Welcome to Part 3 of our Stranger Things 9 Deuce blog for season 3. In this part, El’s Hair and Hopper get all the glory. In case you are new to 9 Deuce blogs, I typically will ask 9 questions and 2 bonus questions. So the first 3 parts will feature 3 questions apiece and then part 4 will feature the bonus questions. Every day this week I will post a new part of the blog. This thing is long, so it’s best to break it down anyway. If I get enough hits, I will post a part 5 on Friday with all of the notes that I took while watching the season.
This year, we have one participant who speaks Spanish and I did the best I could to translate her responses. Some day I hope that we will have 5 different languages on this blog. That would be spectacular. Asia and Europe, accept the challenge! Any comments in bold are made by me, Kent. Thank you for reading, and please share this with your friends, or leave a comment with your responses to the questions.
Here are links to all 5 Parts for easier navigation.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
7. I have to ask about El’s hair again. Was this season your favorite or did you prefer one of her past hairstyles?
Kristi: I liked her hair this season. More natural for a girl her age in that time. (Yeah, I liked that this felt like a normal hairstyle, or natural, whatever term people may use.)
Cece: Loved her hair in scrunchies! (Lots of love for the scrunchies.)
Chris T: Umm, this one I guess. This seems like a weird question, Kent, since you have been so bald the entire time I have known you. Hair envy for a little girl? (So bald? Here’s the thing. The show made it abundantly clear that they would be altering El’s hairstyle every season. It is important for us to show our appreciation for their choices and voice our opinions. I have been bald for almost ⅔ of my life now. At least once a year I have a dream where I have hair. Of course, there is some hair envy going on! Quit acting like you don’t share the hair envy.)
Raylene: I liked her with the longer hair. (It worked well for her.)
Jim: In the mall after her and Erica’s day out. (I think I can safely assume that he meant Max, but I’m not going to edit it.)
Melanie: Loved the hair!!! Scrunchies are my all time favorite hair accessories! (Mine too.)
Ana: sin duda el cabello de 11 lucia mejor rapado, aunque el personaje haya compartido mas tiempo en sociedad y con los otros niños, un look mas moderno le hace perder mistisismo al personaje de 11. (Recibí una aclaración porque Google Translate no siempre hace un gran trabajo. Ana pensó que El se veía mejor con la cabeza afeitada. Siempre pensaré que fue el mejor aspecto rudo a diferencia de la horrible temporada 2).
Translation: Undoubtedly, the hair of 11 looked better shaved, although the character has shared more time in society and with the other children, a more modern look makes the character of 11 lose her mysticism. (I got clarification because Google Translate doesn’t always do a great job. Ana thought that El looked better with the shaved head look. I will always think that was the best badass look, unlike Season 2’s awfulness.)
Kent: This was my favorite hairstyle for El so far in the series. I think I have asked about her hair every season, so that is why it had to be asked again. Glad to see the positive comments. Still a fan of the shaved head though, as well.
8. Did the ending make you cry?
Kristi: Yep. I grew to love Hopper and seeing them drive away. Shit. I’m a sucker for that crap.
Johnny: Yes. Good job Duffers. You made me cry like a baby. Haha
Cece: Yep. Hopper’s damn letter.
Chris T: Truthfully, I thought that while the whole ending was sad, the Johnathon/Nancy part was the saddest… (I imagine people reading this and just shaking their heads. Okay, maybe just me, but I have a big fat head.)
Raylene: Hopper’s letter got to me but I’m hoping because we didn’t see his body he escaped. (More shows have to show the death off screen because it’s become too much of a giveaway, I feel. I am trying to remember if we actually saw Roose Bolton die on screen in GoT.)
Jim: the letter was tough.. (That was Hold The Door tough.)
Melanie: Hopper’s letter was fetal position ugly cry. (Really well done with that one. One of the better responses in the history of my blogs.)
Ana: La carta de Hopper es conmovedora esta cargada de emociones de su cariño y cuidado hacia 11 y de la preocupación por verla crecer y enfrentarse al mal. En cuanto a Billi quien al parecer resultaba ser el villano, vemos al final que es humanizado como personaje y se nos enseña el por que de su forma de ser y una historia de vida que no conociamos. (Lamento no haber hablado más sobre Billy porque su historia estuvo realmente en el punto crucial de toda esta temporada. Como de costumbre, les fallé a todos. Billy realmente tuvo un gran arco de historia y fue uno de los personajes más interesantes de la serie. Espero verlo en otras cosas.)
Translation: Hopper’s letter is moving is full of emotions of his love and care for 11 and the concern to see her grow and face evil. As for Billi who apparently turned out to be the villain, we see in the end that he is humanized as a character and we are taught why his way of being and a life story we did not know. (I regret not talking more about Billy because his story was really at the crux of this whole season. As usual, I failed everybody. Billy really had a great story arc and he was one of the most interesting characters in the series. I look forward to seeing him in other things.)
Kent: I can’t say anything that is going to top Melanie’s poignant statement. My allergies were ridiculous that day. Right after that, I had to dust.
9. Do you think that Hopper is dead?
Kristi: Nope. They can’t do that to us. Just when he is humanized. He will reappear. (So he’s not going to be Keyser Soze?)
Johnny: No on-screen death so my answer is no. He’s without a doubt still alive.
- He either went through the portal to The Upside Down and is now stuck there.
- He was taken by a Demogorgon and brought to the “evil Russians”. That cage Erica was looking at with Dustin definitely came back to me when we saw the Demogorgon end-credit stinger. (I’m so glad that you brought up the cage. I think that is definitely important moving forward.)
- One more theory I think worth mentioning is related to the 1st one I mentioned… Hopper going through the portal into The Upside Down and then comes out the other side to find the Russian base from the beginning of S3. He may be ” The American” one of the guards pointed out in the end-credit stinger. He has to be “The American” the guard mentions. The only other possible American I can think of that we know could be there is Dr.Brenner. But I don’t think Brenner is likely. (Man, there is a lot of Brenner speculation. So far, I’m not buying it, but really all it takes is me getting bored with the Hopper being the American theory for me to change my mind. Like Brenner and Hopper could be back I suppose. Why not?)
Cece: Nope! (Okay!)
Chris T: …since we know Hopper is alive (But what if this show says screw it, we are going to screw over current TV convention? I don’t think this is the character to do it on, I know this isn’t the character to do it on, but someday, some show will break the chains that bind them and Tobin Bell will smile. I would love to see Tobin Bell in next season.)
Raylene: Well I didn’t read down so NO. (Why not?)
Jim: not a chance (IF Hopper turns out to be dead, would this show lose viewer’s love and affection more than season 8 of GoT? That’s a legitimate question.)
Melanie: Nope, but he isn’t right either. (That is also going to be interesting. He’s most likely alive, but in what condition is he going to be in?)
Ana: El final de la temporada y las tomas donde se habla del americano nos hacen pensar que Hopper no ha muerto, si se encontrar vivo seria dificil explicar como sobrevivio y si estuviera muerto esto nos haria ver que cualquier personaje en la serie es vulnerable y puede morir, sin embargo preferiria que Hopper muriera para no generar una situación donde el personaje sobrevive de la nada y creando una situación forzada e irreal. (Me alegra que digas esto porque va con mi respuesta).
Translation: The end of the season and the shots where the American is talked about make us think that Hopper has not died, if being alive would be difficult to explain how he survived and if he were dead this would make us see that any character in the series is vulnerable and can die However, I would prefer that Hopper die so as not to generate a situation where the character survives from nothing and creating a forced and unreal situation. (I am glad that you say this because it goes with my answer.)
Kent: This isn’t the response that you may expect from me, but here we go. I think that Hopper is dead, and I’m not sure that it would be good for the show to bring him back. This isn’t a Jon Snow situation. One could argue, and I will, that we saw his death. You can say that we didn’t, but you can just as easily say that we did. There’s not going to be proof one way or the other. Our irrational hope wants us to believe in cliches and whatnot. But here’s something that shouldn’t be overlooked. This show was due for a big character death and Barb, Brenner (possibly), Bob, Billy, and anybody else with a B name don’t really do it. They finally took their shot on one of the most beloved characters.
Hopper is/was my favorite character on the show. Not only that, he died a hero. He then got one of the all-time send-offs with that letter that made everybody collectively lose their tears. As Jud Crandall once said in Pet Sematary, “Sometimes dead is better” and maybe this is one of those times. He got the best send off that you can get. If he comes back, it kinda ruins the death equation in the show. It guarantees that he is never going to be a threat to die moving forward. For me, Hopper is the show in many ways, I may be his biggest fan here. Yet, I think maybe you keep on keeping on at this point and you let him have the best death that this show could offer. Let’s just let him be a hero, if just for one day.
Really, why do they kill off all characters with names that start with B?
I’ll leave you with this.
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you both about. I know this is a difficult conversation, but I care about you both very much and I know that you care about each other very much. And that’s why it’s important that we set these boundaries moving forward. We can build an environment where we all feel comfortable, trusted, and open to sharing our feelings.
Feelings…Jesus…
The truth is, for so long, I’ve forgotten what those even were. I’ve been stuck in one place, in a cave, you might say. A deep dark cave. And then, I left some Eggos out in the woods and you came into my life and for the first time in a long time, I started to feel things again. I started to feel happy. But lately, I guess I’ve been feeling…distant from you. Like you’re…you’re pulling away from me or something. I miss playin’ board games every night, making triple-decker Eggo extravaganzas at sunrise, watching westerns together before we doze off. But I know you’re getting older. Growing. Changing. And I guess, if I’m being really honest, that’s what scares me. I don’t want things to change. So I think maybe that’s why I came in here. To try to maybe…stop that change. To turn back the clock. To make things go back to how they were. But I know that’s naive. It’s just…not how life works. It’s moving. Always moving, whether you like it or not. And yeah…sometimes it’s painful. Sometimes it’s sad. And sometimes…it’s surprising. Happy. So you know what? Keep on growing up, kid. Don’t let me stop you. Make mistakes, learn from ’em, and when life hurts you, be as it will. Remember the hurt. The hurt is good. It means you’re out of that cave. But please…if you don’t mind, for the sake of your poor old dad, keep the door open three inches. “