Lonnie in Stranger Things: who is Lonnie Byers, the absent father of Will and Jonathan
Character · Lonnie Byers · Season 1
Lonnie Byers appears in two episodes and weighs on the whole show: he is the father who left, the one Joyce fled, the one Jonathan refuses to become, and the one Will is afraid of being the son of. Here is who he is, what he does in 1983, and why we never needed to see him again.
The essentials
- Name: Lonnie Byers, Joyce's ex-husband, father of Jonathan and Will
- Where: in Indianapolis, with a younger woman
- What he does: comes back to sue over the quarry, not to cry
- Played by: Ross Partridge
Contents
Who is Lonnie
When Will vanishes, in November 1983, Joyce calls her ex-husband: he does not answer. Jonathan takes the car and goes to Indianapolis, where Lonnie lives with a younger woman, in an apartment where beers are lying around. He has not seen Will, does not seem worried, and sends his older son back with a remark about his musical tastes. It is the first portrait: a man who left his family and does not look back.
The Will Byers T-shirt, the son who is not “like him.”
In the shopWomen's Will Byers T-shirt39,90 €See the product
The return, for the money
Lonnie comes back when a body believed to be Will's is pulled from the quarry. He moves in with Joyce, helps her take down the lights she hung to talk to Will, calls her crazy, and reveals his real motive: sue the quarry, for negligence, and collect money. Joyce throws him out. He will not come back.
| What we know about Lonnie | Detail |
|---|---|
| The departure | He left Joyce and the boys well before 1983 |
| His life | Indianapolis, a younger partner, a messy apartment |
| What he thinks of Will | He called him a sissy; Will keeps the fear of being “like him” |
| What he thinks of Jonathan | He wanted to make a hunter of him; Jonathan preferred the camera |
| His last scene | Chased from the house by Joyce, season 1 |
What he leaves
Lonnie is absent from the later seasons, and present everywhere. Jonathan, who always hated him, builds his life against him: he takes care of Will, works to pay the bills, and refuses the slightest resemblance. Will carries what his father told him: the slur on his difference, heard as a child, is one of the keys to his path through the coming out in season 5. And Joyce chose Bob, then Hopper, two men who are the opposite of Lonnie.
Ross PartridgeLonnie's actor, an independent film actor and director, only played in Season 1. The character was never brought back: the show did not need him, his shadow was enough.
Why he never came back
Fans waited for Lonnie every season: at Bob's funeral, at the move to California, at the end. He never came back, and that is a choice: the Byers family rebuilt itself without him, with Bob, with Hopper, with Eleven. Bringing him back would have given weight to a man the show decided to leave behind, as Joyce did.
Why the character matters
Because he is the absent father of a show full of substitute fathers: Hopper for Eleven, Steve for Dustin, Bob for Will. Lonnie is the reason for all the others.
The Jonathan figure, the older brother.
In the shopLego Will Byers mini figure14,90 €See the product
Jonathan's visit, in 1983
The only face-to-face between Lonnie and one of his sons happens in the third episode of Season 1. Jonathan, convinced Will may have taken refuge at his father's, drives to Indianapolis. He finds a messy apartment, a girlfriend, Cynthia, who does not even know he exists, and a father who has not called Joyce back. Lonnie offers him a beer; Jonathan leaves. The scene says everything: Will is not there, and Lonnie has not looked for him.
A few days later, Lonnie shows up in Hawkins for the funeral, once the fake body has been pulled out. He moves in, takes down the lights, and talks about a lawyer: the quarry where they found Will belongs to the town, there is money to collect. Joyce throws him out. It is the last time we see him.
What the show says about it, without ever showing it
Lonnie is absent from four seasons, but the show keeps talking about him through his sons. Jonathan explains to Nancy, in 1983, that his father took him hunting at ten and forced him to kill a rabbit, which made him cry for a week. Joyce says Lonnie called Will a "fag" and put him down. Will, in 1984, draws monsters and his mother reads in his drawings the fear his father left him.
That absence explains part of the three Byers. Joyce, who raised two boys alone on a cashier's wage, is ready to believe anything for them. Jonathan, the elder, made himself a substitute father, with a camera and a job after school. And Will, whom the show confirms in 1987 is gay, grew up with a father who blamed him for it even before he knew.
Lonnie against the other fathers in the show
| Father | What he is | What the show does with it |
|---|---|---|
| Lonnie Byers | Absent, interested, contemptuous | A wound of origin, never healed by a return |
| Ted Wheeler | Present but asleep | A gag for four seasons, a golf club in 1987 |
| Neil Hargrove | Violent with Billy | The explanation of Billy's anger, without an excuse |
| Jim Hopper | A grieving father who adopts Eleven | The counter-model: present, imperfect, and there |
| Martin Brenner | "Papa," Eleven's fake father | Affection as an instrument |
The show multiplies failing fathers the better to make Hopper, then Bob and Steve, replacement figures. Lonnie is the first on the list, and the only one whose absence has never been filled on screen.
Lonnie in three scenes
-
The Indianapolis apartment
Jonathan finds him with a girlfriend who does not know he exists, and with no news of Will.
-
The lights
In Hawkins, he takes down Joyce's lights, convinced she has lost her mind.
-
L'avocat
He talks lawsuits and money in front of his son's fake body; Joyce puts him out.
Three scenes in 1983, and nothing more: the show never needed to bring him back for him to weigh on his sons.
The Season 1 poster.
In the shopWill Byers jacket66,90 €See the product
TakeawayThe absent father, gone to Indianapolis. Back in 1983 for the quarry money, driven off by Joyce. Never seen again, present everywhere: Jonathan, Will, Joyce. Played by Ross Partridge.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Lonnie in Stranger Things?
Lonnie Byers, Joyce's ex-husband and the father of Jonathan and Will, gone to live in Indianapolis. He comes back in 1983 to sue the quarry, not to mourn.
Does Lonnie come back after season 1?
No. Thrown out by Joyce, he does not appear again, but weighs on Jonathan and Will through the whole show.
Why Jonathan hates Lonnie
Because he abandoned the family, despised Will and wanted to make Jonathan someone he was not.
Who plays Lonnie Byers?
Ross Partridge, independent-film actor and director, in season 1.
Where does Lonnie Byers live?
In Indianapolis, where Jonathan visits him at the start of season 1, in a messy apartment, with a girlfriend who does not know he exists.
What did Lonnie want in coming back to Hawkins?
Money: he talked about a lawyer and a lawsuit against the town, owner of the quarry where Will's fake body was found. Joyce chased him out.
Does Lonnie know what happened to Will?
No. He leaves Hawkins before Will's return, convinced his son died in the quarry, and the show never shows him informed of the truth.
Is Lonnie mentioned in the later seasons?
Barely: it is through what Joyce and Jonathan say of him that you measure what he left, and Will's coming out in 1987 retrospectively gives new weight to his father's insults.