Hopper in Stranger Things season 5Image via Netflix
By
Ben Sherlock
Published 23 minutes ago
Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
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Warning! Spoilers ahead for Stranger Things season 5.
Stranger Things season 5 includes a callback to Hopper’s tragic backstory with his late daughter Sara, and it adds a devastating new detail to her illness. As Stranger Things heads toward the end, it’s going back and revisiting a lot of old storylines. Lucas is playing “Running Up That Hill” to Max in her coma, and Mike is bringing Holly into his D&D campaign.
The characters of Stranger Things are all reflecting on how far they’ve come, and everything they’ve been through, as their story comes to an end. After a few seasons of fighting Russians and monsters, Hopper is looking back on his heartbreaking backstory — the death of his daughter — and using that experience to bond with Eleven.
Hopper Reveals That Doctors Thought Sara Would Live
Stranger Things season 1 Sara and Jim Hopper at the hospital
In the first season, we learned that Hopper became so jaded when his daughter Sara died of cancer. He was married to a woman named Diane, but they divorced after Sara’s death put a strain on their relationship. This caused Hopper to lapse into alcoholism, in order to numb the grief, and become the bitter cynic we met at the beginning of the series.
Now, the show’s fifth and final season has added a heart-wrenching new detail to that backstory. When Hopper is confiding in Eleven, he tells her that the doctors thought Sara was going to live. They expected her to recover from her illness, which made her loss all the more devastating.
Hopper’s grief over Sara’s death goes a long way toward explaining his relationship with Eleven. He became her adoptive father because they both had no one and desperately craved the community of a family. But he’s always been an overprotective dad to Eleven, because he’s petrified of losing her the same way he lost Sara.
Hopper's Sara Flashbacks In Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 Explained
David Harbour as Jim Hopper holding Sara, his daughter, in Stranger Things season 1
Stranger Things season 5, volume 1 has brought back Sara for flashbacks for the first time in years. It’s been so long since the last time Sara was shown in flashbacks that the role had to be recast (she was originally played by Elle Graham, who’s now a teenager), but the writers had a good reason to bring her back.
Sara’s flashback return is a big part of Stranger Things coming full circle in its final season. It helps this season feel like a true ending, and a true culmination of the entire series, if the show brings back Sara and reflects on the past and puts more of a spotlight on the extended Wheeler family.
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Stranger Things
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