it's all but confirmed that Hopper is still alive, like at this point I expect him to be. There were so many good points brought up, I will try to summarise it concisely.
1. When Joyce looks at the spot where she last saw him, the same music plays which played when back in season 1 Hopper inspected the fake corpse of Will. (this is the biggest giveaway imo)
2. We never see the body and in this show all other important character deaths were explicitly shown for that dramatic effect
3. We don't actually see what goes down in the room with the machine, at one point Joyce closes her eyes, then there is that blackout for 6 seconds also. It is implied Hopper ran off in a direction and there were multiple directions he could have ran towards.
4. They severed El's powers so that she can't look for him and find out he is alive.
There were more but this is what I can recall right now, in conclusion I am sure we will see more of him, either in that Russian Prison or In the Upside Down

The ending heavily implied that Hopper is alive and is in a Russian prison, so it's almost a given he's going to be back if they get a fourth season.

Did anybody else have a problem with Hopper's characterization this season? He was always hot-headed but this season it went too far imo, all the excessive violence, yelling at Joyce and Mike or when he got home drunk, stormed into El's room because he thought Mike is there.

I'm so glad that story line with Billy and Mrs Wheeler never went anywhere. I felt so uncomfortable while watching their scenes.

I wish the show did a better job with Will, he was so underused this season.

I also didn't like how they glossed over what an abusive and racist ass Billy was in season 2. None of it was addressed and in the end he got to die a hero.

What were everyone's favourite interactions? I liked the Scoops Troop and Max/El team ups the most.

Honestly, remember it's 80s and that time, there some people who are heavy drinker and all that since some of my family member was like that compare to now that not everyone who are heavy drinker or stuff like that.. Plus some father during 80s was very overprotective if a girl is alone w/ boy in the room that they just can't trust what the boy would do.. I mean, it 80s since I can't say that it was weird or wrong of him do that.. But I wish that he can able to trust Mike instead try to ruin their relationship like that..

But whoever in that room, all of them got ash since Joyce in the room to protect herself from getting in that room.. So I just can't see him that he's live while everyone else in that room died??

I know it was a different time but the show is written today and he crossed several lines and nobody ever called him out. Besides, the show wasn't trying to present him as a bad father, they wrote this as something funny, perhaps even cute and it wasn't.

Ah, I don't see it as funny scene?? Unless if it's the audience's interpenetration of that scenes???

Well, basically during the entire season Hopper was either
1) Pissed off about Mike's presence
2) drunk
3) or pressed because Joyce stood him up

so that is why he was extra salty almost always

yeah, I didn't like the way Hopper was acting either. he shoulda understood what those two kids meant to each other after their reunion in s2 where he apologized for keeping El a secret from Mike but this seemed to all disappear here where he threatened him to never let him see El again..?? that was crazy..


and, yeah it's kinda messed up how Billy's abusive behavior was forgiven cause he had experienced the same as a kid. though in the end I can live with this cause he didn't let El die, if that's the price then so be it..

Yeah, it made no sense that he was so hostile towards Mike. Threatening a teenager into obedience instead of talking to him about boundaries?

I also didn't like the way he yelled at Joyce because she stood him up, I understood he was upset and angry but he was way too aggressive. And then he didn't take her concern seriously at first either, similar to season 1. IDK, it just felt like they regressed his character this season.

Yeah, it made no sense that he was so hostile towards Mike. Threatening a teenager into obedience instead of talking to him about boundaries?

I also didn't like the way he yelled at Joyce because she stood him up, I understood he was upset and angry but he was way too aggressive. And then he didn't take her concern seriously at first either, similar to season 1. IDK, it just felt like they regressed his character this season.