Stranger Things season 2 nearly saw Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) kill an instrumental character. After an impressive debut season in 2016, Stranger Things season 2 aired a year later in October 2017. The sophomore season of the sci-fi series saw some major character changes, separating Eleven from the other characters as she embarked on a personal journey to learn about her family background. Though the season received mixed reviews, mainly due to Eleven's solo-episode, "The Lost Sister," it offered crucial information about Eleven's mother Terry (Aimee Mullins) and Dr. Brenner's (Matthew Modine) work in Hawkins Lab, which became more essential in season 4.
Season 4 of the hit Netflix series, which was split into two parts, wrapped in July of this year. The latest season bolstered the sci-fi show's popularity even further, getting the Internet buzzing about the most recent fan-favorite character to die heroically, Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn). Stranger Things has established a pattern over the last four seasons of the series, introducing characters designed for viewers to fall in love with, only to then kill them. In season 2, that character was Joyce's sweet and cheesy boyfriend, Bob (Sean Astin), who died by demo-dog. However, the writers have recently made it known that season 2 was nearly much bloodier.
The Stranger Things writers posted a surprising revelation to their official Twitter account. The behind-the-scenes detail is one of two surprising insights into previous iterations of season 2 that the account has posted so far, in a series fitting called "Crazy s**t that almost happened." The first tweet in the series, posted last week, revealed that Will (Noah Schnapp) was going to kill Bob while possessed. In the second installment, posted today, the writers revealed that season 2 originally involved Eleven "mercy kill[ing] her mother."
Would Eleven's Mercy Kill Change Fans' Feelings Of Her?
When Eleven was finally reunited with her mother, she discovered Terry was in a catatonic state, due to the electroshock therapy that Brenner subjected her to after she attempted to rescue her daughter. Eleven was able to connect with her mother telepathically, gleaning a few key insights from her, including the existence of other psychic children. However, Terry can barely utilize her preternatural abilities in the physical world, and she's unable to move or communicate. With the Stranger Things writers' reveal about Eleven killing her mother, it's likely the context of such an action would have been Terry telepathically expressing to Eleven that she wanted to die. Even if Terry had asked Eleven to kill her, however, it's not likely that fans would have responded positively to the action.
Fans were already divided on Eleven's season 2 storyline due to her isolation from the other kids, anger towards Max (Sadie Sink), relationship with her sister Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), and other factors. A mercy killing of a catatonic woman who suffered immense trauma would have added a new level of controversy to the season, possibly nipping the show's popularity in the bud. Clearly, the writers made the right call in keeping that extraneous and tragic detail out of the final draft of season 2, a decision which allowed the show to keep going strong heading into Stranger Things season 5.
Source: Stranger Writers/Twitter