If you’ve binge-watched your way through Stranger Things Season 3 then you may well be asking yourself who is the American at the end. We’ve been pondering the same question and below are all of the theories that we can come up with, but if you have any of your own suggestions not covered here, drop them on over on our Facebook post and we’ll add them in where we can.
We’ve put the most obvious theory at the top and then you can read more about why it’s such a highly-tipped answer to the question further down in the detailed breakdown. However, but surely the Duffer Brothers, who created the show, won’t just go for the most obvious answer. Or will they? The end of both Season 1 and 2 had quite clear pointers about what to expect from the next series, so maybe that’s the case again with Season 3.
Who is the American?
Before we go through each option in detail below, here’s a quick rundown of them all together so you can weigh them up to help you to decide who the American at the end of Season 3 is:
- Hopper
- Billy
- Dr. Brenner
- El’s sister Kali
- El’s mum Terry
- Murray
- Mayor Larry Kline
- Dr. Owens
- Barb
- A.N. Other new character
If you need a refresher, you can re-watch the last episode on Netflix.
Is Hopper the American?
The chances of Hopper being the American that the Russian guards talk about at the end of the 3rd series are off the charts. Having been left with a choice between certain death and a run at survival, but trapped in the Upside Down, we’re pretty certain he would have gone for the latter.
The fact that the Russians have a pet Demogorgon would imply that they now have a route into the Upside Down, so it’s more than possible that they were able to get to Hopper shortly after a potential escape. If that isn’t enough to suggest we’ve found the front runner then there’s also the fact that he and Joyce are referred to as “the Americans” by the Russian Arnie enforcer part way through the last episode of Season 3.
The only minor point against Hopper being the American is that it’s such an obvious story progression. However, as mentioned earlier, Will’s regurgitation of the pollywog proto-Demidogs at the end of Stranger Things 1 and then the shot of the Mind Flayer overshadowing the ball at the end of 2 both had clear progression lines, so historically the show has gone for the logical next step.
Is Billy really dead and if not could he be the American?
Season 3 saw Billy get a final reprieve before being attacked by the Mind Flayer and dying from his wounds. However, with the complexity of inter-dimensional dynamics and the strange science of the creatures from the Upside Down there is a slim chance that he could be written back in somehow.
A good example is the way the Demogorgon escaped to the Upside Down after being incinerated by Nancy, Steve and Jonathan at the end of Season 1. Somehow, it managed to survive, so it’s possible for Billy to make a comeback through the alternate dimension, which the Russians appear to have access to.
What happened to Dr. Brenner at the end of Season 1 and could he be working with the Russians?
Dr. Brenner hasn’t been seen since being left to face the Demogorgon at the end of the first season of Stranger Things, but El’s psychokinesis sis Kali told her that he was still alive in Season 2. If he did manage to escape, he may well have turned to the might of Soviet Russia for a more significant research initiative into the science of the Upside Down.
This is a real contender for progression in Season 4, but it doesn’t entirely fit the question, “who is the American at the end of Season 3?”, because the line in Episode 8 seemed to imply that the American could well have been food for the Russian’s Demogorgon. One guard says to another not to get the American, so they get another dude to be taken in and fed to the faceless beast. If the American was as important to the Russians as Brenner surely would be then why would he be in a cell and why could he be confused as Demogorgon fodder.
The punitive way that the Russian’s responded to scientific failure early on in Season 3 does leave wriggle room for Brenner though. Maybe he’s fallen out of favour with them and being held captive. Maybe the guard is new and doesn’t know not to feed the American to the Demogorgon. Either way, there’s definitely a way to write him back in on the Eastern side of the divide. Maybe he’ll be back as well as the unknown American in the cell.
Who else could be the American?
The remaining list is more tenuous than the three front runners above, but they could all theoretically fill the role. El’s sister Kali or mum Terry could have been taken by the Russians to help with their research. Maybe Murray has been taken to find out what he knows about what happened at the hidden research facility in Hawkins. Mayor Harry Kline has already shown his affiliations, so maybe he’s more important than he seems.
Then there’s Dr. Owens, who showed up at the end of Stranger Things Season 3. He’s the senior figure on the American government side, so could he have been taken East?
Finally, there’s Barb who appeared to be dead at the end of Season 1, but again the science of the Upside Down is pretty unconventional, so could she have been in a strange stasis with the polliwog infestation that got Will? There’s also scope for the introduction of a new character as the American that’s mentioned at the end of Season 3, but if we were pushed, we’d put our money on it being Hopper for sure… or maybe Barb…
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