The End of an Era (Finally)

It is hard to believe we are finally here. The end of the road. The last ride of the demogorgon-hunting, D&D-playing, walkie-talkie-obsessed crew that defined a decade of streaming dominance. It feels like we have been watching these kids grow up for thirty years, doesn’t it? I remember when Eleven was just a shaved head and a nosebleed, and now she is practically paying a mortgage.

Look, I love Stranger Things. I really do. It scratched an itch that us Gen Xers didn’t even know we had until the Duffer Brothers handed us a bottle of calamine lotion and a slingshot. But let’s be real for a second: the show is running out of steam. The action sequences have become bloated Marvel-movie spectacles, stripping away the small-town horror that made Season 1 so visceral. And yeah, I’ll say it. It is teetering on the edge of becoming “too woke” or, at the very least, too sanitized. Everyone is a hero now. Everyone has a heart of gold. Where is the grit? Where is the latchkey apathy that actually defined the 1980s?

We are drowning in sentimental speeches and tearful reunions. The stakes feel simultaneously world-ending and completely safe because we know the main crew is wrapped in plot armor thicker than a Panzer tank.

But then, in the midst of the bloated runtime and the CGI overload of Season 5, a savior appeared. He didn’t come with superpowers. He didn’t come with a tragic backstory about a government lab. He came with a bowl cut, a foul mouth, and an attitude that screams “I am unsupervised and I don’t care.”

I am talking, of course, about Derek Turnbow.

Or, as the internet and the playground at Hawkins Elementary have affectionately dubbed him: Dipshit Derek.

The Antidote to the “Perfect” Hero

In a season where everyone is trying to save the world, Derek Turnbow just wants to be a little jerk. And honestly? It is the most refreshing thing I have seen on television in years.

When we first meet Derek in Episode 1, he isn’t saving a cat from a tree. He is on the playground, tormenting Holly Wheeler on the merry-go-round. He is rude, he is loud, and he is undeniably a bully. In modern TV writing, this usually means one of two things: either he is a one-dimensional villain who will get eaten by a monster in ten minutes to satisfy the audience’s bloodlust, or he is secretly misunderstood and just needs a hug.

But Derek? Derek is just a dipshit. And that is why he is perfect.

“He is the 80s id unleashed. He represents every kid who stole your lunch money and then helped you cheat on a math test not out of kindness, but because he was bored.”

The Duffer Brothers, to their credit, didn’t try to soften him up immediately. They let him be awful. They let him tell his mother to “suck a fat one” (a line that made me spit out my drink because that is the authentic 80s dialogue we have been missing). He pushes kids. He mocks the main cast. He is the chaotic element that disrupts the perfectly curated heroics of the Party.

Who is Jake Connelly?

Part of the magic of Derek Turnbow comes down to the casting. In a show filled with polished young stars who have been media-trained since they were toddlers, Derek is played by newcomer Jake Connelly.

This kid is a revelation. Before landing one of the biggest roles in the world, Connelly’s claim to fame was a local commercial for Feldco Windows in Chicago. That is it. No Disney Channel pedigree. No massive Instagram following. Just a kid from the Chicago suburbs who got the call while sheltering in his basement during a tornado warning.

There is a rawness to his performance that you can’t teach. When he sneers at Holly Wheeler or rolls his eyes at the concept of the Upside Down, it doesn’t feel like acting. It feels like a real 13-year-old who thinks all of this supernatural nonsense is stupid. He brings a grounding energy to the show. While Eleven is staring intensely at a wall to move it with her mind, Derek is in the background making a fart noise. We need that balance.

The “Turnbow Trap” and the Pivot

The turning point for the character and the moment he cemented himself as the MVP of Season 5 came during the episode titled “The Turnbow Trap.”

The main cast, in their infinite wisdom, decides they need to kidnap Derek. Why? Because he has been targeted by “Mr. Whatsit” (the creepy new guise of Vecna/Henry Creel), and they need to use him as bait. Their plan is pure 80s movie logic: drug a pie, break into his house, and Home Alone the situation.

Naturally, it goes sideways. Derek doesn’t eat enough of the pie. He wakes up in a barn, surrounded by his unconscious family who are tied up with pillowcases over their heads. Most characters in this situation would be terrified. They would cry. They would beg for their lives.

Derek just gets angry. He starts hurling insults. He is indignant, not fearful. It is a subtle shift, but it shows the audience that this kid has a spine. He isn’t a victim; he’s an annoyance to the monsters, too.

The “Your Mom” Moment

If you need one scene to explain why Dipshit Derek is a legend, it is his confrontation with Henry Creel.

Here you have Vecna, the ultimate evil, the dark wizard of the Upside Down, a being of immense power who has terrified audiences for years. He corners Derek in the woods. He pins him down. The tension is palpable. The music swells. Henry demands to know who gave Derek the map to his hideout.

And Derek, staring death in the face, looks up and says:

“Your mom.”

I stood up and cheered. I am not joking. I physically left my couch. It is the perfect distillation of the Gen X/early Millennial attitude. Faced with existential dread? Make a “your mom” joke. It stripped Vecna of his power in a way that no psychic blast ever could. It made the monster look ridiculous. It was a reminder that at the end of the day, these are just kids fighting a boogeyman, and sometimes, a well-placed playground insult is the strongest weapon you have.

The Evolution: From Dipshit to Delightful

The internet has already started rebranding him. The “Dipshit Derek” moniker is fading, replaced by “Delightful Derek.”

We saw this happen once before with Steve Harrington. Remember Season 1 Steve? He broke Jonathan’s camera. He was a sleaze. He was the antagonist. But Joe Keery was too charming, so they wrote him a redemption arc that turned him into the show’s best babysitter.

Derek is undergoing a speed-run of that same evolution. But unlike Steve, who became a responsible protector, Derek remains chaotic. He helps the good guys, sure, but he does it while complaining the entire time. He joins the fight not because of some noble sense of duty, but because he got dragged into it and now he has to deal with it.

He represents the Reluctant Hero archetype, which is a staple of the genre. Think of Han Solo coming back at the end of A New Hope, but if Han Solo was a 4-foot-tall brat who just wanted to play Nintendo.

Jake Connelly as Derek Turnbow in Stranger Things: Season COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2025

Why We Need “Mean” Characters

Let’s go back to the “woke” criticism I touched on earlier. Modern media is terrified of making characters unlikable. Writers feel the need to soften every edge, to ensure that every character has a “trauma” that explains their bad behavior so the audience doesn’t cancel them.

Stranger Things Season 5 risks falling into this trap with its main cast, who are all increasingly flawless. But Derek Turnbow is a rejection of that safety. He is mean because he is a spoiled kid from a rich, corrupt family (Turnbow Land Development, anyone?). He is a bully because he is insecure. He isn’t “coded” as anything other than a little jerk.

And because he starts so low, his rise feels earned. When he finally helps the group, it matters more. If Will Byers helps someone, it’s expected; Will is a saint. If Derek Turnbow helps someone, it’s a miracle.

We need more characters who are allowed to be unlikable. We need more grit. We need more people telling interdimensional demons jokes about their mothers.

The Legacy of Season 5

As we approach the finale, there is a lot of speculation about who will live and who will die. Will Eleven sacrifice herself? will Hopper finally get his date at Enzo’s? Honestly, I care less about them than I do about Derek.

If Derek Turnbow dies, we riot.

He is the breath of fresh air that this franchise desperately needed before it gasped its last breath. He is the reminder that Stranger Things used to be about weirdos and outcasts, not just superheroes. He connects the show back to its roots: The Goonies, Stand By Me, The Monster Squad. In those movies, the kids weren’t soldiers. They were loud, messy, rude kids who stumbled into adventure.

Jake Connelly has managed to steal the spotlight from Winona Ryder and Millie Bobby Brown, and he did it with a bowl cut and a scowl.

So here is to you, Dipshit Derek. You may have started as a villain, but you are ending as the only character keeping it real in a town that has lost its mind. Long live the dipshit.