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How Stranger Things' Brett Gelman Helped Create Murray's Season 4 One-Liner

Since Season 2 of Netflix's hit show, "Stranger Things," Brett Gelman has portrayed Murray Bauman, the lovable yet over-the-top conspiracy theorist who first appears because he is hired by the Hollands to investigate the disappearance of Barbara Holland (Shannon Purser). Barb is one of the first victims of Season 1, dragged into the Upside Down by the Demogorgon hunting in Hawkins. The next time fans see her, she is just a corpse forgotten in the alien world, and to this day, fans are still salty over her death.

Murray's investigation eventually leads him to believe that they are in the midst of a full-scale Russian invasion, which, by the time Season 3 rolls around, happens to be at least partly true. For Seasons 2 and 3, Murray is a reoccurring character caught up in the "Hawkins curse," but in Season 4, he is promoted to a main cast member.

In Season 4, Murray becomes a black-belt action hero who saves the day by setting a Demogorgon on fire with a flamethrower. According to Brett Gelman in a 2022 Vulture interview, he helped brainstorm the iconic line "Hey, a**holes" during the production because it felt like the right thing for Murray to say.

Murray's boost in courage helped him through Season 4

According to Brett Gelman's IMDb credits, Murray will continue to be a key player in the 5th and final season of "Stranger Things." Gelman hopes that Murray will have a chance to be an action hero again, like in his ventures in Season 4.

In the interview, Gelman said, "I want lots of 'action Murray' in season five and a real role in saving the day in the way he did this season. You know, it feels so good and it's so fun, but when you're filming a scene, you're imagining a lot of things." Gelman said that since the Demogorgon Murray fought wasn't actually there, he could only imagine what the final scene would look like. For him, though, the final result was emotional.

"I almost cried when I saw myself yelling, 'Hey, a**holes,' and lighting the Demogorgons on fire. To see it all play out like that was very moving," Gelman confessed. Seeing Murray step into a role in which he finally comes into his own and saves lives was probably not what Gelman ever imagined from the character.

Gelman explained that he sat down with the Duffer brothers, the creators of "Stranger Things," to brainstorm ideas for what Murray would say leading up to torching the Demogorgon. Apparently, they came up with a bunch of different options, but ultimately they went for the simple yet iconic one-liner. "It's very Murray," Gelman said to defend the decision; to be fair, he was right.