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Why It's OK To Cheer That Stranger Things Finale Death
Stranger Things season 4, volume 2 has some big deaths, but one in particular from the finale is satisfying, despite it being so brutal.

Why It's OK To Cheer That Stranger Things Finale Death

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Stranger Things season 4, episode 9, “The Piggyback.”

Jason’s death in the Stranger Things season 4 finale is a brutal moment, but one that audiences would be justified in celebrating. Jason Carver (Mason Dye) is the leader of a new group of antagonists in Stranger Things 4, the Hawkins High School basketball team who try to find and defeat Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), believing him responsible for the death of Jason’s girlfriend, Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien), among others. In a way, Jason ultimately gets what he wants as Eddie dies in Stranger Things 4’s finale, but thankfully the villain also gets what he deserves too.

The two feature-length episodes of Stranger Things season 4, volume 2 delivered on the promise of character deaths. Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) died at the end of Stranger Things season 4, episode 8, “Papa,” with Dr. Sam Owens’ (Paul Reiser) fate left up in the air, but not looking good. The finale delivered some even bigger deaths: technically speaking, May Mayfield (Sadie Sink) died, but was resurrected after a minute (though was left in a brain-dead coma), and there was, of course, the aforementioned death of Eddie too, who ultimately sacrificed himself to help his friends.

Amid all the doom, gloom, and sad character deaths, though, was a killing that audiences could get behind. In what was basically a throwaway moment, Jason dies in the Stranger Things season 4 finale after Max’s death is used by Vecna to open another gate between the Upside Down and Hawkins. Jason’s Stranger Things 4 death is a result of him being cut in half by the gate opening; judging by the scream on his face, he feels every bit of it, and while it’s a dark scene, it’s also one that viewers will enjoy – and rightly so. Jason was an increasingly terrible person who was offered no redemption in the Stranger Things 4 finale, which instead doubled-down on his descent into villainy, and so, in a largely bleak finale, it’s a chance to cheer one brief moment of a character actually being punished for their actions.

Jason’s Stranger Things Death Was Right – Because He Couldn’t Be Redeemed

What’s particularly notable about Jason’s death in Stranger Things season 4 is how it differs to previous arcs of bully-type characters. Generally, Stranger Things‘ bullies have been more nuanced: Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) has, of course, been completely transformed into one of its greatest heroes, but even Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery) was made more complex and his death made his status as a villain more complicated. In contrast, Jason was – a lot like Angela (Elodie Grace Orkin), Stranger Things 4‘s other bully – more black and white. As the season progressed he only became worse, increasingly desperate to get revenge on Eddie while ignoring his own failings, especially as he refused to recognize the truth about Chrissy in the finale.

Due to a combination of his grief, his position as the school’s biggest jock, and a prejudice against anyone he deems less cool than him, Jason was blinded to the truth and wasn’t going to stop, even if that meant killing Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) in order to get to Eddie. Along with that, though, Jason’s story was among Stranger Things 4‘s weakest, in part because it felt like such a well-worn trope and cliché without any kind of fresh spin on it, despite his own encounter with the supernatural offering a chance to do something different (that instead just felt frustrating). Jason had to die in Stranger Things 4‘s finale, since there was no real viable arc or path back for him given how far he’d gone.

Jason’s death, then, is a great moment: a little bit of fan service among the chaos and catastrophe, at once darkly comic, horribly graphic, and surprisingly satisfying as a bad person gets a bad ending. Is it really right to cheer for someone to die being sliced in half by a portal to a hellish dimension? The morals may be dubious, at best, but in the case of Jason’s Stranger Things death some enjoyment feels reasonable.