Are you ready for the final takedown? With the final season of Stranger Things 5 looming, the upside-down barrier has been fully breached, merging the street of Hawkins with the upside-down. Vecna, the mastermind behind all the chaos and terror has successfully executed his plan leaving our favorite characters vulnerable and more afraid than ever before. While the Duffer Brothers have been careful about selecting who dies every season the finality of the war comes at a high price. To defeat Vecna and close the gate forever someone will have to pay the ultimate price. Let’s discuss the Hawkins ranking hit list on who most likely to die this season.
#1 STEVE HARRINGTON
In first place we have Steve Harrington, although he is a beloved character and fan favorite he would make the perfect sacrifice to end off the season leaving a lasting and emotional impact for fans of the show. At first we remembered Steve Harrington at the beginning of the show as a absorbed high school Jerk to now being everyones favorite babysitter. He has had a difficult journey navigating his friendship with past love interest Nancy wheeler and the love triangle he is involved in along with trying to moving on and meeting other people. Not only did he go through a harsh breakup in the process he lost his friends, failed at dating other people, and was replaced with billy when it came to high school popularity and kind of flaked after high school. His death would give him the chance to be the the perfect and ultimate sacrifice for the final seasons of Stranger things allowing him to have one last heroic redemption arc while cleaning up the love triangle between him, Nancy and Jonathan while going down as the best bigger brother/ babysitter in history. Although fans would argue it would be most obvious the writers would not avoid such a perfect ending for this character as we seen with fan favorite characters like Eddie and Alexi. History can still repeat itself.
#2 JIM HOPPER
Jim Hopper would be the second most likely character to have a high chance at death this season as his journey would also lead to the perfect sacrifice setting himself up for a redemption arc. I don’t believe that writers are going to have to clean of a ending for both Eleven and Jim’s Story. Learning about Jim’s past history with losing his daughter writer most likely would not want to repeat the same trauma for the finality for his character as it leaves things unfinished and unresolved for the characters growth. If Eleven were to survive, Jim would logically have been the one to sacrifice himself throwing himself in harms way to ensure Elevens survival.
#3 ROBIN BUCKLEY
In third place, we have Robin. Not a lot of people talk about the character meaning her death could go under the radar. Like Eddie, she was a late addition to the group but not a core member. She is still a fan favorite so her death would leave a emotional impact for both Steve and Nancy. Her relationship with Steve would make her death a devastating blow for the character raising the stakes before killing a core member of the D&D party. Her having quick witt and having the ability to understand and crack codes and translate Russian messages could lead to her becoming vulnerable which would requiring a sacrifice in order to relay critical information to the team.
#4 MURRAY BUAMAN
Murray Bauman is on the list of having a high chance of death this season. He is a beloved side character and the Duffer brothers have a cycle with killing of quirky and comedic supporting characters such as Alexei, Eddie, and Bob. His death would definitely have a badass exit as he would have the best survival skills out of everyone meaning his death would be more intentional and heroic in order to take out a horde of monsters before dying to helping Nancy and Jonathan escape.
#5 ELEVEN
In fifth place we have Eleven, while I do believe there is a higher possibility of Jim dying. I still don’t think there ending won’t be clean. Eleven was the one to originally open the upside-down and is the only one with the power to defeat Vecna and close the barrier for good. Eleven’s death wouldn’t be the most surprising but still would be a emotional end as we watched her grow up since the beginning. Fans most likely would be more able to accept her death as it would be heroic and setting things back to the way it was before allowing the characters to return to their natural lives after mourning the loss of their friend. Her death would also be a close to her and Mikes relationship and a potential for Will & Mikes if there is a possibility. However, her death would mean that Jim would still be alive which could be a struggle with writers to avoid placing in mourning the loss of a daughter once again.