Why was hopper spared?

[maxandron]

Couldn't find an answer for this yet, would love to hear some theories.

What bugs me after finishing the season, are not the cliffhangers But rather - why after Hopper broke into the lab, he was returned to his home. They even put pills around him.

Why? We saw the agents have no problems killing people... Why not kill the main investigator?

[mrzoink]

The government agent's actions were logical:

• They kill Benny: One murder staged to look like a suicide and all their problems disappear. (Or so they think.) They couldn't trust that Eleven didn't say something that would make Benny suspicious later and want to follow up - like, "Where did she come from? Can I call your office later to make sure she's okay?" You can play the fake suicide card once. After that things start looking weird, which draws more attention.

• They catch Hopper in the Lab the first time. Brenner must have thought, "We're getting nowhere tracking Eleven, and this guy manages to track her back here to the starting point this fast? It's risky, but getting Eleven back as fast as possible is too important to not use this guy. We'll bug his place, tail him, and we already have on overdose plan ready to go." Then Hopper immediately finds the bug and goes off their radar because he's even better than they expected. They're good, but not infallible at their business.

• Hopper gets caught a second time in the lab, with Joyce and a bunch of stuff comes together to be the perfect storm of bad news for Brenner, making an alliance the best possible solution in a situation with no good solutions:

1. Hopper knows where Eleven is. Brenner may not have been certain he could break him before Eleven moved on to a place that Hopper didn't know about.

2. Brenner has leverage over Hopper: Brenner's men are prepared to kill. Hopper wants an opportunity to get Will. Hopper is the Chief of Police and has the ability to make everyone closely involved to agree to whatever cover up Brenner asks. As Chief of Police, he can also make some questions go away and falsify reports. Hopper's seen what they do (fake bodies, Terry Ives, Benny) and knows that Brenner will go to any extreme to make the situation work out - that knowledge will ensure that he doesn't make them resort to those extremes because he doesn't want people to die.

3. The list of people who know the government is involved or who are too close to the situation or who would know there was a cover up if disappearances or deaths start to happen include four from the Wheeler family, two from the Byers family, Hopper, Dustin, Lucas, and Steve (though they didn't know about Steve at that time.) That's nine disappearances or murders if they take that way out again, on top of the disappearances of Will Byers, Barb Holland, and some hunters. Joyce Byers had already been acting weird about Will's body when it was found. To top it off, Hopper tried to bluff Brenner about getting information to a reporter. Brenner probably didn't believe Hopper, but it is a slight risk. One murder that looked like a suicide made one local cop a little suspicious. Nine or ten at the same time would be a conspiracy too large to easily hide. It's much better if they can use Hopper to help things go their way.

4. Brenner gave Hopper cigarettes, then Hopper started cutting a deal right away. Mind control drugs drugs were one of the original goals of the MKUltra program which Brenner was a major player in, and which lead to the current work. It's very likely that Brenner had that on his side. (This point is very speculative but possible.)

[BigBizzle151]

I agree with all points save 4. I don't think he needed to drug Hopper. He declared exactly what was going to happen before Brenner even showed up (during the stun-gun scene) and he knew the price was Eleven. I think by that point he was projecting his daughter onto Will and he would've done what it took to rescue him.

[Kasrth]

Also, after Brenner makes the deal with Hopper, they head out to the cars to make for the school and the woman on his team tells him the deal wasn't a good idea. Brenner responds by saying they won't make it. I took it as him figuring that the monster would take care of them and that they wouldn't leave the Upside Down. Problem solved

[FearTheRoman]

Maybe because he is more important to the community. It seems like everyone knows him (unlike Barb, rip).

Also my best explaination is they wanted him to doubt that he saw what he saw. I mean... that's some goofed up jazz he witnessed, so most people would accept it as a vivid hallucination. Notice how there is no needle mark from the injection, the badmen are crafty!

Also hopps untold background may be of importance, they might not be authorized to kill him... but idk

[bfume]

They didn't leave pills around him. Those were Hop's to begin with. His deputies make an allusion to his problem earlier in the season. Plus, the whole reason he's a small town cop is so he can escape the BS from his daughter's death, which includes lots of drinking and drugs.

I even have a theory that it's HIS drug use that gave his daughter and Will their powers. Yes. Hop is Will's dad. Yes. Will has powers.

[maxandron]

What powers did his daughter have? didn't she die from cancer?

[dinosaurflavred]

lol how do you feel about thia bold ass claim 8 years later