Warning: Major spoilers ahead.

Sure, the men in the latest season of Stranger Things provided heaps of entertainment, but it was the women who really got shit done. This season showed us just how powerful women can be, standing up to every kind of pressure imaginable to get to the bottom of things. Nancy, Joyce and the rest really made things happen!

1. Nancy Wheeler discovers there’s something wrong in Hawkins before any of the other characters.

Nancy works at The Hawkins Post in season 3, mostly getting the employees their lunches and coffees, and generally being treated like shit. Despite this however, her conviction that something is seriously wrong in their town makes her stand up to the bullies and chase the story. 


Even though everyone tells her she’s crazy, and even Jonathan tells her to stop, she still follows the clues and finally proves everyone wrong when they realise there’s more to the feral rats than just rabies.

2. Joyce’s theory about why her fridge magnets fell off leads to the uncovering of a massive conspiracy.

Joyce might come off as pretty eccentric, but most of the time her gut instinct pays off. So when the magnets on her fridge get demagnetised, she goes looking for answers. The school science teacher helps her out, and suddenly she’s back on the trail looking for answers. 


Even though Hopper tells her multiple times that she’s overthinking things, Joyce refuses to let go of the suspicion that there’s a giant electromagnetic thingamajig in town. And what d’you know? She turns out to be right!

3. Robin freakin’ cracks a top secret Russian code.

Dustin picks up a strange feed on his amped-up ham radio, but he and Steve have absolutely no luck figuring it out. Enter Robin, who’s ears are like ‘little geniuses’. She works diligently, figuring out the sounds of Russian letters before putting them together and creating a legible sentence. 


That’s not all though – she then cracks the code. She literally figures out what all the animal and other random references in the secret message mean. She shouldn’t be slinging ice-cream, she should be working for the CIA!

4. Erica helps the ‘scoop troop’ gain access to the secret Russian lair.

As annoying as she is, Erica was totally indispensable in this season. She’s the only one who can fit into the air ducts in order to open the secret room doors from the inside. 


She’s also the one to suggest that they go and save Steve and Robin rather than waste time calling for help, by which time the ice-cream slingers would’ve been tortured half to death.

5. Max shows Eleven how to be her own person.

Up until now, Eleven didn’t really have an identity of her own. First she was a guinea pig at Hawkins lab, then she was under the protection of Hopper and his rules, followed by spending every second with Mike. 


But Max shows her that she can be her own person, independent and free of influence. She can choose her own clothes, make her own decisions, and best of all, live her own life.

Strong, smart, passionate, and realistic – what a great depiction of women on a show!


All images from Netflix.