Nobody panic, but one of the most upsetting TV deaths of 2016 may have just been undone. The 2017 Golden Globes kicked off with a celebrity-filled musical number, during which the child stars of Stranger Things said Barb isn't dead. What?! It was probably a joke, considering the song also featured an army of Barbs doing synchronized swimming in the pool she disappeared into, and the rest of the song poked fun at last year's biggest movies and TV shows. But then again, none of the other jokes directly addressed and contradicted plot points. What does that mean? Is Barb really alive on Stranger Things? Update: After the Golden Globes, Millie Bobby Brown told People and Entertainment Weekly that Barb is still dead on Stranger Things and said, "No, she’s not alive!"
Earlier: Let's analyze what exactly was said here. The Stranger Things portion of the Globes opening started with an amazing rap from Millie Bobby Brown. She kicked things off by saying:
My name is Eleven, I’m here 24/7
I'm eating Eggo waffles by the pound
I got a knack for rapping about Stranger Things that happen inside the Upside Down
You're my best friends forever, Dustin, Mike, and Lucas
And together we know how to survive
Then, each of Brown's costars, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Finn Wolfhard, got to rap a line that combined to say, "and I got a little secret, don't repeat it, or tweet it..." Finally, they all shouted together: "Barb is still alive!"
You can watch the full opening musical number below, and look out for the Stranger Things rap around 1:27.
As much as I want this to be official confirmation, it seems very unlikely, especially since Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer confirmed that Barb is dead at an event in September. "Yes, she’s dead. I thought we were pretty clear about that,” Matt said, as reported by the Huffington Post. "There’s a slug hanging out of her mouth ― out of her dead corpse. And then if you were still confused, [Chief Jim] Hopper finds her in the nest, also very dead."
Then, at New York Comic-Con, the actor who plays Hopper, David Harbour, also said that she's dead. On the bright side, he went on to say, "you do get justice for Barb in some sense," so it would seem her story isn't completely over.
But hey, maybe that was all misdirection and this joke-filled song is telling the truth. Or maybe Barb is coming back in a different form, or in yet another alternate dimension. I, for one, won't be giving up hope until Stranger Things Season 2 premieres.
