Chrissy could have easily been a character that just briefly made an appearance in Netflix’s Stranger Things season 4 and then carried on into the great unknown of characters we’ve loved and lost. But with the viral sensation of “Chrissy Wake Up” and the obsessive nature in which we’ve all consumed the most recent season of the hit series, characters like Chrissy have become an online phenomenon, and actress Grace Van Dien has embraced it in a very cute way.
Recently, Van Dien was at Fan Expo in Canada and shared pictures with her fellow cast members on social media. And with the way we’re all still talking about Joseph Quinn as Eddie Munson, it should be no surprise that fans loved Van Dien’s pictures—even one where she wrote “Vecna x Chrissy forever” with a picture of Jamie Campbell Bower with a Vecna hand. (Personally, I love the Freddy Krueger of it all.)
Chrissy met her end when she became the target of Vecna’s murderous obsession through her own trauma in season 4, and he used the torment that her mother placed on her and her own struggle with an eating disorder to bring her into his clutches. That happened as Eddie Munson was trying to help her, which brought him into the crosshairs of the town’s ire/our favorite group of teens trying to stop the Upside Down from consuming their town.
So then Grace Van Dien had to also share another image with a cast mate, and the picture that broke the internet was, of course, a picture of her and Joseph Quinn. Quinn played the beloved Eddie Munson, the town outcast who Chrissy turned to, thinking he could help her relax.
The brief moments we had of Chrissy and Eddie together on the series spawned the fan relationship known as “Hellcheer” (combining Eddie’s love for the Hellfire Club and Chrissy’s cheerleading into one name), and that’s why this photo hurts our hearts.
Chrissy wake up!
While we barely got to see the two together in the show, their brief scene in the woods—when Chrissy opened up to Eddie about how she was feeling as the two remembered their shared past—was something that fans have clung to since the demise of Chrissy Cunningham. And maybe that’s the power that Stranger Things has, but it’s also just a look at how good this season was.
Someone like Chrissy, who is barely in the show, can become a fan favorite because of how connected to her story we were. Combine that with her connection to the internet’s boyfriend, Eddie Munson, and it’s no surprise that these tweets have fans screaming. Is that picture of Van Dien and Quinn the cutest thing I’ve ever seen? Yes, I love it so much, but it also hurts because I will just think about all that could have been for these two characters and cry.
Thanks, Grace.
(featured image: Netflix)
