It's Too Late For Stranger Things To Tell Lucas' Missing Story
Warning: Spoilers forStranger Things season 4!
While Stranger Things has provided dramatic story arcs for most of its characters, the show has noticeably left Lucas without one of his own. For someone who has been around since the very beginning of the series, Lucas's role has seemingly gotten smaller, making way for new characters or bigger action pieces for the show’s heroes, like Eleven and Hopper. But more importantly, the show has ignored an integral aspect of his life — and it doesn’t have the time to fix that.
Lucas has been mostly a supporting character when it comes to Stranger Things’ original foursome. Season 1 focuses on Mike as he leads the kids’ search for Will and integrates the superpowered Eleven into their group. Season 2 of Stranger Things is about Will’s PTSD after escaping the Upside Down, as well as his possession by the Mind Flayer. While that season introduces Lucas’s love interest, Max, he has little to do on his own. In season 3, the group confronts a Mind Flayer-created hive mind, with Lucas’s sister Erica and newcomer Robin joining the ride. It’s in season 4 that Lucas finally gets his own arc when he joins the basketball team, creating a rift between him and his friends. However, this proves to be in service of the season’s Hawkins-side drama, wherein the town — spurred by Jason, the basketball team captain — gets swept up in the real Satanic Panic that surfaced in the ‘80s.
Related: Why Stranger Things 4’s Satanic Panic Subplot Is So Annoying
What makes this lack of a strong Lucas story stand out is the fact that there is such an obvious well to dip into: small-town racism in the ‘80s. Despite Lucas being one of a handful of Black characters who receive prominent screen time in Stranger
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