The Importance of Lonnie Byers in Season 5
After much theorizing and consideration, I am confident beyond a shadow of a doubt that not only will Lonnie be present in season 5, but that he’s actually crucial to the main plot of the story.
I’m going to first explain why I think his appearance will be important from an objective storytelling point of view and then theorize what I think his role is actually going to be.
TW: Discussions of child abuse.
Lonnie’s absence has created major unresolved conflict with both Will and Jonathan
I wanna start by saying that I’m looking at this from an objective storytelling point of view and not in the context of real world situations.
Lonnie has only appeared in season 1 and has not made an appearance since. In fact, he hasn’t been mentioned by name, only indirectly mentioned majority of the time by Jonathan. Will and Lonnie haven’t even shared a scene. This creates a huge hole of unresolved conflict between Lonnie and his sons. In fact, the only member of the Byers clan who has resolved their conflict with him is Joyce.
When Joyce is in an emotionally vulnerable state, Lonnie shows up and she clings to him, despite how much he belittles her. Eventually Joyce stands her ground, defends herself, and then demands that he leaves. We can see that Joyce has finally moved on from him once she has moved on to different and better romantic partners in later seasons. She hasn't even mentioned him, not in the way that Jonathan has.
In each season, Jonathan has brought up his father through dialogue. It usually revolves around Jonathan's inner conflict of fearing that he is becoming like his father, and that his father has affected who he is today.
And given that this has been brought up in every season, we see that this hasn't been resolved yet. Lonnie returning would be a good opportunity for Jonathan to come to some kind of self realization.
In the case of Will, it's pretty unclear how he really feels about his dad. Aside from a few lines of dialogue from season 1, we don't get much in the way of Will's point of view. However, I do think that Will misses his dad. I think this could also create interesting conflict between Will and Jonathan; Will is highly receptive of their dad coming back and Jonathan is not. Jonathan and Will have never really had any conflict before, so it might be interesting to see them fight about something. If everyone is on the exact same page about Lonnie, and there was a simple resolve, it wouldn’t be interesting to watch.
Again, as stated above, I want to be clear that I'm looking at this from a fictional storytelling standpoint. I don't think that abuse survivors need to confront their abusers in person in order to find closure, however when discussing fictional characters and character arcs, leaving the show without any confrontation from either Jonathan and/or Will would leave that conflict open.
Lonnie's absence tells me that they are holding out on something big from him
The fact that Lonnie has not shown up in the past three seasons informs me that when he does show up, he'll likely be the catalyst for a major plot point. Think about it this way, if Lonnie were connected to some kind of major plot twist (such as Will's powers) then it would make sense to not bring him back until the last season, because doing so prematurely could set in motion some of the larger set pieces that needed to be saved for the ending.
I think if Lonnie were truly unimportant to the future plot, then they could have wrapped up his arcs with Will and Jonathan earlier. I think he could have easily fit in to season 2, especially with the focus being so heavy on the Byers family in that season. But no, they are holding out on him until the very last season, which speaks to the importance of his role in the main plot of the story.
Lonnie is likely connected to Will's powers
Now that I've explained why he is important to season 5's plot, now comes the part where I theorize about what his exact role in the story will be. Namely, I believe that he is connected to Will's powers.
I'm not going to go into all of the theoretics involving Lonnie and Will's powers, that would just make the post even longer than it already is. I've made a few posts in the past exploring Lonnie's possible connection to the lab, which I think is highly likely. You can read them here, here, and here.
I have another large theory post where I discuss how Lonnie may have even been the trigger for Will's powers here, which relates to another long theory post I made regarding Will's childhood memories here.
There's a lot of different ways this could go, but either way, I think Lonnie is a major part of Will's powers and is likely connected with the lab. Will doesn't remember this very well, but seeing his dad again could likely jog his memory.
Lonnie could likely die, following a pattern set by the show of abusive figures dying
I've theorized about how this could go in a number of different ways, but the ending is still the same. If Lonnie were to die, it would be the third in a pattern of abusers dying that started with Billy's death and was continued with Papa's death in season 4. There also seems to be a string of deaths involving father figures, starting with Bob and season 2 and again continued with Papa in season 4. Either way, Lonnie Byers your days are numbered.
Here's a rough timeline of my prediction of how I think the season could go:
Lonnie returns very early on after the time skip. He claims to be there to make amends with and spend time with his boys.
Joyce and Jonathan are weary of his return and intentions but Will is excited to see his dad again.
Joyce decides that Will's feelings about his dad should be up to him, while Jonathan is more combative. This creates tension between Will and Jonathan.
Unsurprisingly enough, Lonnie is there for his own personal gain, probably connected to the lab. Most likely sent in by Owens
As Will discovers the extent of his powers throughout season 5, his childhood and the extent of Lonnie's abuse will likely be revealed to him, forcing Will to contend with the fact that his father is a monster
The above bullet is a mirror to El's arc last season with Papa. Except now, Will will likely be horrified to learn this information and will want to see his father as good as much as possible.
There is a final confrontation between Will, Jonathan and Lonnie which is likely the climax of whichever episode it's in, likely episode 6 or 7.
Lonnie's arc ends with his death.
I know that a lot of the details are a little loose toward the end, this is something that I'm still theorizing about and putting together. Regardless of specifics, Lonnie's importance and likely appearance in season 5 is something I'm still highly confident in. Let me know what you guys think, or any predictions that you have!
