After being first introduced to Jim Hopper (played by David Harbour) in Stranger Things’s first season, we wouldn’t have thought he would have grown so close to our hearts and become a dad for all of us. Harbour himself even had doubts about the series as whole. Although Stranger Things has failed to break Squid Game’s record on high viewership, it’s not an exaggeration to say that the fourth season has changed pop culture as we know it. Significantly, we’ve managed to fall in love with Hopper even more despite him being locked up in a Russian prison for the entirety of the season.
At first, it didn’t seem like Hopper would be the type of sheriff willing to help others, but we were quickly proved wrong by his fatherly instincts. As he’s shown through Stranger Things, Hopper is always willing to go overboard to save the kids even if it means sacrificing his own needs and desires. To choose his best moments has been a challenge, but let’s take a look at nine of them.
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9 Flashbacks With His Daughter
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The first introduction that we get of Hopper creates a distorted image of his personality. He sleeps around with different women, has a can of beer first thing in the morning, ignores everyone at the sheriff station because nothing ever happens in Hawkins, and completely disregards Joyce’s concerns about Will’s disappearances. However, once he realizes that the case is serious, the audience also finds out that he used to have a daughter who died. Only later in season 1 of Stranger Things, when they finally save Will, do we get actual flashbacks of his daughter and wife. As it turned out, his daughter died of leukemia at a very young age due to Hopper’s bad working conditions with chemicals. No wonder he was living his life the way he was.
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8 Dancing and Singing Moments
Although it may not seem like it at first glance, Hopper has a quirky aspect to his personality. The cheekiness shows whenever he turns on his dancing or singing mode. Whether it’s when he’s driving alone in his sheriff car and singing on top of his lungs, or when he tries to pull out a smile out of a sulking Eleven who’s not allowed to step outside the cottage, Sheriff Hopper for sure has some moves on him!
7 Threatening Mike
Throughout Stranger Things, Hopper has also showed his scary, protective dad side — and rightfully so, given how Mike was raging with teenage hormones in the third season and his behavior towards elders wasn’t exactly respectful. Like the good father that Hopper is, he allowed Mike and Eleven to visit and spend time with each other at home, but given how they refused to listen to his rules, Hopper naturally had enough. He ended up making an excuse to bait Mike outside and gave him a pretty scary pep talk in the car. All we can say is that Mike should better watch his tongue next time when swearing at the father of the girl he’s trying to date.
6 Hopper and Demogorgons
Fighting a Demogorgon is a no easy feat, as we’ve seen plenty of times in Stranger Things, and Hopper has had the pleasure (and misfortune) of having done just that more than once. In fact, when being locked up in a Russian prison, the sheriff finds out that the Russians get rid of people by making them fight with their own Demogorgon and basically serving them as its dinner. While others fall in the battle pretty quickly, Hopper and Dmitri manage to get out, but Hopper knows that the terror won’t end until someone actually kills the beast. He faces the monster with his impressive courage and a sword. His previous experiences might have helped, but all it took is two swift sword cuts and the Demogorgon dropped dead.
5 Being Protective Over Eleven with Mike
As we’ve mentioned before, Hopper can be quite the overprotective dad and sometimes rightfully so. In letting Mike visit Eleven, all he asked was that they keep their door open three inches. Yes, maybe he was just overreacting. However, after catching the two kissing each other and having Eleven slam the door on him with her powers, Hopper needed to take action. The awkwardness with which he confronted them was the subtle humor that we love about Stranger Things. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the words out, and when Mike disrespected him again by whispering to Eleven and giggling with her, Hopper ended up making an excuse to draw him out.
4 Quick-Witted Thinking About Wiretapping
The first season of Stranger Things introduced us to a whole new world that was both confusing for the characters, and, at first, the audience. We stumbled our way around and learned new information along with the characters. When Hopper realized that something wasn’t sitting right with him about The Hawkins National Laboratory, he decided to pay them a visit. After going too far and seeing the doors to The Upside Down, the Laboratory drugged him and made it look like he had too much to drink. It’s one of the first times we get to truly see Hopper’s intelligence and quick-witted thinking. He started looking for bugs all over his apartment, and when he found out, he immediately went to Joyce and did the same for her. Per expected, they were being spied on.
3 Hopper and Joyce’s “It’s A Date” Scene
Hopper and Joyce have had a chemistry-filled relationship ever since the start of Stranger Things, and the audience has been impatiently waiting for them to get together. Hopper has always been around to help with Will or the other kids, even when Joyce was dating Bob. After Bob’s death in season two and a reasonable time-jump, season three was when the spark between Hopper and Joyce truly started blooming. One could argue they were the ones who made the third season so enjoyable. Although they asked each other, they swore it was not a date. However, when the season was nearing its end, and they somehow managed to infiltrate the Russian facility, they had a heart-to-heart and agreed to have a proper date at Enzo’s. Of course, everyone knows what happened shortly after…
2 Hopper Sacrificing Himself
What better moment than to be willing to sacrifice your life for the good of the town and the world, essentially? As fate would have it, Joyce and Hopper were the ones whose mission was to shut the gate to The Upside Down and destroy the place. However, tasks like that never come without obstacles. Of course, there were some (armed) people who tried their best to stop them, and Hopper had to fight them off. Due to that, he didn’t have enough time to get to a safe place. Smiling weakly at Joyce, he gave her the signal to shut off the machine despite knowing he’d go down with it. The Stranger Things creators really had us there for a second, huh?
1 His Letter to Eleven
After Hopper’s sacrifice to basically save the whole of Hawkins, the third season of Stranger Things ended on a sad note with his supposed death. Although the audience suspected his death not being final, the pain was nevertheless real. Everyone was heartbroken, Eleven especially, considering how distant they were throughout the season. Joyce lets her know that she found Hopper’s letter to her — the heart-to-talk he was supposed to give her about Mike. While we watch the Byers family, plus Eleven, pack their things and move away from the town, Hopper’s voice plays in the background. He talks about how he misses hanging out with Eleven, but also about growth, maturing, and the pain that comes with it. Everyone probably shed a tear or two when he mentioned how Eleven pulled him out of the “dark cave.”
