Joyce Byers

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Joyce Byers
Stranger Things character
Winona Ryder 2010 TIFF.jpg
Actor of Joyce Byers, Winona Ryder in 2010.
First appearance "Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers" (2016)
Created by The Duffer Brothers
Portrayed by Winona Ryder
Information
Species Human
Gender Female
Occupation Melvald's General Store employee
Spouse(s) <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Children <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Nationality American

Joyce Byers is a fictional character and one of the protagonists of the American science fiction horror streaming television series Stranger Things. She is portrayed by Winona Ryder. Within the series' narrative, Joyce is the single mother of series protagonists Will and Jonathan Byers.[1] In Season 4, she becomes Eleven's guardian.

Joyce Byers' character and Ryder's performance has been well-received by critics,[2][3] and earned Ryder numerous awards and nominations.

Characterization

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Ryder joined the cast of Stranger Things as Joyce in June 2015, along with the casting of David Harbour.[4] Joyce was fashioned after Richard Dreyfuss's character Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as she appears "absolutely bonkers" to everyone else as she tries to find Will.[5] In December 2017, Ryder was revealed to be reprising her main role for the third season.[6] Ryder also received a pay raise in the third season.[7]

Fictional character biography

Season 1

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See also: Stranger Things (season 1)

In Season 1, Joyce Byers is depicted as a kind, caring and sometimes frazzled single mom to her sons Jonathan and Will. She works at a general store in downtown Hawkins. It is implied she has had a history of mental breakdowns.

When her son Will goes missing, Joyce immediately alerts Hawkins Chief of Police Jim Hopper, who was a classmate of hers in high school. At first, Hopper dismisses her concerns, suggesting Will might be with his father Lonnie. Hopper later becomes convinced Will is missing after finding the boy's bicycle abandoned in the woods the kids call Mirkwood.

Joyce begins to sense Will's presence in the Byers' home, but is unable to see him. She begins to receive mysterious phone calls, becoming convinced she can hear Will's breathing on the phone, but the calls end with the family's home phone exploding.

She is dismissed as crazy when she begins to see faded visions of Will through the wall and thinking that he is communicating with her by blinking lights on and off a round the house, but she remains steadfast in her faith. Joyce and her elder, Jonathan, mourn together until Joyce tells him of her findings. He too dismisses it as an overactive mind, but then begins to realize that what she saw was real when he actually visits the Upside Down with Nancy Wheeler. Joyce takes time off from work and asks for advances in her pay while searching for Will, which greatly annoys her boss.[8]

When Will's body is found in the lake, Joyce becomes doubtful that even her own theories are true, but holds onto hope that what they found drowned in a lake wasn't Will actual body; it was a copy somehow. Lonnie comes to visit and calm her, but when he sees what she has discovered he tells her to give it up because Will is gone, but both Joyce and Jonathan blow up at him and tell him to leave, and start working together to uncover more of the mystery. Hopper discovers that his house has been bugged by Martin Brenner and Hawkins Laboratories, and goes to check on Joyce.

They share what they've learned with each other, and find that both sides of the story match up, so they use Hopper's information about Hawkins Labs to sneak into Brenner's facility and venture into the Upside Down, after donning radioactive protection suits. There, Joyce discovers Will's body, and, after learning that he is still alive, takes him back to the real world. In the real world, Joyce has grown close to Eleven after meeting her and helping her into the Upside Down to meet them there. Will is brought home, alive and well, reunited with his friends, and Joyce becomes ecstatic. However, unbeknownst to her, Will begins coughing up small slug-like creatures, not unlike ones she and Hopper found lurking in the Upside Down.

Season 2

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See also: Stranger Things (season 2)

In Season 2 of Stranger Things, set almost a year after the events of the first season, Joyce is shown happily dating newly introduced character Bob Newby, one of her classmates in high school. Bob is depicted as a lovable nerd who enjoys solving puzzles and hates horror movies. Still traumatized from the events of Season 1, Joyce is shown to be overprotective of her son Will, no longer letting him bike around town by himself. With Hopper, Joyce regularly takes Will to Hawkins Lab, where the lab's doctors monitor his health and state of mind. Given her past experience with the lab, Joyce does not trust the lab's new director, Dr Sam Owens, who has replaced Dr Brenner.

Joyce grows increasingly worried about Will, who begins having frequent 'episodes' where he experiences realistic visions of still being in the Upside Down. Dr Owens tells her Will is likely experiencing the "anniversary effect" of last year's traumatic events. Joyce remains unconvinced, even as Hopper, a Vietnam veteran, also suggests to that Will might simply be suffering from PTSD.

Hopper arrives at the house and asks if Will can remember anything from his most recent episode. After Joyce promises Will that she won't take him to the suspicious Sam Owens, Will says that he honestly doesn't remember anything beside the shadowy figure he had been drawing previously. Since he can't describe it, Joyce asks if he can draw it. He agrees, but when Joyce and Hopper take a careful look at his pictures, they only see scribbles and lines. Hopper notes that the lines connect, and they figure out the puzzle.

Hopper gets trapped in the Upside Down and Joyce, Bob, Mike, and Will are able to decipher the puzzle and rescue him. However, Will has begun convulsing in pain, so they take him to Owens' lab for treatment. There, the Demogorgons escape and Bob offers to venture out to turn on the electricity in the facility. He makes it back but is devoured by a Demodog just a few feet shy of the door. Joyce, shocked and depressed, returns home with Jonathan, Nancy, and Will. There, she feels rage that the Demodog killed Bob and decides to use desperate measures and she burns the shadow monster, called the Mind Flayer, out of Will while Mike lures the Demodogs away from the gate so Eleven can close it.

Season 3

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See also: Stranger Things (season 3)

In Season 3 of Stranger Things, Joyce is noticing the magnets on her fridge are failing to magnetize. She finds this peculiar but goes to work where she sees Jim Hopper and give him advice on Eleven's relation ship with Mike. Hopper asks Joyce on a date and she agrees, but stands him up while going to ask science teacher Scott Clarke about the failing magnets. He tells her about a theoretical machine that affects the magnetic filed. Joyce goes to Hopper sharing her suspicions that this is related to Hawkins Lab and the Upside Down.

Joyce and Hopper go to the old Hawkins Lab and are ambushed by Russian assassin Grigori. They escape and head to the mayor where Hopper learns that the mayor is doing shady real-estate deals with the Russians. Joyce suspects that the machine is at one of the locations.

They go to one the real-estate properties and are attacked by Grigori again but escape and kidnap Russian Scientist Alexie. Joyce tries to interrogate Alexie, but he only speaks Russian. Joyce and Hopper go to see conspiracy theorist Murray Bauman so he can translate. They learn that the Russians opened the portal to the Upside Down using the machine and they call the CIA.

Joyce and Hopper go to the Hawkins fair to find their kids. While looking for their kids they overhear Russians talking about kids at the mall and head there. Joyce and Hopper are reunited with the kids and are tasked with closing the Upside Down portal underground.

Joyce and Hopper open up to each other and Joyce agrees to go on a date with him. They are attacked by Grigori and Hopper fights him but gets stuck in the room with the machine and portal. Joyce turns the key and destroys the machine which disintegrate everyone in the room. Joyce believes Hopper is dead and adopts Eleven. Joyce decides to move her family out of Hawkins taking Eleven with her.[9][10] Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Season 4

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See also: Stranger Things (season 4)

In Season 4, Joyce and her kids (now including Eleven) have started a new life in Lenora, California. Joyce works from home as a telemarketer of encyclopedias. She receives a mysterious package with postage from the Soviet Union. Inside, she finds a Russian doll. She calls Murray, who suggests the doll might have been sent to her by the KGB, who wants to capture her for her role in destroying the Soviets' secret operations under Starcourt Mall in Season 3. She realizes the doll is broken and finds a note inside it, which tells her Hopper is still alive and gives her a phone number to call.

Murray comes to California. He helps Joyce call the phone number in the note. They soon realize Hopper is imprisoned in the Soviet Union, and that the person who sent them the note is one of his prison guards, code named "Enzo" after the Italian restaurant where Joyce and Hopper had planned to go on a date. Enzo tells them to bring $40,000 to Alaska, where his contact Yuri is going to fly them to Kamchatka.

Not wanting to get Eleven's hopes up, Joyce decides not to tell her children about the possibility that Hopper is alive. Telling the kids she is going on a work trip, Joyce and Murray instead fly to Alaska and find Yuri. Yuri double-crosses them and Enzo. He drugs Joyce and Murray, binds them and takes them on his plane to turn them over to the Soviets. While they are aboard the plane, Joyce convinces Murray to subdue Yuri, but he accidentally knocks Yuri out, leaving no one to fly the plane. They crash but manage to arrive in Kamchatka, near the gulag where Hopper is imprisoned.

Joyce and Murray come up with a scenario to enter the prison where Hopper is held. They get inside, but are horrified to see Hopper and his fellow prisoners get pitted against a vicious Demogorgon. After narrowly helping Hopper and Enzo escape, Joyce reunites with Hopper.

Looking for a way out, Joyce, Hopper, Murray, Enzo and Yuri find Demodogs held captive around the prison, seemingly as subjects in scientific experiments. They also see a storm of black particles, which remind them of the Mind Flayer substance that possessed Will in Season 2.

They escape to the town nearby, where Joyce and Hopper share their first kiss. They find out their children are in mortal danger and fighting against the Upside Down once more. Recalling the Upside Down creatures' hive mind, Joyce deduces they can help their kids by killing the Demogorgon and the Demodogs they saw, so they decide to re-enter the prison.

Back at the prison, Hopper gets attacked by a Demodog, triggering for Joyce a flashback to her boyfriend Bob Newby's death at Hawkins Lab. In a cathartic moment, Joyce kills the Demodog attacking Hopper, rescuing him. Murray uses a flamethrower to kill the rest of the Demodogs, while Hopper uses a sword to behead the adult Demogorgon. These victories happen in time to allow Nancy, Robin and Steve to attack Vecna's body in the Upside Down.

Joyce and Hopper reunite with their children in Hawkins, where the Upside Down have begun to invade the town.

Reception

Awards and nominations

Ryder won the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards in the category of Best TV Supporting Actress,[11] as well as being nominated for the Gold Derby TV Awards for Drama Supporting Actress,[12] and the Golden Globe Awards in the Best Actress – Television Series Drama category.[13] Ryder was also nominated for the Satellite Awards in the category for Best Actress – Television Series Drama,[14] the Saturn Awards in the category for Best Actress on a Television Series,[15] and the Screen Actors Guild Awards in the category for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series along with Millie Bobby Brown, who appears in Stranger Things as Eleven.[16]

References

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