“There is no shame in running.” Oh, why couldn’t he believe his own words.
Stranger Things is full of fandoms that pop up with each new season. The biggest right now is all about Joseph Quinn’s Metallica-loving, Hellfire Club leader Eddie Munson. But the show wouldn’t return from such a long hiatus to have a newly introduced character bite the dust yet again, would it? Well, it did and the Season 4 finale holds some of the show’s darkest moments. During their mission to cross over into the Upside Down, Eddie isn’t the only one who suffers greatly; so does Max (Sadie Sink). But she had Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) to revive her, allowing the possibility of a return. For poor Eddie, nothing is left up to interpretation, the Demobats definitely killed him. That the show tried to offer this as a redemptive, full-circle arc to the character feels incredibly unsatisfactory due to all that came before. Eddie gets called and calls himself, “the freak” and “the banished.” Dare it be said, Eddie “the hero” rings truer.
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Hopper (David Harbour) beheads a Demogorgon. Nancy (Natalia Dyer) blasts a shotgun into Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). These are intense acts of bravery, but they shouldn’t be the exception. Through dialogue, words turn into important indicators to how the show wants audiences to view Eddie. In a dire moment of the D&D game, he tells the players: “Don’t try to be heroes.” When Eddie’s hideout is discovered, Steve (Joe Keery) hits at areas with an oar. “If you’re so brave, you take the tarp off,” he tells Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo). Soon after, Eddie jumps out from hiding under it. He tells the Hellfire club it’s okay to back off. He’s caught hiding in the shed. The emphasis on “heroes” and “brave” makes it appear that Eddie acts the opposite, that he isn't heroic. But there’s an inaccuracy to that. Heroism doesn’t need to be so extreme.
In Chapter 8, as everyone gears up for the Upside Down, Eddie and Dustin play with their makeshift weapons. Taken out of context, one might think they’re prepping for a LARP event. It’s full of innocence, a naivety the main characters have left behind or otherwise lost. “Never change, Henderson,” the older tells the younger. For Eddie’s lack of self-confidence, he ignores a strength. The reason Dustin rallies his friends together to help prove his innocence goes back to when Eddie took him under his wing. Eddie made the Hellfire Club into a community for outsiders, led by the biggest outcast. A montage in Chapter 1 shows no students wanting to be associated with them. Instead, everyone crowds the bleachers for the school’s championship game of tossing “balls into laundry baskets” because that’s popular, traditional, not at all nerdy. High school can be brutal. Everyone needs a support system to navigate those four years--an extra one or two for Eddie. His passionate commitment to wearing an outcast label with pride is a small but noteworthy badge of courage. In Hellfire, no one’s alone, thanks to Munson as a mentor and role model.
Helping cheerleader Chrissy (Grace Van Dien) ultimately seals his fate. Her body is mangled up by Vecna, leaving behind a lifeless husk and Eddie screaming into the night. Another thing he says during the D&D campaign comes back to haunt him: “There is no shame in running.” After Chrissy’s murder, he runs, full of shame in doing so. In an interview with Collider, Quinn talked about the inner conflict in his performance: “He is constantly battling with the fact that he wasn’t able to save Chrissy. Wracked with guilt, really--he feels that he couldn’t be heroic in that moment. So how could he be heroic in any other moment?” But there’s no way Chrissy's death is preventable. Vecna’s identity remains a mystery at this point and music hasn't been discovered as a valuable source of survival. It isn’t cowardly that Eddie spends most of Volume 1 on the run and in hiding. The world is out to get him. It’s as much of a horror story as what Vecna puts his victims through.
Quinn’s manic energy, frantic mannerisms, and freakouts are a breath of fresh air among everyone who is on the same page with Demogorgons and Demodogs. Let’s not ignore the plot armor safeguarding the main ensemble. Max turns into a rare casualty, but that’s for the time being. Russ Duffer discussed more on this with Collider, saying, "Both her and Eddie, from the get-go, they are targeted, and they're both screwed as a result of Vecna and circumstance, in the case of Eddie.” To make the point even more clear, Duffer adds, “these characters are hurtling towards disaster from very early on in the season." The fact Eddie holds it together is remarkable, as we have to remember that the world of Demobats, Demogorgons, and the Upside Down is all brand new to him, unlike the other characters who have had a few seasons to adjust.
These two are linked through similar situations, decades apart. Eddie’s uncle Wayne (Joel Stoffer) mentions Creel to Nancy, falsely accusing one framed “killer” over another. Convicted of his family’s murder, Creel ends up in a mental hospital, communicating coherently on good days although not for long. As for Eddie, he has no one to turn to, not like the main ensemble have had in previous seasons. The trust he puts in Dustin, Nancy and the rest is one hell of a brave act because it’s his only option to stay free. With Hopper out, the Hawkins lawmen have no experience with the Upside Down. They’re eyeing Eddie as a prime suspect, along with a vigilante group of jocks.
In a scene towards the end of the season, the Munson teen pops into frame wearing a Michael Myers mask as a disguise. It’s darkly funny, precisely because that’s what Hawkins locals view the character as, their very own boogeyman. It’s the easy answer. Vecna is the Big Bad of the whole series, but the residents know nothing of the desiccated, black widow-lover. First Victor, now Eddie, these two are their monsters. This is an extreme outsider status that none of the Hawkins kids have faced. His hiding at Reefer Rick’s place, making it through one day and into the next, is not certain. Eventually, the jocks do find him. After witnessing another mangled victim, only more blame gets put onto Eddie. Like Duffer stated, he’s screwed.
What makes his death feel even less justified is how little time we are granted to process it. In Volume 2, yes, he gets involved in big set pieces. He plays a guitar solo to get the direct attention of the Demobats. Red lightning flashes around, like stage lights, for the “most metal concert in the history of the world!” Making sure Dustin escapes through the portal first, Eddie severs it, helping the kid like he’s done before, the circumstances just different. We watch as he continues to fight the bats but they still manage to ravage him, but not before a tearful goodbye to Dustin. Then, the last episode suddenly puts up a “Two Days Later” epilogue, skipping over what Eddie’s death means to those who tried to prove his innocence beyond Dustin (and even at that, it felt like we weren't given enough time to see Dustin grapple with Eddie's death).
Everything is slimmed down to an emotional scene between Dustin and Eddie’s Uncle. The inspiration for the character comes from real-life figure Damien Echols, one of three young men wrongfully convicted of murder during the Satanic Panic. The monologue Dustin gives drives home the aftermath of the pain and ignorance to those falsely accused. It also attempts to credit Eddie for heroism in trying to save a town that hated him. Yet, his living in contrast to a small town’s traditions is courageous enough. It hurts to lose Eddie but especially to lose him through a death he believed in some ways he deserved. It feels less like a character flaw than a storytelling one. Don’t ignore the small, crucial brave acts. Whether an outcast, scapegoat, or framed killer, Eddie Munson didn’t give himself enough credit for dealing with so many odds put against him.
Chris Sasaguay is a Freelance Writer for Collider. At any given moment, his mind wanders from Scream Queens, queer cinema, to maybe 'Bob’s Burgers'. If he isn’t hiking through the woods on his free time, he’s probably making another niche Spotify playlist.
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