| “ | He can't hear you. You shouldn't have looked for me. Because now, I see you. Now we can all see you. You let us in. And now, you, are going to have to let us stay. Don't you see? All this time, we've been building it, we've been building it, for you. All that work, all that pain, all of it. For you. And now it's time. Time to end it. And we are going to end you, and when you are gone, we are going to end your friends. (Eleven: NO!) And then, we are going to end… everyone. | „ |
| ~ Billy Hargrove to Eleven whilst possessed by Mind Flayer |
William "Billy" Hargrove is a major antagonist in the Netflix original series Stranger Things.
He is the abusive and arrogant stepbrother of Max Mayfield, the archenemy of Steve Harrington and Lucas Sinclair, as well as the main host for the Mind Flayer.
He is portrayed by Dacre Montgomery as an adult, and by Christopher Convery as a child.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
In General/Background[]
- He has been abusive to Max Mayfield ever since she became his stepsister, often yelling at her, criticizing her choice of friends, and even gaslighting her sometimes. Made worse is that he's almost grown and she's still a child.
- Even as a little boy, he beated up his peers and he even called one of them a derogatory curse word.
- Although he's only seventeen for most of his screen time and one could argue he is just behaving the way he was taught for years, he is still old enough to have thorough moral agency and treat people however he wishes whenever Neil is not looking and will likely not hear of it, and he still mistreats some people accordingly, proving he has no justification for his bullying.
- While Dr. Brenner and Lt. Sullivan are far worse than him, they have more resources.
Runaway Max[]
- He was a juvenile delinquent who committed several petty crimes with his friends Wade and Sid. He even burns a dead cat at one point.
- He grabbed Max's wrist and squeezed to the point she cried.
- At some point, he broke Max's friend, Nate's, arm to prove that Max "wasn't easy."
Season 2[]
- He tries to run over Mike, Lucas, and Dustin just to upset Max.
- He plays dirty on the basketball field.
- He taunts Steve about his feelings for Nancy.
- He gets very angry whenever he sees Max with Lucas simply because he is black and Max is getting close to someone, which makes him a racist.
- He doesn't care that Max is missing. When his admittedly vile father calls him out on this, he expresses no concern until his father starts to beat him up, it becomes obvious he's only sorry because he's getting in trouble.
- He shoves Lucas against a wall and tries to beat him, probably to death, for kicking him in self-defense.
- He becomes so angry with Steve that he attacks him, inflicts multiple bloody injuries on him, pummels him into unconsciousness, and likely would have murdered him in cold blood if Max hadn't stopped him. While he suspected him of having perverse reasons to be alone with his little sister, Billy's reaction was still way too extreme.
Season 3[]
- Even after coming of age, he needlessly calls a little boy fat and curses at him.
- He flirts with Karen Wheeler a much older woman than him, inviting her to "swimming lessons" even though she's married and he knows it is wrong.
Why He Doesn't Stand Out?[]
- While he does meet the baseline due to brutally beating Steve to the point of almost dying of multiple injuries and his personal villainy towards Max, especially with his low resources, he still massively fails the heinous standard to the Mind Flayer, as his worst action in the third season (getting several people “flayed” against their will) were only because The Mind Flayer possesed him, forcing him to do these, meaning that these are not his crimes.
- He is tragic, as his father is very cruel and abusive to him and his mother, which lead to his mother leaving him behind and his father refusing to let him be a surfer. In fact, most of Billy's darker traits are him fearfully emulating Neil's personality to avoid exacerbating the latter's harsh mistreatment of him.
- He loves his mother, since her leaving him was the main reason he became what he is. He also resisted the urge to hurt Karen Wheeler, showing that he cares for her.
- He is remorseful, tearfully saying that the Mind Flayer forced him to harm innocent people when briefly free of his influence and that he would never, ever be a mass murderer of his own volition. He later apologized to Max for his abuse and bullying of her.
- He redeems himself by turning against the Mind Flayer and protecting Eleven out of gratitude of her empathizing with him, which in return, protects the Party from the Mind Flayer and gives Joyce and Hopper the time they desperately need to get rid of the Key and save the entire world because of his sacrifice.
- His death in Season 3 is heavily played for sympathy, and in the fourth season Max is seen to mourn him despite everything.
External Links[]
- Billy Hargrove on the Villains Wiki
- Billy Hargrove on the Stranger Things Wiki
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 Villainous Benchmarks
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Vecna | Billy Hargrove | Hawkins Demogorgon | Russian Demogorgon See Also |
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