Warning: This article contains spoilers for Stranger Things 4 volume 2.
Stranger Things 4 got off to a dark start with the death of Chrissy Cunningham. Though she was killed by the end of the first episode, the cheerleader’s death hit fans hard due to her ample chemistry with Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn). In the wake of the further tragedy of the just-released second batch of season four, Chrissy star Grace Van Dien has taken to Twitter to share some adorable yet heartbreaking fan-art that offers a glimpse at another timeline we wish we got to see.
Spoilers to follow!
While ST4 ended with Eddie likewise meeting a sad demise, Van Dien has got fans emotional by posting this AU artwork which imagines a timeline where both Eddie and Chrissy survived and got to graduate together. The brilliant piece, as originally created by @buriedbloom, takes the form of a Polaroid snap of the duo, happily flipping the bird at the camera in their graduation robes. “Class of ’86 baby,” the art is captioned.
It looks like in this happy universe, one where either Vecna never existed or was defeated earlier, not only did Eddie and Chrissy both live long enough to last through senior year but Chrissy dumped her jerk of a jock boyfriend Jason and got together with the lovable metalhead instead. So basically this is the timeline of fans’ dreams. Barb’s probably somewhere off to the side and Bob’s busy working at Radio Shack, too.
The only thing is fans can’t decide if they’re grateful to Van Dien for sharing this cute art or are resentful that she’s reminded them of all the pain.
At this point, we have to hope that the final season is going to pull an Avengers: Endgame and have the kids travel back in time and erase Vecna from existence, thereby establishing this perfect timeline. Or else that the secretive spinoff the Duffers are teasing is a What If…?-style show about the Stranger Things multiverse. R.I.P. Eddie and Chrissy, you deserved better.