Stranger Things' cantankerous, but noble, Sheriff Jim Hopper is a man haunted by his past. Once a happily married detective living in New York, Hopper lost his daughter Sara to cancer at a young age. His marriage to Sara's mother Diane crumbled soon after, prompting Hopper to move back to his hometown in Hawkins, Indiana. There, he led a carefree but empty life in the years prior to to the events of the Netflix series.
However, Sara's death was very different in the earlier version of Stranger Things, back when the show was titled Montauk. In this iteration of the series, Hopper had grown up in Montauk, New York, before moving away upon graduating from high school. He then lost his daughter to what's described as a "tragic car accident" in the Duffer Brothers' bible for Montauk, which led to Hopper retreating to his hometown and taking up "a hedonistic lifestyle in a shack by the beach." Whereas Sara was seven years old at the time of her death on Stranger Things, the character was only four when she died in Montauk.
If anything, Sara's death on Stranger Things was more horrifying than what the Duffer Brothers originally had in mind. Through flashbacks, the show reveals Hopper spent weeks, if not months, comforting his daughter as she underwent chemotherapy at the hospital. Being helpless to save her, her would often go off by himself to cry alone. As traumatizing as it would have been for Hopper and Diane if Sara had suddenly perished in a vehicular accident, having to watch her slowly die from cancer is even worse. It's no wonder the pair went their separate ways shortly after, with Hopper seeking to numb his pain through a meaningless existence of drinking, smoking and avoiding deeper personal connections.
The loss of his daughter was a big part of what motivated Hopper to help his old friend, Joyce Byers, find her son Will after he mysteriously vanished in Stranger Things Season 1. Knowing what it's like to lose a child, Hopper finally commits to his job as Hawkins' Sheriff by going above and beyond to find Will, even following Joyce into the dangerous alternate dimension known as the Upside Down. Hopper's arc culminates when the pair find Will incapacitated and successfully revive him using CPR, all while Hopper remembers watching Sara die as her doctors tried (and failed) to restart her heart.
The scene where Hopper and Joyce save Will is easily one of the most powerful moments on Stranger Things so far, but it would've played out very differently if the Duffer Brothers had stuck to their original plan for Sara's death. It goes to show how a single plot point can have a huge impact on not just a character's emotional journey but also bring a weightiness to certain events that might've otherwise not been there. In this case, making Hopper's backstory even darker proved to be a smart move.
Sara's death played an equally important role in Stranger Things Season 2, after Hopper secretly takes in Eleven and begins to form a father-daughter relationship with her. The season then ends with Hopper giving Sara's blue hair ribbons, which he's worn on his right wrist for years as a way to remember her. It's a touching moment that shows Hopper has started to make peace with his past and is finally ready to begin living again.
Created by the Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things stars Winona Ryder, Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Priah Ferguson, Cary Elwes, Jake Busey, Maya Thurman-Hawke and Ethan Thurman-Hawke. Season 4 has yet to receive a release date.
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