Joyce Byers

Joyce Byers is a fictional character from the American horror streaming television series Stranger Things. She works at the Melvald's General Store in downtown Hawkins, Indiana, and is the mother of Will and Jonathan Byers and the divorced wife of Lonnie Byers, the children's father.^[1] In the first season of Stranger Things, Joyce spends most of her time trying to connect with Will, who was taken to the Upside Down, through the lights in her house, which Will would make blink, and the wall, where she is able to briefly see Will.^[2]

At the end of season one, Joyce is able to join forces with police chief Jim Hopper, against the wishes of Lonnie (who thinks Joyce has gone insane), and they enter the Upside Down and rescue Will. Joyce Byers is portrayed by Winona Ryder. Near the end of the first season of the show, Joyce meets Eleven for the first time while the girl is attempting to reach Will in the Upside Down, and grows close to her, and in the following seasons she takes Eleven in as a child of her own.

Characterization[]

Ryder joined the cast of Stranger Things as Joyce in June 2015, along with the casting of David Harbour.^[3] 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.^[4] In December 2017, Ryder was revealed to be reprising her main role for the third season.^[5] Ryder also received a pay raise in the third season.^[6]

Actress Winona Ryder portrays Joyce Byers in Stranger Things.

Fictional biography[]

Season 1[]

Joyce, a kind and caring mother, becomes frantic when her son Will goes missing. She is dismissed as crazy when she begins to see faded visions of Will Byers through the wall and thinking that he is communicating with her by blinking lights on and off around the house, but she knows the truth. Joyce and her son, 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.^[1]

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. Soon, Joyce gets back together with her estranged ex-husband Lonnie, which comes as a shock to Jonathan, who dislikes Lonnie. 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. Soon, chief of police Jim 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 read 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[]

In season two of Stranger Things, Joyce is dating her high school sweetheart Bob Newby, and even though Jonathan and Will don't warm up to him at first, he and Joyce grow close over the first few episodes. Joyce is also ecstatic to have Will back, but becomes concerned when Will starts having episodes, where he temporarily goes back to the Upside Down. And when they start getting worse, Joyce becomes suspicious of Will's doctor, Sam Owens.

After growing closer with Bob and more worried about Will, she starts to call Jim Hopper excessively. When he doesn't answer, as he is scolding Eleven for going outside, a risk that she could be recognized, she finds Will in one of his episodes, standing perfectly still. They wake him up, but he is out of it afterwards, and has a temperature of 95°. Joyce runs a bath for him to warm him up, but he says that "it" likes the cold, prompting her to plead for Hopper to come.

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 Demogorgon 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 Demogorgon 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 Demogorgons away from the gate so Eleven can close it.

Season 3[]

Reception[]

Awards and nominations[]

Ryder won the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards in the category of Best TV Supporting Actress,^[7] as well as being nominated for the Gold Derby TV Awards for Drama Supporting Actress,^[8] and the Golden Globe Awards in the Best Actress – Television Series Drama category.^[9] Ryder was also nominated for the Satellite Awards in the category for Best Actress – Television Series Drama,^[10] the Saturn Awards in the category for Best Actress on a Television Series,^[11] 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.^[12]

References[]