...although probably not as you wished for her to be back.
"She's dead," said Shawn Levy, the executive producer of Stranger Things, about beloved season one character Barbara (Shannon Purser) during a lunch for Oscar nominees in Los Angeles earlier this week. "We saw a slug coming out from her throat. There's no coming back from that." However, #JusticeForBarb activists will be appeased by Levy's revelation that, although dead, Barb will play a big role in the second season of the show. "I will say that [Barb's] memory and the search for justice for her is a part of season two," he said.
Back in August, Matt and Ross Duffer, the show's creators, promised fans some sort of "creative justice" for Barb following the character's death: "[She will not be forgotten. We'll make sure there's some justice for Barb. People get very frustrated, understandably, that the town doesn't seem to be really dealing with Barb. That stuff is all happening. We're just not spending any screen time on it."
Dropping a surprise teaser trailer during the Super Bowl, Netflix has reignited the passion that followed the show's premiere last year and has viewers wondering what will happen next. We'll have to wait until Halloween to binge-watch season two but, in the meantime, we'll seek comfort in the fact that Barb will somehow still be part of the show.