(Credits: Netflix)

The way Stranger Things has ingrained its place in pop culture, very few shows have done it so immaculately. This is probably why, anytime viewers reckon something from the hit Netflix series, whether it’s a go-to dialogue, merchandise, or even terms that are Upside Down-coded, nostalgia can be smelled from miles away.

While Netflix’s rewatch parties from the first to the fourth season brought quite a reminiscence, in case that wasn’t enough, we hope the blue hair tie rekindles those sentiments.

Jim Hopper originally wore the symbolic accessory in Stranger Things, which was later passed on to Eleven. But for those whose memories have gotten a bit foggy over the years, it belonged to Hopper’s late daughter, Sara, who passed away at only seven.

Then onwards, the blue hair tie has become a symbol of unconditional parental love. So, it only makes sense that we take a trip down memory lane to every key scene in which the hair tie appeared, over the series.

Season One

When Sara Hopper was introduced

Jim Hopper sported the braided blue hair tie from the first episode of Stranger Things. However, it wasn’t until the season finale that the Netflix series chose to reveal its significance. After divulging Eleven’s location to Martin Brenner, Hopper and Joyce Byers are finally permitted to enter the Upside Down to save Will, who has been trapped in the shadow realm since the start of the instalment. As they walk down the sinister realm, Joyce’s anxiety goes through the roof, and the panic is palpable on her face.

To offer some support, Hopper teaches her to slow her breathing. In that very moment, Sara Hopper is introduced via a flashback, wearing her hair high up in a pigtail with the said hair tie. The scene shows Hopper chasing Sara playfully when all of a sudden, she begins to hyperventilate. Hopper is then seen coaching Sara to do slow breathing like Joyce in the present day, which is the first indication in the show that Hopper’s offspring is unwell.

Hopper reading to ailing Sara

On Hopper and Joyce’s journey through the Upside Down, he also stumbles onto a tattered stuffed animal toy, which resembles one belonging to Sara. Soon, Stranger Things conjures another flashback, this time showing Sara holding on to a stuffed tiger while on a hospital bed next to Hopper, who is reading to her. Hopper has worn the blue hair tie on his wrist since her cancer treatment made Sara lose her hair, hoping she’d someday wear it again.

The hospital bed scene is then cut to another one, which shows Hopper crying irresistibly in the hospital staircase with his head in his hands, still wearing the tie on his wrist. Wearing the hair tie on his wrist was a symbol of hope for Hopper. But after her passing, he continued wearing it to remain close to the one he had lost.

Sara’s death

When Joyce and Hopper finally track Will in the Upside Down, he’s out of breath. Together, they both perform CPR. As Joyce begs Will to come back to life, Stranger Things again sinks to a thought of the past when Hopper recounts the moment Sara lay on the hospital bed intubated as doctors and nurses tried to bring her back.

Unable to help the inevitable tragedy, her parents stand nearby while Hopper tries to comfort his wife, still wearing the blue hair tie on his wrist. The scene once again jolts back to the present-day Upside Down as Hopper tries harder to revive Will, and thankfully, he does start breathing. While Hopper was able to save the day for the Byers’, it’s a reminder of how he couldn’t save his own family.

Season Two

Hopper and Joyce open up about trauma

The second season of Stranger Things begins a year after Will’s disappearance into the Upside Down. But even so long down the line, he still has been envisioning the scares of the shadow realm. After Joyce finds out a drawing made by Will of the monster in his visions, she turns to Hopper out of concern. Hopper explains to distressed Joyce that Will could be experiencing PTSD flashbacks, especially now that the anniversary of his disappearance is approaching.

Although having experienced his own fair share of tragedies, Hopper says that their lives will never be the same, but he adds that things will get better with time. During this conversation, he lights a cigarette, which provides a glimpse of his wrist where Hopper still drapes the blue hair tie that belonged to Sara.

Hopper brings Eleven home

After a year-long search, Hopper finally finds Eleven in the woods. And upon her discovery, he brings her to a rundown cabin that belonged to his grandfather. “This is your new home,” he tells her, and they both start fixing the place. Hopper coaches Eleven some day-to-day skills, like sweeping and using Morse code on the CB radio while he stocks the fridge with her favourite snacks, Eggo Waffles.

He also sets up trip wires throughout the cabin, setting down a strict set of “Don’t Be Stupid Rules,” to ensure she doesn’t end up captive by the Hawkins laboratory men. Hopper steps up to become Eleven’s father figure with this entire act, and the Duffer brothers sneak in a glimpse of him still flaunting the blue hair tie on his band, reminding viewers that he had played this role before.

Hopper’s apology

Among the slew of Hopper’s “Don’t Be Stupid Rules” is “don’t ever go out alone.” But knowing Eleven’s just a teenager, albeit with superpowers, it doesn’t take long for her to break them. In the fourth episode, after she returns to the cabin following her search for Mike, Hopper lashes out at her for defying the orders and the fact that another woman had reported a sighting of her to the police, endangering not just her safety but both theirs. Following a heated exchange, Hopper ends up grounding El.

Later, Hopper meets with Joyce to solve the riddles behind Will’s nightmare-esque paintings. He understands that the drawings are actually vines, and he heads towards a pumpkin patch. But just when he digs more and more, he falls into a tunnel, inadvertently trapping himself in the Upside Down. After he is rescued, Hopper radios Eleven. However, she’s not there.

Hopper confides in Eleven over the airwaves, explaining that he had not been gone because of their fight. When he holds the microphone, the hair tie is clearly visible again as he slips into complete dad mode, suggesting she eats some real food.

Eleven’s first dance

After banishing the Mind Flayer and Demodogs, Hopper and Eleven make their family official. Dr Sam Owens gives Hopper a birth certificate, declaring Eleven, now Jane Hopper, his daughter. Although from the start of the second season, the overprotective instinct from his parental veins was visible, Hopper allows Eleven to attend the middle school winter dance, ensuring she has the typical teenage experience at the end of the day.

Outside their school, as Joyce and Hopper hug it out, we, however, see that the hair tie is not there on his wrist. For those wondering where it is now, the very next scene is the answer as Mike asks Eleven for her first dance. She is seen putting her arms around his shoulder with the braided blue hair tie clearly visible on her wrist.

Season Three

Eleven at the mall

Eleven didn’t begin her journey as a normal preteen, but once Hopper made things official, calling her his family, some amount of normalcy was retained. By the time we meet the Hawkins gang in the third season, they’re well into their years of adolescence, which means Hopper’s parenting style and strict restrictions need some bending. At the beginning of the instalment, Mike and Eleven have clearly grown closer than before, and Hopper is seen religiously struggling to set boundaries.

But after Hopper lashes out, Mike begins to grow distant from Eleven, and the lying only makes things worse. Instead of turning to Hopper for advice, El turns to Max, who gives her the wisdom of pearls that “there’s more to life than stupid boys.” So, they take off for retail therapy with Max explaining El how shopping is all about discovering one’s own style. While she tries on new clothes and experiments with her looks, the blue hair tie remains intact on her wrist, reminding us that not everything changes.

Eleven loses her powers

After Eleven’s showdown with the Mind Flayer in Starcourt Mall, Eleven succumbs to exhaustion and pain. Hopper, Joyce, and Murray Burman quickly come up with a plan to save the kids and close the gate to the Upside Down, which requires destroying the Soviets’ machines. In a scene, she sits beside Hopper, telling him, “My battery’s low, but it will recharge.” “Right now, I need you safe,” he replies, and as they hold each other’s hands, Hopper’s thumb gets tangled up in the blue hair tie, indicating this bond is truly do-or-die.

Hopper’s speech

During the showdown with the Russians, Hopper was trapped inside the Soviet machine, leaving Joyce to trigger the explosion with him inside. From there, Stranger Things picks up a few months later as the Byers family and Eleven prepare to relocate from Hawkins. While packing their stuff, Joyce stumbles across a speech Hopper had written at the start of the season to prepare himself for the conversation with El and Mike, which had long been pending. After finding the speech, Joyce hands it over to Eleven, who reads it, assuming it’s the last message her father left her.

In the speech, Hopper gleefully recounted his early days with Eleven, which she holds tightly to herself alongside the blue hair tie he had given him, still wrapped around her wrist.

Season Four

Eleven is alone

At the beginning of the fourth season, Eleven and the Byers family had moved out of Hawkins to California. She’s trying her best to work on school projects, and she even sends a letter to Mike, informing him how nicely everyone treats her at school. But the reality is far different and quite bitter to say the least. Although she’s miles away from everything and everyone she calls home, one thing remains as it was: the blue hair tie on her wrist.