she's the one he really wants. Time for you to join me. Even with Elle putting up a pretty good fight, Vecna managed to snap Max's limbs and nearly took her eyes out. Max drops to the ground, tells Lucas she can't see or feel

anything, and medically she dies. Her heart stops, making it technically Vecna's fourth kill that he needs. Four times, Max. And even though 11 restarts Max's heart a minute later, things aren't looking very good. At the end of season four, Max is still in a coma. She's not dead yet, but her injuries might mean that she could be dying. Elle, being unable to find her in the void while she's comatose, also suggests that Max is in rough shape going into season five. Now, I don't think Stranger Things is going to kill Max now. It's possible, but it's unlikely. There's no reason for the show to wait until the next season for Max to die. If they were going to do it, it would have happened in the season four finale. But the meaning of Max's death is clear. Vecna achieved his goal in bringing

the upside down to Hawkins. Max is in limbo, straddling life and death, and so, is the entire town. The last we see of Hawkins, it is covered in smoke and ash. It's a representation of the evil that's coming to the town. Even worse, though, Vecna has already told 11 that Hawkins is only the beginning. Next on his list, the entire world. And the rest of this senseless broken world, and I will be there and remake it into something beautiful. Now, two deaths really stand out as the most brutal in season four, Chrissy Cunningham's and Eddie Munson's. Both characters, were new to season four, but that didn't make it any easier to see them die.

Eddie had been selling weed to Chrissy to help her cope with her upside-down nightmare fuel visions and her horrible mother. So when Vecna killed her, he was at the scene of the crime, looking really guilty. It didn't help that he had been parading around in a Hellfire Club shirt and openly talking about Dungeons the Dragons, which, according to the Hawkins news, is a demonic game. Eddie, though, was actually a really good guy, and his goodness is what kills him. To help the group infiltrate Vecna's layer, Eddie and Dustin create a distraction, luring Vecna's creepy army of Demo Bats his way.

Now, the plan works, but a little bit too well, as Dustin and Eddie end up swarmed, and Eddie proves that he is a real hero. Come on! In classic Stranger Thing style, the bats tear Eddie's body apart, leaving a bloody mess to die in Dustin's arms. You're going to have to look after those little sheep from you, okay?

In the larger story, though, Eddie's death has a very specific role, moving Dustin's story forward. The Duffers explained that, similar to Billy's death affecting Max, Eddie's sacrifice is going to change Dustin and give him something to avenge. Eddie's death also helps explain why the Duffers kill characters. According to the brothers, Eddie was doomed from the moment he saw Chrissy die

because his story only had two possible outcomes. He could die or spend the rest of his life in jail. Because even Eddie living and taking the fall for Chrissy's death was a tragic ending. So there was really no other way for Eddie's story to go, so the Duffers killed him. We knew we had sort of dug him into a hole purposely, but it was going to be impossible to really dig it. out of it. But I think the most important death in the show is actually Will Byers. Now, he hasn't actually technically died yet, but his fake death in season one is what propelled every character

on their journey to lose their innocence. Joyce had to grapple with losing her son. Hopper was reminded of losing his daughter. The boys lost their best friend and Jonathan lost his brother. The illusion of childhood is that we're immortal, like Bart Simpson said. Kids don't die! So this show is about shattering our illusion of mortality and the illusion of nostalgia. The world was never perfect. We just remember it that way. So if this is how Stranger Things decides their deaths, it begs the question. Who in season five has the least to live for no matter how this ends? Whoever's your answer, you might want to get ready to say goodbye. Stranger Things has been criticized for giving their characters plot armor. Hell, even the cast

thinks they should call the herd. You need to start killing people all. They just need to have one massacre scene. One huge massacre scene. But the Duffer brothers have been precious with their characters, but maybe not anymore. It is the last season and anyone could die depending on the kind of story they want to tell. So let's talk about some of the most likely candidates. First, there's Will Byers. In episode four, he finally reached some balance in his life. Robin has helped him come to terms with his homosexuality. He has learned to control Vecna's power, and now, like 11, he has psychokinetic abilities. The entire show kicked off with this search for Will, so maybe he was safe for some higher purpose to save the world. This season, Derek actually calls

Will a zombie because he's already risen from the dead. I think that Will could sacrifice himself for his friends and family bringing the series full circle. But to that point, it might make sense that Joyce and Hopper both die. After all, Hopper's death's been teased at least twice at the end of season three and then at the end of season four when he went on a suicide mission against Vecna. Now, as we talked about in our Easter egg video, the two of them actually knew Henry in high school, as we saw in Stranger Things the First Shadow. It's kind of real they don't ever mention that. Yes, it is, but maybe like Vecna's blocked out their memories or something. See, I could see Joyce and Hopper bringing their own stories full circle by confronting

Henry and sacrificing their lives to save the kids. Then the younger generation can keep going. But I also think that a few characters are definitely safe, Lucas, Max, and Mike. If Max was going to die, they would have already killed her off, and she's already suffered enough loss, so I think this means that Lucas is going to make it out. And Mike is our storyteller. He's the dungeon master, so I don't think that he or Holly will be killed because there's just not much story purpose in that. The only reason to kill a child is to send the message that no child is safe. But it's stranger things. We already know the kids aren't safe. Hell, there's even rumors that Nancy is going to get a spin-off, which means she's probably safe. Now, Mike talked about how his campaigns always end.

They travel to a faraway land, a peaceful land, somewhere beautiful, with like three waterfalls or something. And not for nothing, but Holly does have a rainbow bright poster in her room, and this is exactly what happens in the second episode of that show. She turns the evil dark dimension into a colorful paradise. So maybe that means that Mike survives to see his campaign end, and they all go to some kind of paradise. But that colorful paradise could be tied to 11. See, maybe the only way this can really end is with 11's death. I know, we thought she died at the end of season one, but this time it could be for real. She is the one who opened up the rift to Dimension X and created the upside down. Maybe the only way for the upside down to end is for her to sacrifice her own life. Or maybe like Matilda,

the story just ends with her losing her powers. But see, I could also see her death transforming the upside down into a kind of paradise realm where they can just go at the end of the series. You know, just like the end of Mike's campaign. Now, I don't. think Dustin will die. His arc this season is to stop focusing on Eddie's death and instead learn to live. And I also think that Jonathan is safe because he still has a story to tell. He and Nancy are probably going to end up together. So that means the two most likely deaths are Robin and Steve. Now Robin just made a crucial mistake for a character. She showed us that she is a happy, self-actualized person and she passed her wisdom onto a younger hero. And that basically means that she's going to get Dumbledore. She even made a promise to take Vicky on a date.

And that usually means you're not going to make it to that date because you ain't going to be alive. But really, when you look for a character that's going to die, you have to ask yourself, who is at a narrative dead end and whose death would propel the other characters forward. Steve Harrington has become superfluous to this series. He's like locked in this egotistical battle with Jonathan to win Nancy over and prove himself to her. He had the greatest change arc at the start of this series, but now he's become a static character. But also, think about how his death would affect Dustin. Right now, Dustin is angry that Eddie died and people aren't recognizing his sacrifice.

And this season, he's constantly screaming at his former bestie, So if Steve dies, it'll show Dustin how short and precious life is, and maybe it'll break him out of this depression cycle. So sorry, gang, I think Steve is a goner. But who do you think is going to die on Stranger Things? Are there any Stranger Things deaths that you just think didn't work and they shouldn't have had them in there to begin with? Let me hear your thoughts down in the comments below, or at me on Twitter, Blue Sky Threads, or are free to join Discord server, or you can shout at Liz Declan who wrote this video her links are below. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe, smash that bell for alerts.

For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie. Thank you.