Joyce and Hopper never re-read their old yearbooks.
In the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things,” now streaming on Netflix, the show reveals that Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Hopper (David Harbour) used to go to school with Henry – the boy who eventually grew up into the evil villain, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower).
He was even in Joyce’s high school play, a rendition of “Oklahoma,” that she directed.
Bizarrely, although the show has a flashback to their time in high school, Joyce and Hopper never acknowledge that they used to know Henry.
“Am I the only one who thinks this makes no sense? They went to Henry’s memories in the show and showed that Joyce was there in high school. Do they think their audience is stupid?” one fan complained on X, formerly Twitter.
In a story published Thursday, the Duffer brothers addressed it to Variety.
“We had a walk a fine line with the play,” referring to the Broadway “Stranger Things” spinoff play, “The First Shadow,” which covers the events of Henry’s life before “Stranger Things.”
Ross Duffer added, “ We don’t want to frustrate, because so much of our audience is unable to see it. To have them start talking about it would have been confusing in the context of someone who hasn’t seen the play. But I’m sure they did have that conversation.”
“We really needed the final season to be exactly as it would have been without the play,” Matt Duffer chimed in. “The play is Henry’s backstory after he’s infected by the Mind Flayer. But this is how the season was going to play out regardless.”
Even within fudged TV ages, Bower, who is 37, does not look like he is in the same generation as Ryder, 54, or Harbour, 50. The Duffer brothers did not comment on that.
In the series finale, Joyce is the one who strikes the killing blow to Vecna – all while still failing to acknowledge that she used to be his classmate and directed him in a school play.
“…. If Joyce was gonna be the one to do the kill shot…. Vecna should have turned back into Henry or at least said her name to tie in the fact that THEY ACTUALLY KNEW EACH OTHER,” one fan said on Twitter.
Another fan joked, “joyce killing henry at the end, she really did NOT enjoy his acting in her play.”
Ross explained that the writers didn’t plan for it to be Joyce all along. Rather, it was a decision they arrived at after thinking it over.
“I remember we went through, ‘Who gets to do the final blow?’ It works with all of them in a way. So, we just cycled through, what if Steve does it? What if Dustin does it? And then finally, when we landed on, what if Joyce does it?’”
He explained, “It felt right for a lot of reasons. She is sort of the mother of this group, the protector. And also, we never got to see her hit anything with that ax, so that felt like such a satisfying way to deliver the final blow to Vecna.”
It wasn’t just a “f–k you moment” either.
“It was also, in a way, a cathartic moment for our characters, who are purging all this trauma that’s been caused here. It’s not just a stand-up and cheer moment,” he explained. “It’s remembering that this evil has caused them so much pain.”
