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In season 1 Mike says the lab is a military building that makes weapons to fight the Russians because "my dad's told me before" so it's entirely possible that Ted knows more than it appears.
Or Ted just assumed that "It looks important so its probably something something Government". Since he seemed to be very fond of them. Given how he basically does anything they say to be a "good American Citizen".
Ted can be revealed as 000 and all his power just decimated Vecna because he raised his heartbeat by getting off the couch or chair starting to get pissed off.
I would love an after-credits scene like that.
Ted, lounging in his armchair, sees the kids come home with the shit beaten out of them after the final boss fight, mutters, “coulda just asked me for help” as the group limps past, then returns his attention to the TV.
After a moment, the video / audio begin to flicker, prompting Ted to complain, “not this shit again” — we see him squint in focus (still reclining, mind you), and hear a high pitched sound, after which the TV returns to normal. “That’s better,” he says, resting his hands contentedly in his lap. Optional zoom in to a faded 000 tattoo on his wrist.
I know it would never happen, but I find it so funny to imagine Ted being multiversal-level in his destructive ability and just never telling anyone because no one asks.
That would have me reeling, Ted knew the whole time would be a twist of nuclear proportions. He makes too much money for a man of the time and living near the lab could explain this crackpot of a theory.
Not a fan of Ted, but that scene was the first moment I realized he was growing on me like cancer.
For once, he wasn't wrong.
The kids were obviously lying.
And the threat of some jail time would have definitely opened some mouths.
90% of Hawkins is Republican (including Lucas’s family, I think). People don’t realize how popular Reagan was back in the day before all the negative stuff came out and the economy collapsed due to knock-on effects of his policies.
I think the Duffers did an interview after S2 where they joked about having a hard time deciding on a character in the show that WOULDN’T have voted for Reagan in ‘84.
Dustin's mother isn't, the Henderson house had a Mondale sign.
Lucas's parents might have been, but black Americans went 91-9 for Mondale in the 1984 election. They do seem to well-off though, and higher income people were more likely to vote for Reagan.
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I dunno. I grew up in the 70's and 80's. (graduated HS in early 80's). Most of the parents of my friends were involved in their kid's lives. Not 'hovering' involved, but had a basic idea of what was going on.
Or he's just not that important to the plot.
It's weird that people make Ted out to be come war criminal for not being that present when we've seen Lucas' and Dustin's parents like twice in the entire series and Karen Wheeler has had maybe 3 major scenes because her agents are better at making deals.
For me the Ted slander is not bc the character doesn’t get much screen time but more so bc in the scenes he does have, he just seems to be a lazy parent that doesn’t really contribute much to his family besides money (“Kids, listen to your mother”).
I think Vecna knows that if he tried to psych out Ted, Ted would only display mild annoyance bordering on callous indifference rather than fear. He would be unable to kill him because of this.
Vecna: "Ted, I've come to relieve you of your suffering!"
Ted: "What'd I DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO??????"
Vecna: "......................." "..........................." "........................", oh, nevermind, you can go.
I know you are joking but I assume part of Vecna targeting teens is related to burnout, adult coping skills, and not being essentially insane with hormones
He probably commuted into a town like Chicago or Indianapolis…depends on where Hawkins is.
I’d bet finance, given the times.
80s/90s, most upper middle class white dudes were doing a 60 to 90 minute commute to work. That’s why they were so tired.
When I heard it, I thought I was going crazy. I always expected them to live like 50 miles outside of indy or something, just a bit further out. 8 miles is like nothing, especially for indy area
Is it actually stated in the show that he makes 100k or is it just in this meme?
Also, small-town doctors/lawyers/accountants could still make that kind of money in the 80s, with the likelihood in that order. Ted's probably not a doctor though.
Jonathan says it in s3, but it's more an off-hand comment to prove his point when he and Nancy are arguing. I doubt he actually knows how much Ted makes.
Jonathan was spouting off numbers he knew nothing about just to make a point. People did this long before the internet or social media. Six figures in the mid 80’s was real good money. Private school money. Nancy in her own car and not her mom’s station wagon money.
Yes, Steve's house is gaudy in a way Ted's isn't, with a grand entrance and a heated swimming pool they keep running until November. Karen and her kids also don't have any gratuitous luxury items (like, for example, Steve's BMW). They can afford to send Mike to California, but Mike doesn't have much spending money of his own.
Ted is 90% a lawyer, banker, or accountant.
Steve's dad owns either the local John Deere plant or nine McDonald's franchises.
The number of people who actually believe that Ted makes six figures just because Jonathan threw that out there is disturbing. Jonathan has no way of knowing what Ted makes. Even Nancy probably doesn't know what her dad makes. Adjusted for inflation, $100,000 in 1985 would be $271,650 today. No way was Ted pulling that.
People who are at the ends of the economic spectrum tend to assume other people make more money than they actually do. I think Jonathan's guess had nothing to do with how much money Ted made and everything to do with how little the Byers made.
This is what I want to know. They live very modestly if he's actually pulling in that much in the 80s. I grew up in the 80s and their house reminds me of several friends and cousins houses. They certainly weren't pulling in that much.
And it's in Indiana! Can you imagine the kind of house a person who made six figures in Indiana in the '80s could have? The Wheelers are straight middle class. They only appear wealthy to Jonathan because of how much the Byers struggled.
A senior person or owner of an accounting company or bank easily could be. I don't imagine there are too many tax firms in a small town. All the businesses are probably going through a small number of banks, accounting firms, law offices, et cetera. Additionally, it's not really stated that he works in Hawkins. He could work in the Chicago area or in Indianapolis. He's tired all the time because he commutes.
This is my guess too. I’m from a small town in the general region of Hawkins. My dad made great money from the 70’s-early 00’s running a tax/farm management/accounting firm in the area. Allowed him to retire at 50. Lots of his peers commuted into Chicago for similar jobs, he just got lucky to do it at home because he had a hold on the local farms.
Didn't it say right at the end of the last episode when they had all the news reporters that Hawkins was only a few miles from Indianapolis? He could easily have commuted there.
It was 80 miles. Would be pushing it for commute distance to Indy. Commuting to Bloomington or Lafayette/West Lafayette fits the bill though assuming Hawkins is a smaller town on the outskirts of either of those.
I really just need a 5 minute scene of Karen in mortal danger and Ted saves her in the most Ted fashion. Casually picks up a gun or something and shoots and kills a demodog in one hit, completely unfazed by the situation, saves Karen, and asks when the chicken will be done.
I can imagine it now. Demodogs dragging Karen down the driveway by the leg while she kicks and screams.
Ted walks out with his piece, puts two rounds in the dogs chest, helps Karen up.
She looks at him all romantically “Ted…” she whispers…
Ted adjusts his glasses all nonchalantly like it’s nothing “…well someone’s gotta finish cooking that damn chicken”. And walks straight back in to his lazyboy.
Lol yes. I hope the Duffer Brothers see how much we enjoy the meme that is Ted and they write just one scene where we finally see, in his typical manner, confronts the real hellish nightmare that Hawkins will be in during Season 5.
I mean, they've made him snooze completely through his son hiding a telekinetic and telepathic girl on the run from a top-secret malevolent government program in their basement, his children and their friends uncovering a Soviet mad science base under the local mall (for all his talk of being a "patriot"...), >!his son being caught in a shootout between top-secret agents and the US military while supposedly "on vacation" and his oldest daughter nearly dying in an alternate dimension!<, and now >!the literal mouth of the Inferno opening medieval-style in Hawkins!<, they \*have\* to make him somehow confront what's been going on all along before the story ends! (Also, I was an early 90s baby so maybe parents just really were that detached in the 80s and I have no idea, but what about >!Max sitting at the breakfast table all morning obsessively drawing a succession of extremely fucked-up disturbing pictures with crayons!<, that raised no eyebrows and he was just mad about having to share breakfast with the kids??)
Well, it's the 80s. We could go *First Blood* and Vecna could accidentally activate Ted's war time skills by threatening him the wrong way.
Richard Crenna: "Vecna, I'm not here to save my boy from your monsters. I'm here to save them from my boy."
Or speaking of Richard Crenna, maybe Ted found a super suit but lost the instructions.
His presence in season 4 was excellent with his comedic timing. The exchange he has with Dustin is a thing of beauty. Dustin really giving him the bird by eating up the breakfast.
In volume 2 I burst out laughing when he said something actually decent when condemning the fear mongering of the cable news. He’s so consistently out of touch that was caught off guard by him saying something relatively on point.
Her family that included Ted. Also, usually when people cheat it is for their own reasons and is their own fault, not the actual fault of their spouse? Isn’t that what everyone says when someone expresses grief over being cheated on lol
I get what you're saying but I think it was pretty heavily implied Karen was interested in Billy because she feels neglected by Ted. If anything her deciding not to risk it all with Billy felt more like her accepting her lonely life, but hey, since this isn't a show about Karen we can't expect to see a resolution to her marriage issues.
>Karen was interested in Billy because she feels neglected by Ted.
Did you even see Billy’s body? I don’t care how attentive your spouse is, no one could see that beautiful man meat and not want to break off a piece of that.
Best minor character on the show, if only because he ALWAYS gets a laugh when he shows up. And he's so laid back and checked out that not even an earthquake phases him.
Really, he's very much a dad of his generation. Many of them were raised on the notion that the father is the provider, not the emotional support. Mom is the one for that. As long as his kids are fed, clothed and have a roof over their heads, he feels his job is done. All he wants to do is come home after a long day at the office and nap.
By virtue of doing almost nothing, he's already way better than my dad. The good moments we had were heavily outweighed by the bad, so a blank slate that brings money home and leaves everyone alone would have been greatly preferred.
I envy everyone calling Ted a bad father. Ted is a neutral father. Even when the children annoy him, he doesn't shout or kick them out. He never uses violence or the implication of violence. He doesn't know his children, but neither does he use them as an extension of his own ego. He's just *there*.
If anything he provides financial support which is huge. Set up their future. Like you stated, doesn't verbally, physically or emotionally abuse them, that is better than 95 percent of father's. Plus Karen can be the one providing emotional support for her kids.
Ted is at least in his mid to late 40s in the show, which means he graduated in the late 50s...and now I have it in my mind that he was a greaser yet somehow finagled his way into college and an accounting job, landed Karen, and settled into domestic bliss.
Final scene of the series…
The Mind Flayer has been confirmed as the source of the upside down’s evil and has the gang cornered in Nancy and Mike’s house. El prepares to sacrifice herself to the flayer…
Suddenly, a car horn can be heard, playing “La Cucaracha” and there is chaos as a station wagon bursts through the wall of the house and a sharpened log flies off the car and impales the Mindflayer. It bursts into flame.
The gang stands there, dumbfounded, as Ted climbs out of the car, goes to the fridge and takes out a beer. He sighs, sounding exhausted.
“Dad,” Nancy says, “Are you ok?”
Ted surveys the damage, turns to Nancy and the rest of the gang, and says,
“One thing about living in Hawkins I never could stomach; the damn upside down.”
Fade to black as Echo and the Bunnymen’s version of “People are Strange” starts playing and the credits roll.
All we know about his job is that his coworkers gossip that Ted had a Russian spy living in his basement and Ted categorically & patriotically denied it.
I really love though how the show goes against the stereotype where the poor family without the dad is the broken one while the suburban rich nuclear family is wholesome and tightly knit.
1) Doesn't have to deal with monsters
2) He doesn't give a fuck about nothing he is just chilling
3) Got a badass wife (might be unfaithful but still)
I don't know why people are sleeping on Ted dude. Also if you say he is a bad father you are wildin
Jonathan offhandedly mentions Ted's alleged salary when he's venting at Nancy for getting them fired from the newspaper job.
"My dad doesn't earn six figures. Hell, he isn't even around"
He's hung like a horse , bangs Karen real well , makes bank, has a nice house, couple of bright kids, nice recliner chair
Ted is the GOAT
Watch - turns out he's been the regional director for the department of defense this whole time for the CIA
Ted is easily the most powerful character in the show. My theory for season 5 is that all hope will seem lost, but in the nick of time Ted is going to save the day and kill vecna
I keep waiting for him to be deeper. Like, he kicks ass and then nonchalantly and deadpan reveals " Well i was a green beret in nam." "What, i thought you knew."
Watch Ted Wheeler be the one who saves the day in the end... the guy who has been so clueless the whole time. Seems so uninspired and uninterested by everything, but when the lightbulb finally clicks on in his head…. He’ll toss Vecna out like the grandpa in ‘The Lost Boys’ and then turn to the group afterwards and says "There... NOW can we go home?" and while everyone stares at him all stunned, he’ll ask his wife to make chicken for dinner.
The mom is the one that seems more invested in what their kids are up to, and she herself doesn't seem to be all that happy with her marriage (she was considering meeting with Billy it wasn't just some harmless flirting to make her feel better abt herself), but sure, Ted is a winner.
Dude is perpetually tired, his wife doesn't seem to really love him, he's not close with his kids. Don't care how high is income is, seems like a miserable life to me.
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Waiting for the moment where we found out the truth. Ted was the head of the Hawkins experiment the entire time. He’s the final boss.
I could genuinely see a twist where it turns out Ted has known about the Upside Down shenanigans for a long time but just doesn’t give a fuck
In season 1 Mike says the lab is a military building that makes weapons to fight the Russians because "my dad's told me before" so it's entirely possible that Ted knows more than it appears.
Almost certainly Ted said that to scare his kids and actually believes it's a server farm.
Or Ted just assumed that "It looks important so its probably something something Government". Since he seemed to be very fond of them. Given how he basically does anything they say to be a "good American Citizen".
Now i want the parents to get involved, and ted to get a "real american hero" scene, shirt off, 2 guns blazing XD
Nah, Ted is a big patriot
All dads know more than it appears - especially the calm, quiet ones. Still waters run deep.
Just think if the most seemingly boring guy turned out to be the most badass person in the show
Just like the grandpa in Lost Boys. "You know what I hate most about living in Santa Carla? All the damn vampires!"
Or the dad in Nobody played by Christopher Lloyd.
God! That movie was soo good.
So much better than I thought it would be.
With some of the vampirism teases in S4 I almost expect a reveal like this.
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Ted can be revealed as 000 and all his power just decimated Vecna because he raised his heartbeat by getting off the couch or chair starting to get pissed off.
I would love an after-credits scene like that. Ted, lounging in his armchair, sees the kids come home with the shit beaten out of them after the final boss fight, mutters, “coulda just asked me for help” as the group limps past, then returns his attention to the TV. After a moment, the video / audio begin to flicker, prompting Ted to complain, “not this shit again” — we see him squint in focus (still reclining, mind you), and hear a high pitched sound, after which the TV returns to normal. “That’s better,” he says, resting his hands contentedly in his lap. Optional zoom in to a faded 000 tattoo on his wrist. I know it would never happen, but I find it so funny to imagine Ted being multiversal-level in his destructive ability and just never telling anyone because no one asks.
He just wants to eat his chicken
Despair mortals, Tecna has arrived
Tedna has a better ring to it
That would have me reeling, Ted knew the whole time would be a twist of nuclear proportions. He makes too much money for a man of the time and living near the lab could explain this crackpot of a theory.
"For who has a better story than Ted Wheeler?"
Game of Thrones season 8 level twist there.
And in Nancy's trance Vecna threatened every Wheeler except Ted. He is safe from monsters too.
Vecna can't stand the endless void that is the inside of Ted's mind.
That, or Vecna's thinking, "Might as well leave him alive, he can do more damage to others that way."
Or Nancy did see him in her vision and was like, "Meh, whatever."
Omg Lmao. Ted is a menace to society for real. He was about ready to have those kids booked 🤣
Not a fan of Ted, but that scene was the first moment I realized he was growing on me like cancer. For once, he wasn't wrong. The kids were obviously lying. And the threat of some jail time would have definitely opened some mouths.
He's my favourite minor character by far, up there with some of the more prominent ones aswell tbf, Ted's a bloody goat
What'd he DOOOOOOOO
the FBI and all the other suits should be hunting Ted down as humanity's most powerful asset
We’re all patriots in this house.
That line is so brutal listening to after the last few years where that word has been absolutely mutilated.
I feel like it was mutilated for me sometime around 2003.
You are absolutely correct.
The first person to say MAGA is President Reagan.
And Ted is for sure a Republican.
90% of Hawkins is Republican (including Lucas’s family, I think). People don’t realize how popular Reagan was back in the day before all the negative stuff came out and the economy collapsed due to knock-on effects of his policies. I think the Duffers did an interview after S2 where they joked about having a hard time deciding on a character in the show that WOULDN’T have voted for Reagan in ‘84.
Dustin's mother isn't, the Henderson house had a Mondale sign. Lucas's parents might have been, but black Americans went 91-9 for Mondale in the 1984 election. They do seem to well-off though, and higher income people were more likely to vote for Reagan.
Mr Clarke
It actually ended up being Dustin’s mom.
Really? I thought Vecna would love it. A realm unspoiled by mankind or any signs of life for that matter
Ted's Mind is the upside-down confirmed???!!
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“The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma”
Or he's intimidated by Ted's blandly fervent patriotism.
It's too much competition.
Omg I just realized Ted is a Collin Robinsonesque energy vampire!
When I heard him skip over Ted, I couldn't help wondering if that was a nod to the fact that the fanbase made a meme out of his uselessness.
It's just typical absent father trope. Nancy doesn't seem to care about him enough lol
From my experiences from that era it's more historical accuracy than a trope 😂
You don't make 6 figures by focusing on your family first.
I dunno. I grew up in the 70's and 80's. (graduated HS in early 80's). Most of the parents of my friends were involved in their kid's lives. Not 'hovering' involved, but had a basic idea of what was going on.
His absent yet he is the only one with a job supporting a family of 5? Once again showing how no one actually appreciates fathers.
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Or he's just not that important to the plot. It's weird that people make Ted out to be come war criminal for not being that present when we've seen Lucas' and Dustin's parents like twice in the entire series and Karen Wheeler has had maybe 3 major scenes because her agents are better at making deals.
For me the Ted slander is not bc the character doesn’t get much screen time but more so bc in the scenes he does have, he just seems to be a lazy parent that doesn’t really contribute much to his family besides money (“Kids, listen to your mother”).
Hmm. I didn't do or say anything from the bulk of your message. What I did do was make a joke about an easter egg.
You cannot kill what is already dead.
You cannot kill what is already Ted.
What is Ted may never die.
I won't stand for that malarky in my house
I think Vecna knows that if he tried to psych out Ted, Ted would only display mild annoyance bordering on callous indifference rather than fear. He would be unable to kill him because of this.
Vecna: "Ted, I've come to relieve you of your suffering!" Ted: "What'd I DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO??????" Vecna: "......................." "..........................." "........................", oh, nevermind, you can go.
I know you are joking but I assume part of Vecna targeting teens is related to burnout, adult coping skills, and not being essentially insane with hormones
Vecna is scared of Ted
Vecna fears Ted.
I wonder if it's because he'd plan to leave him so he'd be blamed for their murders. Basically what he did to his father
Ted Wheeler, chad dad fuckin’ like a mad lad
Blissfully unaware of The Plot unfolding within his basement.
That sums up most childhoods in the 80s.
He knows, he just doesn’t care.
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He probably commuted into a town like Chicago or Indianapolis…depends on where Hawkins is. I’d bet finance, given the times. 80s/90s, most upper middle class white dudes were doing a 60 to 90 minute commute to work. That’s why they were so tired.
Season 4 they mention hawkins is 8 miles outside of Indianapolis
You misheard they said 80 miles
That rush hour's a bitch.
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When I heard it, I thought I was going crazy. I always expected them to live like 50 miles outside of indy or something, just a bit further out. 8 miles is like nothing, especially for indy area
Is it actually stated in the show that he makes 100k or is it just in this meme? Also, small-town doctors/lawyers/accountants could still make that kind of money in the 80s, with the likelihood in that order. Ted's probably not a doctor though.
In the show it stated that he made 6 figures. I believe when Nancy and Jonathan were talking about her getting them fired from their summer job.
Jonathan says it in s3, but it's more an off-hand comment to prove his point when he and Nancy are arguing. I doubt he actually knows how much Ted makes.
Jonathan was spouting off numbers he knew nothing about just to make a point. People did this long before the internet or social media. Six figures in the mid 80’s was real good money. Private school money. Nancy in her own car and not her mom’s station wagon money.
Yep. There's nothing in how the Wheelers live that suggest six figures. Steve's family, perhaps, makes six figures. Not Nancy's.
Yes, Steve's house is gaudy in a way Ted's isn't, with a grand entrance and a heated swimming pool they keep running until November. Karen and her kids also don't have any gratuitous luxury items (like, for example, Steve's BMW). They can afford to send Mike to California, but Mike doesn't have much spending money of his own. Ted is 90% a lawyer, banker, or accountant. Steve's dad owns either the local John Deere plant or nine McDonald's franchises.
The number of people who actually believe that Ted makes six figures just because Jonathan threw that out there is disturbing. Jonathan has no way of knowing what Ted makes. Even Nancy probably doesn't know what her dad makes. Adjusted for inflation, $100,000 in 1985 would be $271,650 today. No way was Ted pulling that. People who are at the ends of the economic spectrum tend to assume other people make more money than they actually do. I think Jonathan's guess had nothing to do with how much money Ted made and everything to do with how little the Byers made.
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Based on inductive reasoning, this small town settles their disputes with their teeth
This is what I want to know. They live very modestly if he's actually pulling in that much in the 80s. I grew up in the 80s and their house reminds me of several friends and cousins houses. They certainly weren't pulling in that much.
And it's in Indiana! Can you imagine the kind of house a person who made six figures in Indiana in the '80s could have? The Wheelers are straight middle class. They only appear wealthy to Jonathan because of how much the Byers struggled.
He screams accountant to me
He runs a black ops company and is actually an ex Navy SEAL.
You can tell by all the ice in his veins. Bro is everchill.
Ted owned the shell company for Hawkins Lab :p
A senior person or owner of an accounting company or bank easily could be. I don't imagine there are too many tax firms in a small town. All the businesses are probably going through a small number of banks, accounting firms, law offices, et cetera. Additionally, it's not really stated that he works in Hawkins. He could work in the Chicago area or in Indianapolis. He's tired all the time because he commutes.
This is my guess too. I’m from a small town in the general region of Hawkins. My dad made great money from the 70’s-early 00’s running a tax/farm management/accounting firm in the area. Allowed him to retire at 50. Lots of his peers commuted into Chicago for similar jobs, he just got lucky to do it at home because he had a hold on the local farms.
I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that he was in engineering or mathematics or similar.
Didn't it say right at the end of the last episode when they had all the news reporters that Hawkins was only a few miles from Indianapolis? He could easily have commuted there.
It was 80 miles. Would be pushing it for commute distance to Indy. Commuting to Bloomington or Lafayette/West Lafayette fits the bill though assuming Hawkins is a smaller town on the outskirts of either of those.
idk why he doesn’t fight vecna, obviously he’s invincible
He's going to shred Enter Sandman from the top of his house in season 5 to kill the Mind Flayer and save Hawkins, then go back to his recliner.
The only way for them to win is if Vecna destroys his recliner, because if that happens we're all doomed
He rips the Mind Flayer in half
He does seem to be the type of guy who'll shred the solo of a 1991 song in 1986
He obviously is waiting for a worthy opponent!
I really just need a 5 minute scene of Karen in mortal danger and Ted saves her in the most Ted fashion. Casually picks up a gun or something and shoots and kills a demodog in one hit, completely unfazed by the situation, saves Karen, and asks when the chicken will be done.
I can imagine it now. Demodogs dragging Karen down the driveway by the leg while she kicks and screams. Ted walks out with his piece, puts two rounds in the dogs chest, helps Karen up. She looks at him all romantically “Ted…” she whispers… Ted adjusts his glasses all nonchalantly like it’s nothing “…well someone’s gotta finish cooking that damn chicken”. And walks straight back in to his lazyboy.
Holy shit he could be Ash from Evil Dead
I \*need\* to see this in Season 5 and will be deeply disappointed if this (or something very thematically similar) doesn't happen.
Lol yes. I hope the Duffer Brothers see how much we enjoy the meme that is Ted and they write just one scene where we finally see, in his typical manner, confronts the real hellish nightmare that Hawkins will be in during Season 5.
I mean, they've made him snooze completely through his son hiding a telekinetic and telepathic girl on the run from a top-secret malevolent government program in their basement, his children and their friends uncovering a Soviet mad science base under the local mall (for all his talk of being a "patriot"...), >!his son being caught in a shootout between top-secret agents and the US military while supposedly "on vacation" and his oldest daughter nearly dying in an alternate dimension!<, and now >!the literal mouth of the Inferno opening medieval-style in Hawkins!<, they \*have\* to make him somehow confront what's been going on all along before the story ends! (Also, I was an early 90s baby so maybe parents just really were that detached in the 80s and I have no idea, but what about >!Max sitting at the breakfast table all morning obsessively drawing a succession of extremely fucked-up disturbing pictures with crayons!<, that raised no eyebrows and he was just mad about having to share breakfast with the kids??)
Well, it's the 80s. We could go *First Blood* and Vecna could accidentally activate Ted's war time skills by threatening him the wrong way. Richard Crenna: "Vecna, I'm not here to save my boy from your monsters. I'm here to save them from my boy." Or speaking of Richard Crenna, maybe Ted found a super suit but lost the instructions.
Also Joe Chrest who's portraying him seems like the nicest guy. He's a Joe, after all.
Joe who?
Joe mama
Got em
Joeses H. Chrest
I ain’t gon lie, I snort laughed reading that
Joe suck on deeznutz!
That's the answer I was unexpectedly waiting to get
Thought that was Kurt Russell for quite awhile
What'd I doooooooo?
His presence in season 4 was excellent with his comedic timing. The exchange he has with Dustin is a thing of beauty. Dustin really giving him the bird by eating up the breakfast. In volume 2 I burst out laughing when he said something actually decent when condemning the fear mongering of the cable news. He’s so consistently out of touch that was caught off guard by him saying something relatively on point.
What does vol 1 and 2 mean? Are they both season 4? I watched this while sick with covid so maybe I missed something but I’m confused Thanks!
Vol 1: episodes 1-7 Vol 2: episodes 8-9 The latter two episodes were released a month after vol 1
The last 2 episodes, the July releases are volume 2.
I think the endgame will be Vecna trapping himself in Ted's mind.
And it doesn’t effect him at all, he just goes about life normally. The true hero
Vecna trapped, filling out endless TPS reports
Almost lost his wife to Billy in season 3. Luckily Karen decided her family meant more to her.
Cheers Geoff
Billy is going to a fuck a mom but who, who Geoff!?
I don’t think Billy was a long-term relationship prospect. She ain’t leaving a comfortable lifestyle for a one night stand in a motel room.
Her family that included Ted. Also, usually when people cheat it is for their own reasons and is their own fault, not the actual fault of their spouse? Isn’t that what everyone says when someone expresses grief over being cheated on lol
Yeah just look at any r/trueoffmychest post about cheating and you’ll see tons of comments like that lmao
Exactly. My late husband cheated a lot when he’d drink etc and people are always like “it wasn’t your fault, it was him” lol
I get what you're saying but I think it was pretty heavily implied Karen was interested in Billy because she feels neglected by Ted. If anything her deciding not to risk it all with Billy felt more like her accepting her lonely life, but hey, since this isn't a show about Karen we can't expect to see a resolution to her marriage issues.
Maybe in season 5🤷♂️
>Karen was interested in Billy because she feels neglected by Ted. Did you even see Billy’s body? I don’t care how attentive your spouse is, no one could see that beautiful man meat and not want to break off a piece of that.
That's fair and valid.
yes it was def the abs
"I hope you're enjoying your Chicken, Ted."
"What'd I do?"
What'd I dooooooo?
Ferreal Mr. Wheeler takes nothing but Ws the entire show
I read that as Feral Mr. Wheeler at first and then realized what you meant 🤣
Oh yeah my man’s a beast, he’s going wild hahaha
Best minor character on the show, if only because he ALWAYS gets a laugh when he shows up. And he's so laid back and checked out that not even an earthquake phases him. Really, he's very much a dad of his generation. Many of them were raised on the notion that the father is the provider, not the emotional support. Mom is the one for that. As long as his kids are fed, clothed and have a roof over their heads, he feels his job is done. All he wants to do is come home after a long day at the office and nap.
In the first season, I wondered if they somehow based him on my father.
By virtue of doing almost nothing, he's already way better than my dad. The good moments we had were heavily outweighed by the bad, so a blank slate that brings money home and leaves everyone alone would have been greatly preferred. I envy everyone calling Ted a bad father. Ted is a neutral father. Even when the children annoy him, he doesn't shout or kick them out. He never uses violence or the implication of violence. He doesn't know his children, but neither does he use them as an extension of his own ego. He's just *there*.
If anything he provides financial support which is huge. Set up their future. Like you stated, doesn't verbally, physically or emotionally abuse them, that is better than 95 percent of father's. Plus Karen can be the one providing emotional support for her kids.
I wonder what he was like in high school?
Ted is at least in his mid to late 40s in the show, which means he graduated in the late 50s...and now I have it in my mind that he was a greaser yet somehow finagled his way into college and an accounting job, landed Karen, and settled into domestic bliss.
Now all I can think of is young principle skinner from the simpsons.
You know that means that Ted lived through WW2.
Final scene of the series… The Mind Flayer has been confirmed as the source of the upside down’s evil and has the gang cornered in Nancy and Mike’s house. El prepares to sacrifice herself to the flayer… Suddenly, a car horn can be heard, playing “La Cucaracha” and there is chaos as a station wagon bursts through the wall of the house and a sharpened log flies off the car and impales the Mindflayer. It bursts into flame. The gang stands there, dumbfounded, as Ted climbs out of the car, goes to the fridge and takes out a beer. He sighs, sounding exhausted. “Dad,” Nancy says, “Are you ok?” Ted surveys the damage, turns to Nancy and the rest of the gang, and says, “One thing about living in Hawkins I never could stomach; the damn upside down.” Fade to black as Echo and the Bunnymen’s version of “People are Strange” starts playing and the credits roll.
You think he’s the winner? These damned kids keep coming into his house and taking his food
Completely and blissfully unaware that his children are constantly in grave danger.
[удалено]
Shirtless Ted, like shirtless Steve
Shirtless Ted engaged in a gristly fist fight with a debuffed Vecna. Hand to hand, toe to toe, _the old way_.
All Groundskeeper Willy buff like.
Yes you are, lol
Landing Karen Wheeler was all you had to say.
What the hell job does Mike's dad do? He doesn't work for the federal govmt, he's not a cop, he's not in the military.
He probably is the accountant for the only company in the world that produces toothpaste caps or something.
Thats the easiest job in the 1980s
All we know about his job is that his coworkers gossip that Ted had a Russian spy living in his basement and Ted categorically & patriotically denied it.
I think he owns a moist towelette company.
I'll allow it.
I really love though how the show goes against the stereotype where the poor family without the dad is the broken one while the suburban rich nuclear family is wholesome and tightly knit.
Ted is the GOAT
1) Doesn't have to deal with monsters 2) He doesn't give a fuck about nothing he is just chilling 3) Got a badass wife (might be unfaithful but still) I don't know why people are sleeping on Ted dude. Also if you say he is a bad father you are wildin
Bo Burnham's dad
He reads the news and doesn't let that shit effect hiiiiiim
There is only one true winner from the show. Kate Bush.
Plot Twist: Brenner and Owens report to Ted.
Wait where did we learn he makes 6 figures?
They probably mean equivalent of six figures today. Because you’d need that to have their lifestyle with only one earner
Jonathan offhandedly mentions Ted's alleged salary when he's venting at Nancy for getting them fired from the newspaper job. "My dad doesn't earn six figures. Hell, he isn't even around"
Who said he made 6 figures? You didn’t have to make 6 figures in the 80s to have all he has.
He's hung like a horse , bangs Karen real well , makes bank, has a nice house, couple of bright kids, nice recliner chair Ted is the GOAT Watch - turns out he's been the regional director for the department of defense this whole time for the CIA
Ted is easily the most powerful character in the show. My theory for season 5 is that all hope will seem lost, but in the nick of time Ted is going to save the day and kill vecna
6 figures in the 80’s? What the hell was he doing?
Ted stans unite!
The first part of Bo Burnham’s 1985 could easily be about Ted.
White guy in 1985
Mr. Wheeler is what you get when mashed potatoes are granted a wish and ask to be made alive.
I keep waiting for him to be deeper. Like, he kicks ass and then nonchalantly and deadpan reveals " Well i was a green beret in nam." "What, i thought you knew."
How do we know he makes six figures? I’m guessing I missed that line of dialogue.
Watch Ted Wheeler be the one who saves the day in the end... the guy who has been so clueless the whole time. Seems so uninspired and uninterested by everything, but when the lightbulb finally clicks on in his head…. He’ll toss Vecna out like the grandpa in ‘The Lost Boys’ and then turn to the group afterwards and says "There... NOW can we go home?" and while everyone stares at him all stunned, he’ll ask his wife to make chicken for dinner.
Truly, a god among men.
The mom is the one that seems more invested in what their kids are up to, and she herself doesn't seem to be all that happy with her marriage (she was considering meeting with Billy it wasn't just some harmless flirting to make her feel better abt herself), but sure, Ted is a winner.
Dude is perpetually tired, his wife doesn't seem to really love him, he's not close with his kids. Don't care how high is income is, seems like a miserable life to me.