**Spoilers ahead**
The Duffer Brothers seem to have a thing about killing off the innocents. In the first season of “Stranger Things,” it was Nancy’s best friend Barb who was the unfortunate victim of the monster from the Upside Down. Audiences were so taken with the brief appearance of the character, that they demanded #Justice4Barb, and in the second season of the show, the Duffers do offer some closure. However, yet another character with nothing but the purest of intentions meets an even grislier fate in the new season.
A year has passed since the events in Hawkins, Indiana and Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) settles back into some semblance of normalcy. With Will Byers back, the family unit looks to add another member when Joyce starts romancing Radio Shack dork Bob. Played by Sean Astin, he’s immediately winning and warm, becoming a rock for Joyce when shit hits the fan again. However, during an intense escape from Hawkins lab where demordogs are running wild and killing everything in their path, Bob doesn’t make it — getting chewed up to bloody bits in front of a traumatized Joyce. It’s a devastating loss for such a sweet character, and even the Duffers wrestled with when they should kill him off, because Astin was so good in the role.
“Bob was always intended to die, but we fell in love with Sean and what he was doing with this character,” Ross Duffer told EW. “He was supposed to die in like episode 4 and we just kept keeping him alive because he was so great and what he added to the show. Once we got to 8, we were like, we either got to do this or not do this. But I think it was important in terms of the stakes of the show. This is not a kids show and there are consequences and people do die. But we are sad to lose him because he really just blew us away.”
For Astin, he’s accepted that Bob had to meet his maker, but wants him to go out as gloriously gory as possible.
“My thing was, I wanted more! We did a slow-mo take. I got kind of a standing ovation on set. I don’t think they used the take, but your chest goes up and your head goes back and blood just kind of spurts out. They were like, ‘It’s too much!’ I was like, ‘It’s not too much! It needs to be more more more!’ I saw a version of it a month ago and I think they made some little adjustments after,” he said.
“Winona was so upset. She was so upset! She didn’t want my character to die. She was like, ‘Can he keep going on?’ And they were like, ‘No.’ When she showed up, she was just so not happy about the death scene and doing the death scene. So when the blood was spurting out, she was like, ‘It’s too much! It’s too much!’ I’m like, ‘It’s not enough! It’s not enough!’ ” Astin continued. “To me, the thought completed itself. Bob wanted to provide for her and so he rescued her and saved her life. It’s a satisfying end for me.”
READ MORE: 7 Questions We Hope Will Be Answered In ‘Stranger Things’ Season 2
But is that really all for Bob? It turns out, the Duffers are mulling over how to possibly return to the character.
“I have some Bob ideas but I don’t know what to do with him,” Matt Duffer shared. “I will say I would love to revisit the character of Bob in some way but I don’t know how to even do that.”
So keep a flame alive for Bob and season three, even it seems unlikely he’ll return.