#and his ex (a convenient scapegoat for said son’s troubles)

[heavencasteel420]

A few steps that would’ve made S4 better:

Remove Eddie and have Joseph Quinn play a nearly identical character in a fun, spooky Fear Street knockoff.

Give Steve most of Eddie’s plot. He almost hooks up with sweet Chrissy, sees her Vecna’d before his eyes, goes on the run, and incurs the wrath and suspicion of the already on-edge townsfolk (who have decided that their former golden boy turned aimless video store clerk must have gotten deep into drugs and the occult). He’s started playing D&D with the kids over the past year and, although it’s just a fun activity he does out of boredom/affection for Dustin, it gets twisted into something more sinister. Most of us the teens and the kids band together to help him out and manage to keep him safe from the mob; however, he’s still arrested at the end of the season and sitting in the county jail. He’s not gonna die because I thought it was stupid when it happened to Eddie. I think we should also get to meet his parents (I vote that they’re a cheesy blowhard salesman type and an absurdly uptight WASP lady, both of whom care for him but are clueless and unhelpful).

Let Jonathan come to Hawkins for spring break and be an absolute wreck about leaving his family, especially after they stop answering the phone a few episodes in. His college dilemma should be simpler and clearer (he did get into a school he wants to go to, with or near Nancy, but he’s decided he can’t go and has made up his mind that she’ll dump him once he tells her, which he does two or three episodes in); that way we can get into the meat of their conflict without wasting time on miscommunication or trying to figure out exactly what Jonathan’s position is. They’re both more thoughtful and understanding of each other than in their S3 fight, but that doesn’t make the problems go away, and she’s still mostly rightfully pissed off at him. His presence allows more interaction among the four main teens: Nancy and Steve hash out the past (he’s no longer in love with her but he’s gratified that she cares fiercely about him as a friend), Jonathan and Steve find some common ground, Nancy and Robin make friends, and actually I think Robin and Jonathan could have some interesting interactions). Jonathan, unfortunately, gets partially Vecna’d when Vecna can no longer get to Max. El and Will (who has discovered that he has more than trace amounts of powers) try to save him from afar but aren’t fully successful, and he ends the season in a coma.

Give Joyce Jonathan’s spot on the Cali Crew. She receives no foreign communiqués re: Hopper, but she’s been having weird dreams that hint he’s alive. She knows that there’s something going on with all her kids, but they’re all avoidant teenagers who won’t tell her shit anymore and she has a lot going on with her job/household worries. So she’s blindsided by El’s arrest, the weird vibes amongst her younger kids and Mike, the revelation that her oldest has walked into his fourth consecutive annual Hawkins Hell Week, the recruitment of El back into lab shit, a shootout in her own damn house, and Will’s struggles with his sexuality/burdensome emerging psychic powers. Argyle is also there, and they scoop up Murray along the way. It also turns out that the lab is offering El the recovery of not-dead Hopper in exchange for her cooperation, so Joyce still has her reunion with him.

Have Hopper be in the custody of the lab, not the Russians. They sold him or whatever. He can have a lab-captive friend instead of a Russian friend, and we can get another angle on the lab mythology.

Let Will and El be spooky psychic pseudo-twins already.

This wouldn’t be all I’d change (most notably, Dustin needs something to do, and I would tweak Lucas/Nancy/Max’s stories), but I think this would’ve been great.