Stranger Things Season 5: Who Should Die?

Stranger Things Season 4 ended with an ominous pall cast over the town of Hawkins. Vecna has been defeated but is not dead. He still cast his long shadow over the Upside Down and our heroes. He was able to open the four gates which has let him begin to pull the Upside Down into reality. We lost a few characters this season but in the long war with the unknown factors of Vecna, we can expect to lose more. Who will end up meeting their fate when Stranger Things Season 5 hits Netflix? Let’s look at the case for each character.

WARNING: There will be spoilers for all Stranger Things seasons including Season 4.

Mike

The de facto leader of our group of heroes. If only because they meet to play D&D in his basement. He has a strong relationship with all the characters in the show. Will called him the heart of the group. Would he be the one to sacrifice himself to save everyone? Probably not. Don’t get me wrong. He loves his friends and his love for Eleven is without question unflappable. In reality, Mike is usually the one that needs to be saved. Could Vecna kill him to get to Eleven? Maybe but he would probably have an easier time focusing on others that are close to her.

Probability: Mike Lives

Will

The problem with Will is that he was missing pretty much all of season one. Since we were watching the series from the perspective of those left in Hawkins, we didn’t get to check in with Will at all. This causes us to bond with the characters that were on screen for all of season one. Will became an afterthought.

In seasons 2-4, he doesn’t really do much to move the story along. He can feel the presence of the Mind Flayer and Vecna but outside of that doesn’t have much agency. Eleven is much more of a central character in the battle between the creatures of the Upside Down and reality. Will’s death really wouldn’t have much emotional weight to it. Let’s hope he has a bigger character arc in Stranger Things season 5.

Probability: Will Lives

Lucas

Lucas has been sort of pinned as the jock of the group with the help of season 4. In the first couple of seasons, he didn’t have much to do outside of the group. He and Max had a relationship through season 3, and he is handy to have in a fight. We’ve gotten to see more of him with his sister becoming a bigger part of the group and him being central in the Satanic Panic portion of the show through season 4. Would it make sense to almost kill off Max this season and wreck him emotionally only to kill him off the following season? Probably not.

Probability: Lucas Lives

Dustin

Just . . . no.

Probability: Dustin Lives

Eleven

The central superhero of the show has had some tough fights so far throughout the show. Her connection to the Upside Down has been an interesting ride and the revelation that she inadvertently created Vecna has left viewers with their jaws on the floor. Could we see her die before the end of the show? Maybe. With the rough life she has led we could see her fight to save her adopted home of Hawkins and give her life to save the people she loves. On the other hand, it would seem like it was all for nothing if she just ends up dying at the end. In reality, it could go either way.

Probability: 50/50

Steve

Talk about a character arc. In the first season of the show, Steve was a character you really were hoping would get punched in the face. By season two fans fell in love with his relationship with Dustin and the other kids. He labeled himself their babysitter but you can tell he cared about them a lot more than that.

When the break happened in season four, fans began to worry that Steve’s days were numbered. Some even began to say that if Steve didn’t survive season 4 then they were canceling their Netflix subscription forever. Not that that really matters as Netflix has no problem trolling its subscribers. After the scare of Steve possibly not surviving would the Duffer Brothers think about really killing him off? More than likely not as it seems a little too obvious now.

Probability: Steve Lives

Max

At the end of season four, we see that Max is now in a coma. When Eleven tries to enter her mind, all we see is a dark void. Could this mean that Max actually did die at the end of season 4 and all Eleven did was bring her physical body back to life? This could mean that Vecna could use Max’s body as a vessel to enter the real world. If so then there is an actual chance that Lucas could die as a result of how close he is to Max.

Vecna could use Max to do his bidding in the real world while he is safely tucked into the Upside Down. It seems unlikely that if Max is alive that they would save her from such a fate and then just kill her off in Stranger Things season 5.

Probability: Max Is Already Dead And Lucas Dies

Hopper

This one is a tough call. Logically if the plan was for him to die, it would have been at the end of season 3. He has had quite the character arc throughout the show. When we met him, he was still reeling from the death of his daughter. He drank too much and was overweight. It seemed that he had just given up on life. He ended up taking in Eleven as his own adopted daughter and gained a new lease on life but then had to sacrifice all that in order to blow up a gateway to the Upside Down.

This left him in a Russian prison and away from everything that had made him embrace life again. He finally was reunited with everyone at the end of season 4. Would his journey make much sense to come back and die? Maybe. If Eleven was in trouble, he could sacrifice himself to save her. This would let him allow him to actually save his child since he couldn’t with his actual daughter. The only thing maybe not allowing this is his supposed ‘death’ in season 3.

Probability: 50/50

Joyce

People called her crazy when she said she was able to communicate with her missing child through Christmas lights. Really she was the sanest of everyone. Without her connection, Will might have stayed lost in the Upside Down forever. Could she meet her end in season 5? Nothing seems to indicate that would be the case but you never know. With her relationship with Hopper, he would do just about anything to save her. Her death doesn’t seem like it would fill an emotional need or motivation for the other characters.

Probability: Joyce Lives

Nancy

Mike’s older sister has been carrying around some serious guilt around Barb’s death since season 1. We even saw Vecna use that to torture her when she fell into his trance. As a way of evening the scales, could Nancy die? She might. Her death by Vecna could be a push that Mike, Jonathan, and Steve all need to push forward and defeat him for good.

Mike would take the loss of his sister hard and push himself forward. This would in turn push Eleven as she sees how bad Mike is hurting. Jonathan would lose the girl he had been in love with his whole life. Poor Steve would realize that there’s now no chance to correct the mistakes from the past. All these motivations would push all these characters forward and make the fight with Vecna all the more personal.

Probability: Nancy Dies

Jonathan

Look, let’s be realistic. Jonathan hasn’t really been much of a character since season 1. He doesn’t really do much to help push any of the other characters forward. The writers didn’t seem to know what to do with him, so they turned him from the awkward artistic guy into a stoner just as an excuse to bring in the much better character of Argyle. We all kind of hoped he would die just so Nancy and Steve could get back together guilt-free in Stranger Things Season 5.

Probability: We Hope Jonathan Dies

Robin

Her bromance with Steve has been one of the best things on the show since she arrived in season 3. The look of happiness on Steve’s face when he sees her interacting with her crush at the end of season 4 is a thing of joy. In reality, the case for her death is pretty slim. Over the last few years, Hollywood has been taken to task for the burying their gays trope that happens way too often. I don’t see the Duffer Brothers going down that road. If she were to die, it doesn’t seem that it would feel earned at all. There’s still way too much for her character to do even after the show ends.

Probability: Robin Lives

Who do you think will die in season 5 of Stranger Things? Let us know in the comments.