winona ryder’s butch husband

As of season 1, he pretty clearly has a drinking problem and a pill problem (though I don’t think it’s actually in the final drafts, the original Montauk pilot has him taking Tuinal, a barbiturate sedative that was discontinued sometime in the late 80s or 90s I think).

In season 2, I really don’t think we see him partaking in anything (save for that nicotine addiction) which is interesting and presumably because he’s now responsible for El, but also just… not really touched upon. We’re sort of expected to believe that he went from popping multiple pills a day and living in a trailer full of empty beer cans to having presumably kicked his habits in under a year (NOT saying that that isn’t possible, it’s by all means a reasonably timeframe for someone to make that change in and obviously everyone’s process is different) without it really being acknowledged at all (that’s more my issue). It feels less like an intentional choice and more like the writers sort of just…. Forgot? Either that, or decided that addiction wasn’t something they cared to take the effort to write into his character.

OR, you could always also opt for a more Watsonian take, arguing that, because season 2 really takes place over such a short period of time, there are just parts of Hopper’s life we’re not seeing. He could still be actively abusing substances and somehow keeping it from El. A fun thought, but pretty clearly not the writers’ intention. I think I sort of waffle between the two interpretations— I like to picture post-ST1 pre-ST2 Hop becoming responsible for a child and suddenly struggling hard to work on his habits while still looking out for her, still slipping up on occasion and opting just…. Not to tell El. El doesn’t necessarily have any real experience with substance abuse or the education to be able to recognize it or know what it is, but she can very clearly tell that there is something weighing on him that he isn’t sharing and it could help to strengthen that wedge that already exists between them.

As of season 3, though, we seem to be in a weird place of simultaneously showcasing his issues and…. Still not acknowledging them? When Hopper tries to blackmail Kline, Kline immediately fires back that he really shouldn’t be playing this game. He brings up “drinking on the job” and “those pills you used to pop like candy, did you have a prescription for those?” (Which, realistically I think he probably did— whether or not he should have been prescribed them is debatable, but it wasn’t very hard to be overprescribed barbiturates in the 70s and 80s.) And yeah, Hopper is pretty clearly drunk or drinking for a good chunk of the season, though instead of being treated as an extension of the ACKNOWLEDGED problem, it’s pretty heavily glossed over as just a joke. Unlike a handful (notice I did not say all) of the other issues characters are facing that season, it isn’t one that ever gets actually addressed in a serious capacity at the end of the season.

As of S4, he obviously doesn’t really have any access to any substances to abuse. But one honestly expects a little acknowledgement of that lack; 8 months in extreme physical conditions, left alone with his thoughts for much longer than I’m sure he’s comfortable with, with no access to alcohol, drugs, or even any cigarettes to take the edge off. Still, not one word from Hopper or anyone else about how difficult it’s been or about what I’m sure is an (involuntary) new record in his sobriety.

And as of season 5, he’s apparently quit smoking. Which is honestly, a HUGE step for his character thats alluded to only in a two-line exchange.

We don’t get to see how he handles the death of his second daughter— we don’t even get ANY allusions at all to what his grief looked like, and he’s still somehow one of the characters whose grief was explored the most, second to Mike— which I’ll forever be mad about, but we especially don’t even get to see how substances factor into that. We know that as of the epilogue, he’s comfortable having a few drinks with dinner, and that’s really it. That’s the end of a completely abandoned and underexplored arc, and we really don’t have any idea how we got from point A to point B.