One Stranger Things character who never got the look-in he deserved was Eddie Munson, played to perfection by Joseph Quinn. Through season 4 of the show, Quinn was almost the show’s beating heart, which says a lot, because the show was full of heart.
The lead characters, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Will (Noah Schnapp) and Max (Sadie Sink), were as absorbing as ever. But Eddie’s storyline kept the show anchored to its main premise while growing it up. Just as the protagonists were growing up, the show had some serious points to start making. That’s why it was a shame that Eddie went the way he did, relegated to a needless character death.
Yes, Eddie did die a hero. But his sacrifice wasn’t convincing. In season 4’s finale, “Chapter Nine: The Piggyback,” Eddie and Dustin head into the Upside Down to draw Vecna’s demobats away from the Creel House so that Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Robin (Maya Hawke) and Steve (Joe Keery) can reach Vecna. Eddie plays Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” from the roof of the trailer in the Upside Down, and the plan works. Then, instead of escaping, Eddie cuts the rope back to safety and runs out of the relative safety of the trailer into the storm of monsters. He sacrifices himself to delay them and give the heroes more time to finish what they’d started.
It worked, which became clear. But it seemed like Eddie didn’t have to give up his life here, with the heroes seeming just about able to complete their task even without Eddie’s sacrifice. In fairness to Stranger Things, when Dustin explains Eddie’s sacrifice to his uncle Wayne (Joel Stoffer) at the end of season 4, he doesn’t appear defensive or on the back foot. He appears cool, calm, confident, and completely self-possessed—possessed of the understanding that Eddie’s contribution to saving Hawkins was irreplaceable.
But by season 5, the show finally appeared to acknowledge that Eddie’s death was a little jarring rather than straight-up heroic. Eddie’s best friend Dustin has to defend his sacrifice to Steve, which he is also doing to the many viewers who questioned Eddie’s untimely demise.
If the show had made slight tweaks to the plot, Eddie’s death could have appeared like a truly necessary sacrifice from the start. In a way, the show did him dirty by not doing that, since Eddie was one of the best characters of the whole series. He was the series’ representative of Dungeons & Dragons, the iconic game that inspired it all. The archetypal and ultimate dungeon master, Eddie was zany, creative, and metal to his core and a performer.
So even though his death was too much, it makes sense in the context of how misunderstood he was as a whole. In its satanic panic, the world blamed him for its ills, and the fact that it carried on blaming him even after he died a hero deepened his sacrifice.
With Stranger Things exploring spinoffs, Eddie’s character could use a reexamination or reappraisal, even if through a reference or Easter egg. It would be amazing to see a nod to Eddie, or even an appearance in a spinoff, but even if that never happens, Eddie will live far longer in pop culture than he did in Stranger Things.
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