It’s important that we pay special attention to the fact that Jim Hopper is a big-time smoker. Plenty of Stranger Things’ characters pray at the altar of Big Tobacco, but Hopp’s in a league of his own when it comes to smoking with purpose. Jim Hopper smokes every cigarette like it will either be his last, or the next drag will grant his life some much-needed clarity.

And clarity is something that Hopper seems to seek. He’s had a rough life. We’re told that he was a Big City Cop in his life before Hawkins. Hopp had a family; a wife and daughter that he loved and lost. In the time since the little-seen tragedy, Hopp’s life has changed and become a confusing array of booze, small-town ladies, and conspiracy theories.

Part of Hopper’s appeal, too, is that he is genuinely willing to believe in Stranger Things’ grand mystery. His time on the show is divided almost neatly between two distinct versions of Jim Hopper. There’s the Hard-Nosed Police Chief Hopper and Woke-Ass Conspiracy Theorist Hopper. They’re two discreet personalities, all part of one man — Jim Hopper is a Janus-faced cop who is willing to skirt the law that binds him in order to do what he believes is right.

As far as Stranger Things’ fiction goes, Jim Hopper is the glue that holds it all together. While every one of the show’s key characters have their moments, Hopper’s occur with alarming frequency. Ol’ Hopp has a CM/E (clutch moment per episode) average that can’t be rivaled. Like the hurricane of a hangover that he must always have, Hopp storms throughout Stranger Things in a perpetual search for the truth. Whether he chastises some immature kids or bops a sucker outside of a dimly-lit dive, Hopper is an unrelenting force of care. Caution can go pound sand, so long as Jim Hopper wears the Police Chief’s wide-brimmed hat.

Hopper genuinely gives a shit about the people who surround him, and that’s the best thing that you can say about anyone, isn’t it?