Stranger Things 3: 6 reasons [spoiler] is still alive

It’s similar to Eleven’s fake-out death

On a story level, it just makes sense for Hopper to still be out there for one very simple reason: his exit mirrors Eleven’s own fake-out death back in season 1 in a lot of ways.

Think about it. Both El and Hopper apparently gave their lives in a heroic way – the former in stopping the Demogorgon from hurting her friends, the latter in helping shut down the Russians’ machine. Both of them vanish and are presumed dead. And then both season finales end with the stinger teasing that they survived.

Last time around, Eleven was revealed to have survived at the end of the season 2 opener. What are the odds the same thing will happen in season 4?

We don’t see Hopper die

Similarly, Hopper’s supposed “death” might be an example of a classic TV trope: if there ain’t a body, the character probably won’t turn out to be dead. That’s even more true of a sci-fi show like Stranger Things. Any number of things could have happened to him, but we’ve got no hard evidence that he’s dead.

Note that the Russian scientists who are also trapped in the vicinity of the exploding machine are turned into horrible goop when it goes off. When it comes to Hopper, though, there is clearly nothing left where he used to be. Which suggests he might have simply fled the area. Or perhaps been kidnapped…

Either way, it’s likely the ladder that can be glimpsed in the background of his “final” moments has something to do with his escape.