This article contains major spoilers for Stranger Things, Season 4 from its very first line.Here lies Eddie "The Freak" Munson: Died March 27th, 1986.
Introduced in the first episode of Season 4, Eddie Munson is an intense, long haired metal-loving kid that Dungeon Masters for his D&D group: The Hellfire Club. With jet black hair, piercing shark-like eyes, and an absolute teen matter of fact-ness, Munson is by no means popular in the school, but he has the boys in his grip after cajoling Dustin and Mike with the mystique and props that comes from being accepted by an older kid. Munson seems like dangerous and tantalizing fun at a scary new school, one that the two boys cannot help but be drawn to. And now, four seasons in, we find ourselves also sucked in by the leader of this group.
And then, just eight episodes later — he was dead.
Having been killed by the greater evil that is Vecna, we had barely gotten a chance to know Eddie. Flights have lasted longer than the time that we got to spend with this enticing and passionate new character. And to that we say... the wrong dude died. To keep the stakes up, and to keep the show interesting, someone had to go for sure. But, if anyone at all, we would have preferred to have seen Steve be the one to get killed off.
Stranger Things' Beloved Bully
Steve Harrington has become such a fan favorite of the series that thematically it just would have made more sense. Now having featured in the joint highest amount of episodes alongside any of the other cast, the Funko Pop-headed leading man mathematically made more sense to die, if the Duffers wanted to shock fans.
Played by the ever charismatic Joe Keery, Steve has been a staple for the show from its birth. First seen as a standard 80s film-fare thug, this bully-turned-bestie's eyes were opened upon discovering the Demigorgan and the world of the Upside Down. Quickly adored by fans, the relationship between Steve and Dustin (affectionately dubbed simply "Henderson" by Steve) has become a great double act for the series.
Having known the character from the show's opener, we've actually seen Steve develop from troublesome antagonist to well-loved and vital cast member; conversely, we had only met Eddie earlier this season and weren't given a proper amount of time to get to know him or mourn his death. In hindsight, with Season 4 now finished and 5 on the way, Eddie actually felt like he was expendable, a sketched character destined to then only be erased.
Ed's Dead, Baby
Played emphatically by then little known Joseph Quinn, his Eddie Munson performance felt like an electrical jolt to a series threatening to go stale. His character was so well-written and so frantic that he lit up every scene he was a part of. Inside his scrappy denim vest, the actor and character seamlessly merged into that specific pocket of the 1980s pop culture that Stranger Things was still yet to explore: the decade's love of darkness in media and the scaremongering backlash toward teens and their relationship with the occult.
Linking to today's teens, Eddie has been only adored by the Stranger Things fandom. Kate Bush may have taken the headlines, but the rhythmically inclined Season 4 would pass the six string to Munson who single-handedly regenerated the band Metallica for Stranger Things' unassuming and mainly teen-viewing audience.
Elsewhere, Munson's shrill yet somehow melodic "Chrissy, wake up! I don't like this!" line from the closing possession scene in episode one of Season 4 has become synonymous with TikTok's likewise young adult audience as it's been sampled, warped, and remixed again and again by the character's long list of fans, including Metallica.
What if Steve Died in Stranger Things?
Eddie Munson was the new kid — fresh legs, immediately likable, and a forever misunderstood failure who had made his own way in life. Revealed to have been held back by the school, making him at least two years older than the boys, Eddie noticed something special in Mike and Dustin. In his final moment, he ignored that this crappy little town had only treated him like garbage thus far, forgiving that in the best interest of his new friends.
Meanwhile, Steve had already saved the day at this point (three times, no less). When Steve was attacked by bats in The Upside Down it feels like it could have been on the cards that Stranger Things was ready to finish his story... but didn't see it through and changed its mind at the last second. Turning the tables, and letting Eddie live, the weight of his uncle putting up missing posters in the final episode in comparison could have been emotionally cranked up had we seen Steve killed instead. Going even one further, if Steve was theoretically gone for Season 5, there would have been a bigger, more emotional motivation for the others to kick on and finally finish, determined to stop this evil once and for all.
Dustin would have had to fill the hole left by the character's passing, one that (now alive!) Eddie could have stepped into as an equally older, darker, funnier male character for the boy to look up to and mock. Perhaps Nancy could have expressed her true love for the late Steve to (an entirely underused this season) Jonathan now that he's gone. Plus, with the general belief that Eddie killed Chrissy himself and then fled from the scene, the following season could have seen him trying to clear his name, all while grappling with the truth that he had helped stop the real villain but would sound mad if he ever told anyone.
Lastly, from Keery's professional and financial point of view it also makes sense to have dropped Steve. With the possible exception of one Finn Wolfhard (Mike), actor Joe Keery has had arguably the biggest and most certainly interesting career outside of Steve Harrington and Stranger Things. Heavily featured in the Ryan Reynold's film Free Guy last year, Keery also proved that he could shoulder his own feature film as the leading man of the little seen but culturally relevant (and highly recommended) slasher film Spree in 2020.
What Will Season 5 Bring?
Although Season 4 was definitely entertaining, there were some dull decisions. With both the death of newcomer Eddie and the lack of conviction in properly killing Max (who was instead put in a coma, likely leaving the door open enough for her to return), it continues a half-measured trend for the series and the Duffer brothers that suggests they can't handle necessary shake-ups. They seem entirely risk-averse, unable to pull the trigger on should-be-terminal characters when it would be better serve the show in the long run.
Now with some audience dissatisfaction that such an immediately iconic character like Eddie Munson came and went, a fan petition to Bring Eddie Back is currently sat at just under 86 thousand signatures online, and back in June the Duffer brothers threatened to "George Lucas" and retroactively edit their series to "fix" a now wrong date in the show (also spotted by uber-fans). So who knows... maybe Eddie Munson will be back as a blue force ghost before we know it.
Ashes to ashes. Dust to Another One Bites The Dust.