Stranger Things 4 Teased That Major Character Death Right In Fans’ Faces From The Start

Stranger Things Season 4 broke a lot of fans hearts just after filling them up. (MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW!) The fourth season introduced the character of Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn), a heavy metal aficionado and Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast, who led the infamous “Hellfire Club” of geeks and misfits. After being framed for the gruesome crimes of Vecna/Henry Creel/01, Eddie fought the good fight and gave his life to try and stop Vecna from turning Hawkins into a Hellmouth gate to the Upside Down. However, as Stranger Things fans are now going back and noticing, series creators The Duffer Brothers teased the route to Eddie’s demise, right from the start: 

The first episode of Stranger Things Season 4 was one of the only clear showcases that we got of Eddie’s extensive tattoo work. At first glance, it was just a collage of ink work that was meant to convey what kind of darker alternative personality Eddie Munson had compared to the typical Hawkins townsperson; however, after watching Stranger Things 4 in its entirety, it hits so much deeper and harder to see that Eddie literally had his fate written into his skin. The demonic bats in Eddie’s ink are almost the spitting image of the sequence in Stranger Things Season 4’s finale, when the bat-like creatures of the Upside Down swarmed in the sky and chased Eddie down.

 After running away from every challenge that had come his way, Eddie finally chose to stand his ground against the swarm of demon bats, in order to buy his new friends time to take Vecna down. Eddie’s entire battle against the bats (including his big guitar performance in hell)  has become one of most iconic sequences in Stranger Things.

In fact, even heavy metal icons Metallica were thrilled with the Ballad of Eddie Munson and his rendition of “Master of Puppets” in the midst of Hell: 

“The way The Duffer Brothers have incorporated music into Stranger Things has always been next level, so we were beyond psyched for them to not only include ‘Master of Puppets’ in the show, but to have such a pivotal scene built around it,” Metallica said on their Instagram account. “We were all stoked to see the final result and when we did we were totally blown away… it’s so extremely well done, so much so, that some folks were able to guess the song just by seeing a few seconds of Joseph Quinn’s hands in the trailer!! How crazy cool is that? It’s an incredible honor to be such a big part of Eddie’s journey and to once again be keeping company with all of the other amazing artists featured in the show.”

Stranger Things 4 is streaming on Netflix.