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Nine well-spent hours of my life later, I’ve wrapped up Season 2 of Stranger Things. The show is built on 80s nostalgia, an amazing score, and a fantastic cast of characters. One thing the showrunners have done really well is assemble a mostly fantastic cast who do a great job portraying the continually beleaguered citizens of Hawkins.
However, the characters themselves have their stock rising or falling on a regular basis, and I took it upon myself to see where everyone stood when that weird white dust from the Upside Down settled. Will and Dave went into greater detail on Touching Things, but here’s my take on the character stock watch for Season 2 of Stranger Things:
Eleven – Up
Frankly, I don’t even have to say much about Eleven, a.k.a. Jane, a.k.a. The GOAT. In the Stranger Things universe, she’s the baddest person on the planet and this season she knows it. Didn’t get nearly enough of her badassery as we would’ve liked, but when we did, it was awesome.
Hopper – Up
Another obvious high-stock candidate, guy has been trending sky-high since middle of Season One. Hard to believe this guy used to be an apathetic alcoholic shitbag. He’s turned into the gritty, heater-ripping and no-shit-taking cop father we’ve always dreamed about. There’s being a single parent, and then there’s being a single parent of a limited vocabulary superweapon who spent a decade living in a lab. He’s not perfect, but Hopper is the #1 choice in Hawkins to lead a world-saving operation.
Mike – Down
I get it, he entered the season pretty much the main character, and yeah he’s a great friend to Will and all that shit. But, too whiny. My man spent the entire season just being a little asshole. Hey, maybe that’s the normal reaction, and everyone was just a bit too cheerful considering they’re all essentially living right next to hell, but almost nine hours of Mike being a dick to everyone because he misses Eleven was a bit too much for him to take. Now that he got his girl back and got his dance floor smooch, I think there’s room for a rebound in S3.
Dr. Owens – Stagnant
Part of a massive cover-up that has killed numerous people? Sure, not a great look. But being played by Paul Reiser and scoring Eleven a fake birth certificate? Commendable. It evens out.
Bob – Down
Putting this out there: I love Bob. Yeah, he was a nerdy little cheesedick who I kind of thought would be some sort of Russian spy or shady dude for like half the season, but he just eventually turned out to be the sweetest little heroic man of all time. He was, unfortunately, a habitual giver of bad advice, but tried his best and was so sweet and genuine with his girlfriend’s troubled kids. Bob had the biggest heart of anyone in Season 2.
Unfortunately, that heart, and the rest of his innards, got feasted upon savagely by a group of demo-dogs like Bob was a big bag of 3 a.m. Taco Bell. Your stock can only be down if you hesitate and get munched on.
Joyce – Up
No one in Hawkins is as woke about supernatural occurrences as Joyce Byers. She was the driving force behind continuing the search for Will in S1 and for giving every crazy theory a chance in S2. To be honest, Hawkins would be fucked without Joyce. The poor woman lost her sweet nerdy boyfriend but (hopefully) finally has her son back to normal. Plus she might be rekindling some heat with Hopper, which I think we all NEED to happen.
Erica – Way Up
I need more Erica, and I needed it yesterday. Hands down the queen of the season, she spent every precious moment of screen time trolling the shit out of her brother and his friends. Lucas had a great season, which was all the more impressive considering his little sister completely obliterated him every chance she got.
Lucas – Up
Despite being a repeated victim of his little sister’s savagery, Lucas managed to turn in an excellent showing and get his stock trending upward after a mostly stagnant first go-around. Becoming the first member of your nerd squad to actually get a girl who isn’t already living in your basement to like you is no small feat. His little montage of practicing to ask her to dance with him (which he kinda pees down his leg on anyways) is relatable as hell. Solid role player turn by Lucas here.
Mr. Wheeler – Down
Has anyone given up more than this guy? Slept through a high school student nearly dicking down his smoking hot wife, and hasn’t know where any of his kids are in at least three years. Do less; he can’t.
Max – Stagnant
I mean, I guess she’s okay? Happy for her and Lucas, all the best to that couple, but she was just kinda there to be there. This is more on the writers and not Max, but they just weren’t drawing up the plays for her that I thought they would.
Murray – Up
About ten minutes of screen time, and that’s all he needed. Conspiracy theories, taking down the government, and insisting on two underage kids sleeping together at his weird bunker of a home? Creepy as hell, but entertaining. Need more Murray next season.
Will – Down
Before you start throwing stuff at me, I get that this wasn’t his fault. Didn’t ask to be dragged into the Upside Down. Give the actor all the Emmys, but give the character all the thumbs down. Redemption moment about closing the gate aside, he was a vehicle for disaster for essentially two full seasons. Looking forward to maybe getting a somewhat normal Will down the road.
Eight – Stagnant
Disappointing choice of squad aside, I’m definitely intrigued by Eight in terms of where she can take the plot. She also was an integral part of Eleven undertaking a new level of being a badass. Still, she didn’t move the needle a whole lot.
Dustin – Down
If you thought I was going to give adorable sweet Dustin a pass for keeping a Bob-killing hellbeast in his room, in the words of T.I. “U Don’t Know Me.” Dustin is still a sweet little kid, yeah, but you can’t keep making that creepy purring sound and keep trying to make demo-dog happen and just expect your stock to even stay stagnant. However, I still felt for him fighting back tears on the outskirts of the dance so kudos to Nancy for saving his dignity. Speaking of Nancy…
Nancy – Down
Listen I love exposing a conspiracy just like any other red-blooded American. But participating in a cuck job on your boyfriend while doing it? I’m not going to support that. The groundwork was laid for the Nancy/Steve relationship to be derailed but that train hadn’t come entirely off the tracks yet. She should’ve at least had the decency to pass him a note in class saying “Lts brkup sry its not u its me.”
Jonathan – Down
Still creepy, still a sober guy at parties, still cucked a dude. Congrats on getting your dream girl and being a caring brother but come on man, cucking a dude in a conspiracy theorist’s guest bedroom? That’s sorry as hell.
Steve – Through The Roof
There hasn’t been a bigger character redemption arch since Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2. The hair, the admitting of faults, the babysitting; Steve blossomed in front of our eyes. If you didn’t get the warm fuzzys when he mentored Dustin, shoved Max behind him while staring down a demo-dog, or continued to serve as the kid’s leader and protector despite just suffering from a serious concussion at the hands of Billy, then I don’t know what to tell you. He even took getting cucked fairly well. Steve is my power player of the season.
Billy – Up
Malicious asshole? Yep. Possible racist? Maybe. Dickhead step-brother? Absolutely. Devoid of any real significance to the plot? Yeah, wtf. Potential murderer? Seems likely. But…
Oh, daddy. Make sure you listen to Touching Things to hear theories about what makes Billy tick, but damn this guy has some powerhouse swagger. Took over his new school in like a week, to the point where he was treated like a God at the Halloween party. Ripping cigs while doing barbell curls, seducing hot moms, and just generally being the prettiest man I’ve ever seen, his stock can’t be anywhere but up for me.
It was good to see him get knocked down to Earth a bit by the threatened loss of his genitals. Heading into Season Three he’s gotta have some more plot involvement before he eventually flies into the sun, but it’s been a fun psychotic flight so far. .
Image via Netflix
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Kyle Bandujo
The artist formerly known as Crash Davis. My kid doesn't think I'm funny.
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I need a whole entire show dedicated to just Erica. Girl was the shit.
Billy being able to curl and bench press the same amount of weight is such a power move.
I’m in agreement for much of this list. I personally think Steve had the best season out of everyone. I do, however, disagree with your scoring of Eleven and Eight. I would rate them as stagnant and down, respectively. Eight because her crew of friends was completely pointless and idiotic and Eleven strictly because she became one of them even if it was for just an episode but that was the biggest waste of a half hour in the entire season.
Looking back, I’m okay with how that episode turned out. But you’re right, at the time I was very frustrated with how it was going. That half hour was a little off the rails.
I get it, it was used to juxtapose the difference between 8 and 11 in how they have a choice to forgive or to seek revenge. 11 has to figure out if she could kill someone in cold blood. I found it to be a very pivotal point in her character development.
I gotta leave Nancy and Jonathan as stagnant, not down. The two drove basically the only relevant side plot of the whole season and as I said previously, Nancy might be the most intriguing character on this show whose name isn’t a number.
Also, you can’t downgrade Jonathan after cucking the king of high school, causing his subsequent downward spiral and rebirth, and way outkicking his coverage while doing so.
Oh Billy. Billy, Billy boy. That dangly earring got me all hot and bothered.
Steve and Lucas definitely made the season for me… also season 2 Nancy, sup?