Stranger Things 3: 11 Best Chief Hopper Moments Of The Season
Relive Hopper's greatest moments.
Stranger Things 3 may have just released a few days ago but fans around the world have already committed hours to devouring the eight episodes of this latest season to see if, as the taglines and promotions teased, one summer truly could change everything.
By and large, Stranger Things 3 is great. Sure, it gets off to a bit of an oddly slow start but once it hits the third episode, it's an incredibly effective thrill ride that doesn't let up and manages to reach some new high water marks for the series as a whole.
But let's talk about what's really important here: chief Jim Hopper.
Hawkin's police chief, as played by the ever-wonderful David Harbour, has become a fan-favorite over the years and this season is no different. He's the surrogate cop dad the entire internet both wants and needs and he's back doing some more incredibly dad-like things in the year 1985. *Spoilers* ahead as we recall Hopper's eleven (see what we did there?) greatest moments from Stranger Things 3.
11. You Don't Mess Around With Jim
In one of the season's greatest callbacks, after successfully putting some much-needed-distance between Mike and Eleven, Hopper celebrates with a joyous rendition of Jim Croce's 'You Don't Mess Around With Jim'.
In season two, this song was very memorably played by Hopper to Eleven right after she had moved in with him. It became the soundtrack to their entire father/daughter bonding montage shortly after. So seeing Hopper gleefully shouting along to the classic in this moment is not only overtly funny, but it's also subtly poignant.
As is explicitly stated later in the season, Hopper feels a distance growing between Eleven and himself as she grows up. He blames this on Mike's constant presence, to the point that he believes that simply getting rid of Mike will solve the problem and everything will go back to the way it was.
Of course, it won't, but in this moment, Hopper is elated at his success and Harbour's balls-to-the-walls performance both in terms of physicality and in terms of the singing in this scene is wonderful to witness.