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Stranger Things 2 spoilers ahead. From the first moment I saw Bob Newby, I knew he was going to die.
This wasn’t because I disliked Bob or because of anything the marvelous Sean Astin did. It was merely horror movie logic. Bob appeared in the first episode of Stranger Things 2 as an established character despite the fact we had never seen him before. He was new blood, he was fun-loving and goofy, he was away from the main sci-fi drama of the series, and, most damningly of all, he made Stranger Things’ favorite final girl smile. Stranger Things is a show that found its footing through Winona Ryder freakouts. Of course the idyllic dream of “Chapter One: MADMAX” wasn’t going to last, and of course the show was going to eventually target the one disposable element that made Joyce smile. Bob never stood a chance.
However, I never planned on Bob being so very pure and likable. Because I can’t trust anything in Hawkins and stepfather figures don’t have a great cinematic past, I was initially skeptical of Bob. Sure, he seemed warm and loving on the outside, but was there a sinister threat teeming below the surface? Turns out I was completely wrong to suspect anything evil from an Astin character. Bob was a Cadbury Creme Egg of a human — even sweeter inside than he was on the outside.
Bob was just so unapologetically good. He was the perfect sympathetic but cheery shoulder for Joyce to panic on. He had great advice for Will (Noah Schnapp) and wanted to connect with the moody Jonathan (Charlie Heaton). He even had applicable skills! Bob was by far the most tech savvy of anyone in this show, which was probably helped by that RadioShack job. Also, when Joyce and the gang needed someone to figure out Will’s warped drawings, who dropped everything to lend a helping hand? Bob.
For nine episodes, Bob was there for the Byers family. He endured all of the weird, secretive stuff Joyce didn’t want him to see, and when the time came to either save himself or protect his new little family, Bob took the bullet. Or in this case, the Demidogs. Bob was a good, thoughtful, grounded character, which is why comparing him to Barb is a pop culture crime.
Regardless of what you think of her character or story arc, being Barb isn’t a good thing. Initially fans were outraged by Barb’s (Shannon Purser) death because she was one of Stranger Things’ few sassy and nerdy ladies. She was a solid, if not boring, background character who was killed for next to no reason and was never properly mourned. (In Hawkins, there’s apparently only room to panic over one lost kid at a time.) However, as the show went from popular to the runaway hit it now is, Barb became something else entirely. She became a shorthand reference for a sudden TV death as well as a pointed analogy of the show itself. Sure, Barb was great after she had died, and Stranger Things was excellent in the television dead zone that was 2016’s summer. However, if you held either too closely under a microscope, they threatened to fall apart.
It’s time to realize that there was a reason why the Duffer brothers’ were surprised by Barb-mania. She not a very good character. Her death certainly wasn’t deserved, but the teenager wasn’t a saint either. Barb was almost mean in her sass, and, as my colleague Jade Budowski noticed, her criticisms of Nancy (Natalia Dyer) bordered on slut shamey. It’s sad and frustrating that no one in Stranger Things Season 1 seemed to care about her death (a problem that was addressed in Season 2), but it’s even more surprising that such a minor, one-note character had such a big impact on fans. Ultimately, Barb fell into another well-worn horror trope — the sassy best friend who figures out too much and gets killed too soon.
Don’t cheapen Bob by comparing him to comparatively weak characters that have been irrationally idolized. And don’t cheapen his sacrifice by saying that he shouldn’t have died. Look, we all knew Bob wasn’t going to make it to the end. Joyce is going to end up with Hopper (David Harbour), and the only way to do that without turning her into a heart-breaking monster is by killing off Bob. These are just facts. Also, though it was clearly unwilling to let go of any of its leads,this new season needed higher emotional stakes. Bob was a compromising sacrifice and an inevitable death, but he was lovely while we had him.
Bob isn’t Barb. He’s a far better than Barb, and I’m sure we’ll still be mourning his death in Season 3.
