'Stranger Things 2' revealed that Jim Hopper can get it

Stranger Things may be your nostalgia fix, your sci-fi lite, your less-scary horror TV show, but for many of us, Season 2 was an awakening – specifically, to the realization that Jim Hopper can get it.

We already know Hopper is a standup guy. He was introduced in Season 1 as someone with the potential to be indifferent, to impede the search for Will Byers and exposure of the lab and the Upside Down. Instead, he got invested: He spent time with Joyce Byers and snuck into the lab of his own volition. He saw the Upside Down and became determined to fight it. He became family.

In that first episode, we learn that Hopper himself was a parent, that his daughter passed away. His personal connection to the case drives him for the rest of the season and into Season 2, when we get the joyful premise of Hopper and Eleven living together off the grid. He's been teaching her manners and words and how to tell time; she makes him want to be better and even dance a little sometimes.

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Season 2 Hopper is happy to be done with all things strange and stranger, but he unwittingly ends up back in the Upside Down. He's inches from death when Will locates him and the lab swoops to his rescue, but even then nothing can keep this bearded wonder from wanting to save his adoptive TV family. Will's in danger? Can't leave his side. Demogorgons on the loose? Better suit up. Eleven is back to save the day? Not without a hug, god dammit.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Hopper caring for Eleven became the show's beating heart this season. Despite the strong friendships and blooming romances in Hawkins, Stranger Things is very much about the relationships between parents and children; Joyce's love for Will is central from episode 1 and tested once again in Season 2, and Nancy and Steve have basically adopted Dustin (so proud!). Hopper still feels the loss of his daughter, and Eleven grew up without real parents; they mean more to each other than they could ever have imagined – two broken pieces that fit.

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Stranger Things greatest achievement in a season of imperfect plotting is that the show keeps us caring about these characters at every turn. We're not sure of the nature of the ominous tunnels below Hawkins, but we're damn sure that we screamed when we thought Hopper was going to die down there. We know we'll fight any character who gets between Hopper and his new daughter, whoever that may be, and that Season 3 needs more dancing and rolled-up shirtsleeves.

And not that it matters, but Hopper himself totally approves the stanning:

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Stranger Things 2 is now streaming on Netflix.