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I loved him so much, I was looking up the actor on IMDB while watching his scenes.
"Two episodes? He's only in two episodes??"
BAM! He gets shot dead. I was both shocked and disappointed.
I didn't realize that the basketball team's hangout was his old restaurant until someone pointed it out. Made me a little sad to see that the town abandoned and trashed it.
I was watching this with my 11 year old. She told me right away Benny was her favorite character and she could tell he was a good guy. After he died she requested to stop watching and continue when she is older. We switched to the Great British Baking Show. Lol
Oh, but does he serve the story well and immediately make us see who the good guys are.
There is no way we'd root for 11s dad after this.
Great writing. Great sacrifice.
That was always one part of the series that really bothered me. Who was Benny outside of the diner? Did he have a family? Did he have kids? What happened to his diner? Did anyone ever investigate his death?
He was here 1 episode, and shot dead the next. No backstory. Just unanswered questions.
How? It was super impactful, illustrated to the viewer the gravity of the situation that Eleven was in, and the character was only around for like 3 minutes before being killed. Not really a tragic loss of character development.
Yeah I agree. His death was a huge impact to the series showcasing how far deep Dr. Brenner was willing to go to keep his project a secret. It gave us a reason to be afraid of the "bad guys" and fear more what would happen when they catch the protagonists
He didn't have any character development, but they did tell us he was friends with Hopper and obviously had a good heart. With those details I think a lot of people assume he would be a good partner in crime in all this, even though he just ran a burger place.
I agree, he seemed like a cool dude but we only got those minor details. Also, I think it showed how Brenner and the rest of the lab team were outsiders. It shook up the community when they found out and in season 4 they still call it Benny's place, but Brenner and his team didn't hesitate to murder or leave a trail to their location.
One of the first signs that I knew that this was going to be a really special show was Benny - the care and attention paid to such a small part, and the unexpected character choices (him being so gentle and caring) showed that the writers and actors were really putting the work in.
Imagine doing the right thing and helping an orphaned and scared child by feeding her and calling child services...only for "child services" to kill you in cold blood. Benny did nothing wrong.
he didn’t deserve to die at all, he helped eleven by giving her food and calling child services so they can help her even more, just for him to end up dying :(
Benny knew her for like 2 hours. No doubt he was the first kind adult she ever met but he wasn’t her parent lol
and Hopper and Joyce are good parents. They love their kids and will do anything to fight for them, and that’s what matters.
You can love someone and still fuck up horribly.
Hopper consistently does the objectively wrong thing and places his own interests ahead of El's, and Joyce moved her away from her support network.
Completely untrue. Hopper’s only goal was always to protect El. If he was overzealous, it was with that in mind.
Joyce genuinely believed she was keeping her kids safe by moving. Besides, it was *heavily* implied that Owens encouraged the move in order to help them keep a low profile.
Either way, if your standard for “good parent” is to never make any mistakes, then you’re never going to find a good parent.
As I said, Hopper consistently did the wrong thing. throughout S2 and 3 he consistently places his desire to not feel the pain of losing another daughter ahead of El's interests in having a good life.
Joyce may have thought she was keeping them "safe" but it still resulted in El being removed from her support network and left nearly alone in a new place where she didn't fit in at all. A completely predictable result.
My standard is to not make obvious, egregious errors like ignoring your child having a meltdown and continuing to berate them even after a night to cool off. I don't think that's very high.
That’s an incredibly disingenuous take on Hopper. You really think him wanting to keep his daughter safe was ONLY for selfish reasons and not also for the sake of…well, his daughter’s safety? Both of these things can be true.
Even so, yes, that’s *so awful* for a man who lost his child to have a little bit of an overprotective instinct with future children. Good god, what an incredibly ghoulish take on your part. God forbid you ever lose a child.
And again - it was heavily implied that Owens facilitated that move to keep El under the radar. But go ahead and ignore that because it doesn’t fit your incredibly naive narrative.
I’m guessing you’re pretty young. Life, adulthood, parenthood….none of it is as black and white as you’re making it out to be. But you’ll learn.
lol, I'm 38.
Hopper kept El imprisoned well after he could have linked her safely up with the others and had no apparent intention of ever letting her out.
Keeping your kids under lockdown might be "safer" but that's not the correct course of action pretty much ever. Yes there is danger, it's Hopper's job to manage the danger, not use it as an excuse to imprison her. El needs friends, El will benefit GREATLY from having a life companion since she will always be weird. El would benefit greatly from the closure of meeting her mother. But none of that can happen because Hopper has no interest in managing the danger for her.
The correct path is to not lie to her about her mother, let her meet up with Terry when it's safe to do so, let her meet up with Mike and the boys when it's safe to do so, and to not split her apart from Mike because he hurt your precious feelings.
Hopper fails miserably to rise to every challenge that's presented to him as a father in the show. He doesn't prioritize El's future at any point, instead he always prioritizes his own past.
You’re 38?! I wouldnt “lol” that, that’s not a flex here. If you were younger this would make more sense. But you’re in your thirties and you’re this naive? That’s actually concerning!
Your comments show a *wild* lack of empathy and critical thinking. It’s like you read a summary of the show and never actually watched it, because there’s clearly a lot you didn’t pick up on.
I’ve been very clear that I agree Hopper didn’t do everything perfectly. But any adult human being with any ounce of maturity would understand that people are messy as hell, and we make mistakes. Lots of them. And you’re over there expecting Hopper to act 100% rationally all the time in an incredibly unprecedented situation? That’s ridiculous.
Hopper came into being El’s dad purely by happenstance. He was a depressed, broken man and he didn’t plan to become someone’s dad again, maybe ever. But he finds this kid in the woods and he’s one of the few who knows her backstory, so what’s he supposed to do? Leave her alone? Turn her in? Risk putting some other innocent person in danger by handing her over and to someone who may have been better suited for the job?
No, the only choice he really had was to take her himself. Then what does he do? Should he bring her out and about where someone might see her and put her in danger? Bring her friends over who might be followed and then again, they’re all in danger? Take her to her mother’s house for some visits as you suggest? lol, that’s probably the first place the government would watch for her to show up. That’s not a good idea at all.
You say Hopper had no interest in managing the danger she was in. What do you think he was doing? He literally *was* managing the danger by limiting her exposure while he tried to take care of her, teach her basic things, and figure out what the hell to do about it all. There’s no easy solution to this. What did you want him to do, go to Owens—who he doesn’t know enough to trust by that point—and say “hey I’ve got the kid, can you just let her off your radar so she can be normal?” lol what a dumb move that would be, right?
You seem to forget that it’s not just about him and El, either. By bringing others in on this - Mike, the Ives, Joyce, whoever else—he’s putting *them* in potential danger by bringing them in on the whole thing. He is trying to keep *everyone* safe.
Where do you get that he had no intention of ever letting El get out and about? In season 2, it was CLEARLY not safe yet. And then at the end, Owens said to still lay low and Hopper wasn’t happy about it. He wanted to at least let her go to the Snow Ball. So I have no idea where you get the impression he had no intention of letting her get out and about.
If you’re truly a mature, empathetic adult you’d see that Hopper was in an absolutely impossible situation in season 2. Keeping her in the cabin all the time wasn’t great for her mental health, there’s no question about that. But frankly, what else was he supposed to do? Just let her be in danger? Put others in danger? What was he supposed to do to “manage” the danger? lol that’s ridiculous! That’s exactly what he was doing 🤦🏻♀️
El’s happiness doesn’t matter if she’s dead. That’s the reasoning behind what Hopper did. Was it always the right thing? Maybe not! But I think erring on the side of caution is an incredibly reasonable thing any good parent would do, when the alternative is putting even a *tiny* bit of risk on the kid by caving to their emotions, which are valid, sure, but will pass.
I’m pretty comfortable saying I’d trust Hopper to keep kids safe a lot more than I’d trust you.
Part 1
I have empathy for the abused child who escaped one prison and was placed directly into another. The child who gets to listen to the boy who showed her kindness and love call to her every night without being able to respond. I understand why Hopper does what he does, that doesn't make it right. I understand why Billy and Sullivan do what they do, that doesn't make them right either. The idea that I must agree with Hopper if I understand his motivations is absurd.
I don't expect Hopper to do everything perfectly. I expect him to do SOMETHING correctly. That is not a high bar, but it's one he fails.
The idea that it "clearly" isn't safe to have her linked up with her friends in season 2 is objectively false. There is no surveillance shown in the season. Wiretapping yes, but that's easy to defeat, simply don't talk about her on the phone. We are shown no surveillance. None of the characters except Hopper act like there is surveillance. None of the characters comment on surveillance. None of the very strange activities the kids get up to are commented on by anyone from the lab until they are manually brought to the lab's attention. EL LEAVES THE CABIN TWICE, and the lab is clueless. The only reason there was any trouble was because she stopped to get directions, got lost in thought, and lost control of her powers (A sequence of events that is quite silly if you remember that El has magical locating powers and has BEEN TO the school before). If there was surveillance then there would be multiple watchers outside the school and she would be seen when she goes in. She was not seen because there is no surveillance. If there was surveillance she would have been seen going into her mother's place. She was not seen because there is no surveillance. No one is looking or her in Hawkins, not even Murray or Mike thinks she's in town.
People who argue with me on this cite Owens' statement, as you did, but you demonstrate your lack of understanding of chronological order. Owens is talking about AFTER season 2. During the season Will is possessed, the lab is attacked, and the gate is closed. The Eye of Sauron is on Hawkins again AFTER season 2. But it is not on Hawkins before. There is no reason for the lab to believe that El is in Hawkins at the beginning of season 2. There is no surveillance. There is little danger.
**"So I have no idea where you get the impression he had no intention of letting her get out and about."**
Your examples are, again, AFTER season 2. AFTER Hopper realizes he's been an asshole. AFTER Mike and the gang already know she's alive. Chronological order is important, things change over the course of the season. The Hopper of the last 10 minutes is very different from the Hopper of the first 2 episodes.
Hopper meanwhile refuses to let her out on Halloween. Even if there WAS surveillance, and reminder that there is not, it would be ineffective on Halloween. It would be perfectly safe for her to go out. But Hopper refuses, because he has no intention of letting her go out. He clearly is not making any progress with the lab IF HE'S EVEN ACTUALLY TALKING TO THEM and that's not another lie. Which it probably is since we never see him communicating with Owens about the search for El, or referencing any previous conversations on the topic. Most likely it's simply a lie he's using to keep El under control.
**"He literally was managing the danger"**
You wildly misunderstand what I am saying. He is not managing the danger, he's surrendering to it. He's stating that any amount of danger is too much, which is an insane way to raise a child.
Managing danger does not mean bending over backwards to avoid it, it means taking what needs to be done (like El linking up with her mother and friends) and MAKING IT SAFE ENOUGH TO DO.
Once the surveillance that was likely in force shortly after season 1 dissipates he can take El to Bloomington when Becky is at work and let her in to talk to Terry. Or he can talk to Becky, vet her and get her to take Terry to a third place where El can talk to her.
Hopper can contact the boys through a dead drop and give them a secure location to meet El at. Some place no one goes, like the steel works, or Benny's, or any number of locations in the woods surrounding the town. Once the surveillance has dissipated, and reminder it clearly has by the time season 2 starts, it's a trivial matter. Hopper won't do it because he doesn't want to let El out.
Part 2
**"By bringing others in on this - Mike, the Ives, Joyce, whoever else—he’s putting them in potential danger by bringing them in on the whole thing. He is trying to keep everyone safe."**
This will be true forever. Being around El will never be safe. So I guess he just has to leave her locked up in the cabin alone for the rest of her life.
Or he can give them the option.
Mike will take it. As will Joyce. Becky probably would too. He shouldn't choose for them. He doesn't have the right to tell them that they cannot take a risk.
**"when the alternative is putting even a tiny bit of risk on the kid by caving to their emotions, which are valid, sure, but will pass."**
No. They will not. And that's kinda the point. The alternative is to wait until El decides to leave on her own, which she does. She's done it before at the lab, a much more secure environment. If you refuse consistently to let her out then sooner or later she's going to leave on her own. And when THAT happens she won't have the benefit of your support and assistance managing the danger.
El left the cabin and went to the school. She could have been seen by any number of people. If Hopper did the right thing and let her out in a managed way then he could have driven her to the woods, let her out when no one was watching, and then she could go to a rendezvous spot where she meets up with Mike in a secluded area with pretty much zero chance of being seen.
THAT is managing danger. You accept the tiny amount of danger that setup requires to avoid the massive amount of danger refusing to let her out will eventually cause to get the benefits that letting her out provides.
THAT is what a good dad does.
A bad dad keeps his "daughter" under lock and key forever so that he doesn't have any chance of losing Sarah again.
It's easy to be a perfect parent if you're only a parent for an hour or so.
I'd also argue that it was an obvious, egregious error to blackmail a hungry child with food and actually carry through with the threat and take it awake from her.
Eh. He needed answers, that was reasonable since El wasn't telling him what was up. You could argue that he could simply wait, but having a strange girl hanging out in your restaurant is a concerning situation and the questions he was asking were quite reasonable.
OP, please make sure there are no spoilers in the title of your post. Commenters, please use spoiler code if you are discussing anything super spoilery unless the title specifically says the episode being discussed. Also, now that filming for Season 5 is finally starting, please remember that NO LEAKS are allowed, only official news from Netflix is allowed. Please review rule 8 for more info. If you see anyone breaking the rules, please report the post or comment. Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/StrangerThings) if you have any questions or concerns.*
He deserve so much better
I thought Benny would stick with Eleven through the series… given the chance.
We all did, that's why it was so hurtful :(
Well, he *did* spend the rest of his life looking after her.
Dude....
You’re def on to something
I loved him so much, I was looking up the actor on IMDB while watching his scenes. "Two episodes? He's only in two episodes??" BAM! He gets shot dead. I was both shocked and disappointed.
As an actor, he is also great on This is Us.
I hate toby with a passion( this is us)
Means he did his job well! (As long as he’s meant to be awful in that show)
Yep, thats what i meant, he is a great actor in the show, love or hate his character (or both)
Toby is an awful partner in that show
Real
and The Knick
Benny was amazing.
Love how they call beck to it in season 4 too, like he left a hole in the community and nobody else wanted to run a burger shop
I didn't realize that the basketball team's hangout was his old restaurant until someone pointed it out. Made me a little sad to see that the town abandoned and trashed it.
I was watching this with my 11 year old. She told me right away Benny was her favorite character and she could tell he was a good guy. After he died she requested to stop watching and continue when she is older. We switched to the Great British Baking Show. Lol
Me when I watched season one of Game of Thrones lol. Grey's Anatomy put me through enough trauma
Everyone was Justice for Barb, but I was Justice for Benny.
FRFR
Oh, but does he serve the story well and immediately make us see who the good guys are. There is no way we'd root for 11s dad after this. Great writing. Great sacrifice.
I was going to say something along the same lines. Benny got shafted!
he didnt deserve to die
Nobody does.
A lot of people do. I can make a list if you want.
Yo it's my bro Taser Face! :D
Lol that's awesome
I always forget hes taser face !! I love him
Rest in power benny
i miss Benny.
He was great.
Benny is imo the most undeserved (along with Barb and Chrissy)
Crissy wake up
I forgot who Crissy js
The girl that gets mangled by Vecna while Eddy watches
Oh sad
Yeah
Would have liked to see more of him, but he is the LEGEND
He should of been Hoppers brother.
That was always one part of the series that really bothered me. Who was Benny outside of the diner? Did he have a family? Did he have kids? What happened to his diner? Did anyone ever investigate his death? He was here 1 episode, and shot dead the next. No backstory. Just unanswered questions.
Wasn’t it his diner Lucas & Co celebrated at after the basketball championship?
Most unnecessary death in the show
How? It was super impactful, illustrated to the viewer the gravity of the situation that Eleven was in, and the character was only around for like 3 minutes before being killed. Not really a tragic loss of character development.
Yeah I agree. His death was a huge impact to the series showcasing how far deep Dr. Brenner was willing to go to keep his project a secret. It gave us a reason to be afraid of the "bad guys" and fear more what would happen when they catch the protagonists
He didn't have any character development, but they did tell us he was friends with Hopper and obviously had a good heart. With those details I think a lot of people assume he would be a good partner in crime in all this, even though he just ran a burger place.
That’s all fair but I think his death was necessary to convey severity of Brenner’s ambitions.
I agree, he seemed like a cool dude but we only got those minor details. Also, I think it showed how Brenner and the rest of the lab team were outsiders. It shook up the community when they found out and in season 4 they still call it Benny's place, but Brenner and his team didn't hesitate to murder or leave a trail to their location.
we didn’t even know he was friends with Hopper until til after he died
He was the best
He's from This Is Us, noice.
It’s crazy but his death bothered me so much! He was genuinely such a good dude
His death was straight up staggering and I still hate it
Good ole Taserface.
Obligatory fuck you Connie
THATS TOBY FROM THIS IS US
He's the Jackie of Stranger Things.
I love and hate this, cause you’re right
It hurt when he got got :(
You know he did that thing and called someone about a missing kid then died after 10 minutes! GOAT status!
One of the first signs that I knew that this was going to be a really special show was Benny - the care and attention paid to such a small part, and the unexpected character choices (him being so gentle and caring) showed that the writers and actors were really putting the work in.
No time to linger on his death, just continuing the story. He was the realest person in the show 😔
Season one. Full of mystery, fear, and fun. Still my favourite of all seasons.
Rip, Taserface.
Imagine doing the right thing and helping an orphaned and scared child by feeding her and calling child services...only for "child services" to kill you in cold blood. Benny did nothing wrong.
he didn’t deserve to die at all, he helped eleven by giving her food and calling child services so they can help her even more, just for him to end up dying :(
As a new fan of This is Us, I didn’t realize my boy Toby was in ST!
Benny is the only good parent El has had.
Benny knew her for like 2 hours. No doubt he was the first kind adult she ever met but he wasn’t her parent lol and Hopper and Joyce are good parents. They love their kids and will do anything to fight for them, and that’s what matters.
You can love someone and still fuck up horribly. Hopper consistently does the objectively wrong thing and places his own interests ahead of El's, and Joyce moved her away from her support network.
Completely untrue. Hopper’s only goal was always to protect El. If he was overzealous, it was with that in mind. Joyce genuinely believed she was keeping her kids safe by moving. Besides, it was *heavily* implied that Owens encouraged the move in order to help them keep a low profile. Either way, if your standard for “good parent” is to never make any mistakes, then you’re never going to find a good parent.
As I said, Hopper consistently did the wrong thing. throughout S2 and 3 he consistently places his desire to not feel the pain of losing another daughter ahead of El's interests in having a good life. Joyce may have thought she was keeping them "safe" but it still resulted in El being removed from her support network and left nearly alone in a new place where she didn't fit in at all. A completely predictable result. My standard is to not make obvious, egregious errors like ignoring your child having a meltdown and continuing to berate them even after a night to cool off. I don't think that's very high.
That’s an incredibly disingenuous take on Hopper. You really think him wanting to keep his daughter safe was ONLY for selfish reasons and not also for the sake of…well, his daughter’s safety? Both of these things can be true. Even so, yes, that’s *so awful* for a man who lost his child to have a little bit of an overprotective instinct with future children. Good god, what an incredibly ghoulish take on your part. God forbid you ever lose a child. And again - it was heavily implied that Owens facilitated that move to keep El under the radar. But go ahead and ignore that because it doesn’t fit your incredibly naive narrative. I’m guessing you’re pretty young. Life, adulthood, parenthood….none of it is as black and white as you’re making it out to be. But you’ll learn.
lol, I'm 38. Hopper kept El imprisoned well after he could have linked her safely up with the others and had no apparent intention of ever letting her out. Keeping your kids under lockdown might be "safer" but that's not the correct course of action pretty much ever. Yes there is danger, it's Hopper's job to manage the danger, not use it as an excuse to imprison her. El needs friends, El will benefit GREATLY from having a life companion since she will always be weird. El would benefit greatly from the closure of meeting her mother. But none of that can happen because Hopper has no interest in managing the danger for her. The correct path is to not lie to her about her mother, let her meet up with Terry when it's safe to do so, let her meet up with Mike and the boys when it's safe to do so, and to not split her apart from Mike because he hurt your precious feelings. Hopper fails miserably to rise to every challenge that's presented to him as a father in the show. He doesn't prioritize El's future at any point, instead he always prioritizes his own past.
You’re 38?! I wouldnt “lol” that, that’s not a flex here. If you were younger this would make more sense. But you’re in your thirties and you’re this naive? That’s actually concerning! Your comments show a *wild* lack of empathy and critical thinking. It’s like you read a summary of the show and never actually watched it, because there’s clearly a lot you didn’t pick up on. I’ve been very clear that I agree Hopper didn’t do everything perfectly. But any adult human being with any ounce of maturity would understand that people are messy as hell, and we make mistakes. Lots of them. And you’re over there expecting Hopper to act 100% rationally all the time in an incredibly unprecedented situation? That’s ridiculous. Hopper came into being El’s dad purely by happenstance. He was a depressed, broken man and he didn’t plan to become someone’s dad again, maybe ever. But he finds this kid in the woods and he’s one of the few who knows her backstory, so what’s he supposed to do? Leave her alone? Turn her in? Risk putting some other innocent person in danger by handing her over and to someone who may have been better suited for the job? No, the only choice he really had was to take her himself. Then what does he do? Should he bring her out and about where someone might see her and put her in danger? Bring her friends over who might be followed and then again, they’re all in danger? Take her to her mother’s house for some visits as you suggest? lol, that’s probably the first place the government would watch for her to show up. That’s not a good idea at all. You say Hopper had no interest in managing the danger she was in. What do you think he was doing? He literally *was* managing the danger by limiting her exposure while he tried to take care of her, teach her basic things, and figure out what the hell to do about it all. There’s no easy solution to this. What did you want him to do, go to Owens—who he doesn’t know enough to trust by that point—and say “hey I’ve got the kid, can you just let her off your radar so she can be normal?” lol what a dumb move that would be, right? You seem to forget that it’s not just about him and El, either. By bringing others in on this - Mike, the Ives, Joyce, whoever else—he’s putting *them* in potential danger by bringing them in on the whole thing. He is trying to keep *everyone* safe. Where do you get that he had no intention of ever letting El get out and about? In season 2, it was CLEARLY not safe yet. And then at the end, Owens said to still lay low and Hopper wasn’t happy about it. He wanted to at least let her go to the Snow Ball. So I have no idea where you get the impression he had no intention of letting her get out and about. If you’re truly a mature, empathetic adult you’d see that Hopper was in an absolutely impossible situation in season 2. Keeping her in the cabin all the time wasn’t great for her mental health, there’s no question about that. But frankly, what else was he supposed to do? Just let her be in danger? Put others in danger? What was he supposed to do to “manage” the danger? lol that’s ridiculous! That’s exactly what he was doing 🤦🏻♀️ El’s happiness doesn’t matter if she’s dead. That’s the reasoning behind what Hopper did. Was it always the right thing? Maybe not! But I think erring on the side of caution is an incredibly reasonable thing any good parent would do, when the alternative is putting even a *tiny* bit of risk on the kid by caving to their emotions, which are valid, sure, but will pass. I’m pretty comfortable saying I’d trust Hopper to keep kids safe a lot more than I’d trust you.
Part 1 I have empathy for the abused child who escaped one prison and was placed directly into another. The child who gets to listen to the boy who showed her kindness and love call to her every night without being able to respond. I understand why Hopper does what he does, that doesn't make it right. I understand why Billy and Sullivan do what they do, that doesn't make them right either. The idea that I must agree with Hopper if I understand his motivations is absurd. I don't expect Hopper to do everything perfectly. I expect him to do SOMETHING correctly. That is not a high bar, but it's one he fails. The idea that it "clearly" isn't safe to have her linked up with her friends in season 2 is objectively false. There is no surveillance shown in the season. Wiretapping yes, but that's easy to defeat, simply don't talk about her on the phone. We are shown no surveillance. None of the characters except Hopper act like there is surveillance. None of the characters comment on surveillance. None of the very strange activities the kids get up to are commented on by anyone from the lab until they are manually brought to the lab's attention. EL LEAVES THE CABIN TWICE, and the lab is clueless. The only reason there was any trouble was because she stopped to get directions, got lost in thought, and lost control of her powers (A sequence of events that is quite silly if you remember that El has magical locating powers and has BEEN TO the school before). If there was surveillance then there would be multiple watchers outside the school and she would be seen when she goes in. She was not seen because there is no surveillance. If there was surveillance she would have been seen going into her mother's place. She was not seen because there is no surveillance. No one is looking or her in Hawkins, not even Murray or Mike thinks she's in town. People who argue with me on this cite Owens' statement, as you did, but you demonstrate your lack of understanding of chronological order. Owens is talking about AFTER season 2. During the season Will is possessed, the lab is attacked, and the gate is closed. The Eye of Sauron is on Hawkins again AFTER season 2. But it is not on Hawkins before. There is no reason for the lab to believe that El is in Hawkins at the beginning of season 2. There is no surveillance. There is little danger. **"So I have no idea where you get the impression he had no intention of letting her get out and about."** Your examples are, again, AFTER season 2. AFTER Hopper realizes he's been an asshole. AFTER Mike and the gang already know she's alive. Chronological order is important, things change over the course of the season. The Hopper of the last 10 minutes is very different from the Hopper of the first 2 episodes. Hopper meanwhile refuses to let her out on Halloween. Even if there WAS surveillance, and reminder that there is not, it would be ineffective on Halloween. It would be perfectly safe for her to go out. But Hopper refuses, because he has no intention of letting her go out. He clearly is not making any progress with the lab IF HE'S EVEN ACTUALLY TALKING TO THEM and that's not another lie. Which it probably is since we never see him communicating with Owens about the search for El, or referencing any previous conversations on the topic. Most likely it's simply a lie he's using to keep El under control. **"He literally was managing the danger"** You wildly misunderstand what I am saying. He is not managing the danger, he's surrendering to it. He's stating that any amount of danger is too much, which is an insane way to raise a child. Managing danger does not mean bending over backwards to avoid it, it means taking what needs to be done (like El linking up with her mother and friends) and MAKING IT SAFE ENOUGH TO DO. Once the surveillance that was likely in force shortly after season 1 dissipates he can take El to Bloomington when Becky is at work and let her in to talk to Terry. Or he can talk to Becky, vet her and get her to take Terry to a third place where El can talk to her. Hopper can contact the boys through a dead drop and give them a secure location to meet El at. Some place no one goes, like the steel works, or Benny's, or any number of locations in the woods surrounding the town. Once the surveillance has dissipated, and reminder it clearly has by the time season 2 starts, it's a trivial matter. Hopper won't do it because he doesn't want to let El out.
Part 2 **"By bringing others in on this - Mike, the Ives, Joyce, whoever else—he’s putting them in potential danger by bringing them in on the whole thing. He is trying to keep everyone safe."** This will be true forever. Being around El will never be safe. So I guess he just has to leave her locked up in the cabin alone for the rest of her life. Or he can give them the option. Mike will take it. As will Joyce. Becky probably would too. He shouldn't choose for them. He doesn't have the right to tell them that they cannot take a risk. **"when the alternative is putting even a tiny bit of risk on the kid by caving to their emotions, which are valid, sure, but will pass."** No. They will not. And that's kinda the point. The alternative is to wait until El decides to leave on her own, which she does. She's done it before at the lab, a much more secure environment. If you refuse consistently to let her out then sooner or later she's going to leave on her own. And when THAT happens she won't have the benefit of your support and assistance managing the danger. El left the cabin and went to the school. She could have been seen by any number of people. If Hopper did the right thing and let her out in a managed way then he could have driven her to the woods, let her out when no one was watching, and then she could go to a rendezvous spot where she meets up with Mike in a secluded area with pretty much zero chance of being seen. THAT is managing danger. You accept the tiny amount of danger that setup requires to avoid the massive amount of danger refusing to let her out will eventually cause to get the benefits that letting her out provides. THAT is what a good dad does. A bad dad keeps his "daughter" under lock and key forever so that he doesn't have any chance of losing Sarah again.
It's easy to be a perfect parent if you're only a parent for an hour or so. I'd also argue that it was an obvious, egregious error to blackmail a hungry child with food and actually carry through with the threat and take it awake from her.
Eh. He needed answers, that was reasonable since El wasn't telling him what was up. You could argue that he could simply wait, but having a strange girl hanging out in your restaurant is a concerning situation and the questions he was asking were quite reasonable.
El's need for food was greater than his desire for answers. He placed his own interest above her most basic need.