Master of Puppets in Stranger Things: Eddie Munson's solo, scene by scene

The plan: create a diversion while the others enter the Creel house

The season 4 final plan plays out in three teams. Eleven has to face Vecna in Max's mind; Nancy, Steve and Robin have to enter the Upside Down Creel house to attack his body; Eddie and Dustin have to draw the demobats, the bats that guard the house, away from the others. Their weapon: a guitar, an amp, and “the most metal concert in history.”

Eddie plays on the roof of his own trailer, Upside Down side. The sound carries, the creatures come by the hundreds. When they get too close, the two boys go back in to barricade themselves. Then Eddie decides to go back out, alone, to buy time. That is the choice that kills him.

The solo, scene by scene

The scene lasts about three minutes. It starts with the riff, played head-on, then alternates shots of the fingers, the sky filling with bats, and Dustin screaming his pride. Joseph Quinn, who played guitar before the show, learned the song and really plays a large part of what you see; the fastest passages of the solo were doubled by a professional guitarist, as is the custom.

The track heard is not exactly the 1986 studio version: a special mix was produced for the show, and Tye Trujillo, the Metallica bassist's son, recorded extra guitar parts for the occasion.

What the scene did to Metallica

Master of Puppets had never entered the American Billboard Hot 100. After the episode came out on July 1, 2022, it enters for the first time, thirty-six years after its release, and climbs the streaming charts worldwide. Metallica publicly praised the scene, then played the song in concert while projecting images of Eddie.

The band also stood up for Joseph Quinn when some fans objected that an actor could wear their colors: the musicians received him backstage at a concert and played the riff with him.

Why Eddie dies after the solo

Once the solo is over, Eddie and Dustin take refuge in the trailer, but the Demobats force their way in. Eddie cuts the rope that lets them climb back into the real world, goes back out, and draws the creatures onto himself to buy the others time. He dies in Dustin's arms, asking him to look after "his little sheep."

His death is all the more unjust because Hawkins keeps taking him for a satanic killer. That is what makes the solo scene so strong: it is the only moment Eddie is exactly who he wanted to be.

Behind the scenes: who is really playing

Joseph Quinn plays guitar and learned the song for the shoot; a large part of what you see on screen is played by him. For the most technical passages, the production brought in Tye Trujillo, the son of Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, whose parts were built into the soundtrack. The track, released in 1986 on the album of the same name, is one of the hardest in the band's catalog, with its central solo and its off-beat riffs.

The song is a few weeks earlier than the action: the album Master of Puppets came out in March 1986, and the scene takes place on March 27. Eddie, a metalhead who stays current, therefore learned it as soon as it came out, which is plausible for a guitarist of his caliber, and a typical nod to the show's precision about dates.

What the scene did to the song

After July 1, 2022, “Master of Puppets” reached first place on the streaming platforms and entered the American and British charts for the first time since its 1986 release. Metallica saluted the scene on its networks, explained it had been “honored” that the show chose that track, and invited Joseph Quinn backstage at a summer 2022 festival, where the actor played the riff with the band.

For many viewers born after 1990, the scene was the first meeting with Metallica. It is the metal counterpart of what "Running Up That Hill" had done a few weeks earlier for Kate Bush: two songs from 1985 and 1986 that became hits again in one summer.

What the scene says about Eddie

The solo on the trailer roof is the moment Eddie stops running. Since Chrissy's death, he has been hiding; on the roof, he shows himself, in the middle of the Upside Down, to draw the demobats away from the Creel house and give Nancy, Steve, and Robin time to attack Vecna. He plays “the most metal concert of all time,” in his words, then, when the swarm arrives, he refuses to go back through the trailer door and cuts the rope.

Eddie dies of that choice, in Dustin's arms. The last season shows what the scene left: the T-shirt Dustin still wears, the stained grave, the pick returned to his uncle, and the graduation speech that, in spring 1989, finally gives Eddie his name in front of the whole high school.

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