As we move into 2020, internationally known Netflix series Stranger Things ends season 3 with a heartbreaking cliff hanger. Not only do we get to know the characters better, but it leaves us clicking ‘next episode’ after every chapter. One character that shows tremendous development throughout the seasons is Steve Harrington. We know him in season 1 as Nancy’s first love. Although she breaks his heart as the show progresses, he eventually moves on, and it helps the audience see his true nature. He becomes close friends with Dustin Henderson and they end up developing a close bond as season 3 unfolds. In the beginning of season 3, he starts at his job at Scoops A Hoy, a local ice cream shop in Hawkins, and develops a friendship with his coworker Robin Buckley. The audience sees that Steve slowly develops feelings for her, and this helps us see that he is not just interested in mainstream, popular girls. They share numerous moments of empathy and even humor with each other as the last episode goes on. The seasons eventually give us the idea that his character is caring and much more complicated than the original impression he gave in season one.

Yet another character that has shown continuous growth as the seasons fly by is Joyce Byers. In season one, she first begins to suspect that something else is happening when her son Will goes missing. Each episode the audience sees this parent begin to drive herself insane due to paranoia and pure terror of what her son is going through. She begins hearing and seeing things as the story is told. She writes the whole alphabet on her living room wall and hangs string lights throughout her house in order to contact her son. The seasons go by and Joyce is portrayed as a mother willing to do anything to get her son back.

Even after the tragedy of her season two love interest Bob Newby is brutally killed in front of her, she shows just how strong she is. Her character continues to push through despite the hardships happening around her, including making the most fatal decision of her life, closing the last and only portal to the Upside Down, and possibly ending in a loved one’s life being taken from her in the process.

The last character that we will uncover is Jim Hopper, also known as “Hop,” the Chief of Hawkins Police Department, and one of the most significant characters in the show. Hop is a divorcee who lost his daughter shortly before the show takes place due to cancer. He has been on his own ever since he lost her. His character matures throughout the seasons, taking in Eleven as his adopted daughter and saving Will Byers from the Demogorgon.

In season three, he finally moves on from the loss of his daughter and begins to step into the parenting role of Eleven. He becomes overprotective like any other concerned father, but Eleven pushes him away–not realizing he truly cares about her well being as a parent. He also continues to ask Joyce Byers on a date during the progression of season three, leading to them finally deciding a time and place for their first date. Little did they know, just a short time after that, Hopper forces Joyce to close the last portal to the Upside Down causing an explosion. Hopper is caught in the crossfire, with not enough time to escape the room that soon explodes, him with it. But we all continue to wonder if things are really as they seem after this shocking ending of season three. The ending credits of the final episode show Russian guards deciding which prisoner to feed to the Demogorgon, one of which says “not the American.” So, fans continue to ask the same question: Is Hopper actually dead, or is he still alive?

These mysteries can only be solved in Stranger Things 4, which is predicted to be out in mid to late-2021.