The Most Gruesome ‘Stranger Things’ Death Was the Most Deserved

The following story contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season 4, Volume 2.

In Season 4 of Stranger Things, we met a new jock character named Jason Carver. Through the years, Stranger Things has shown a skill for writing these sorts of characters in complex, sometimes unexpected ways; there is, of course, the fan-favorite Steve Harrington (played by Joe Keery), who started as a cocky jerk, eventually transforming into arguably the most beloved figure on the show. There's also Billy (Dacre Montgomery), a very attractive fellow who was nonetheless a racist and abusive asshole—who the Duffer Brothers somehow managed to fill with enough tragic backstory, and enough of a self-sacrifical end, that he, too, became a fan favorite. Where could they possibly go from there

They go right to the '80s movie playbook, that's where. Jason (played by Mason Dye), plays in Stranger Things 4 almost as a satire on the typical '80s jock. He speaks in cliches, he gets crowds of people riled up over extremely dumb things, and he does not seem to have more than a few confused brain cells in his whole noggin. This kind of character can be funny to make fun of, but when that riling up of people starts to lead to violence, it can get pretty scary pretty quickly. And that's what happened as soon as he started blaming Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) for Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien)'s death, and threatening everyone who got in his way with serious violence.

While our heroes eventually ran into Jason and his cronies at the gear and weapons surplus store (letting us know ahead of time that he would ultimately be more dangerous than we may have initially expected), things really hit a head when Jason makes his way into the Creel house at the absolute worst time. Instead of getting any semblance of a clue about what was actually going on, Jason holds Lucas at gunpoint, steps on Max's tape player ensuring that she won't be woken up from her Vecna trance, and generally just fucks everything up. Luckily, Lucas outmaneuvers Jason before anything happens, and leaves him knocked out for a minute.

But that's not the end of Jason, who remains out cold on the ground. No, not at all. We'd mostly forgotten him, but it's not much longer that he winds up as the winner of the Single Greatest Stranger Things Death of All Time. Let's get into it.

How did Jason die in Stranger Things?

LOL. So, in perhaps the greatest, and certainly the funniest death in Stranger Things history, Jason is still out on the ground when the post-Vecna Upside Down fissures hit Hawkins. We later hear this reported on the news as a massive earthquake, but we see with our own eyes that it's the Upside Down busting through. In this moment, Jason either is not awake or is too frozen with fear to move, and the fissure goes right beneath him, splitting his body in two and melting him from the middle out as he screams in horror. The way the camera pans up, following the fissures busting through the floor and Jason just, like, happening to be in the way, is incredible. It's very nonchalant, very gruesome, and, honestly, quite disturbing. Everyone loved it.

If you listen close enough, you can probably hear the laughs of the Duffer Brothers behind the camera. This moment is essentially the pair saying "yeah, fuck that guy."

Does Jason's death mean anything for the show's future?

Jason clearly had a gift for captivating crowds. He did so at the Hawkins High pep rally at the beginning of the season, and he also did so when he got the town all riled up in a satanic panic hunting Eddie and others down. If things continue down the road we're going, the town could lift Jason up as a martyr, and use his death as something else to pin on our Hellfire Club friends, now led by Dustin.

Or the whole town could just say what we all said: good thing we've seen the last of that guy.

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