Stranger Things Season 5 brings the Hawkins gang’s coming-of-age journey to a powerful and long-awaited culmination. Across its five seasons, the core four (Will, Dustin, Mike, and Lucas) went from four young nerds on bikes playing D&D to unlikely heroes who saved the world by blowing up the Upside Down and defeating the evil Mind Flayer.This journey comes a full circle with the kids' graduation day in the series' epilogue, where Dustin presents a wild and rebellious speech honoring his late friend and confidante, Eddie Munson, who sacrificed himself to the demobats in the Stranger Things Season 4 finale.While Dustin spent much of the final season grieving miserably for his late friend, he eventually found the perfect way to honour him (through his speech) after having an emotional catharsis moment with his best friend, Steve Harrington.In an interview with Deadline, actor Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) unpacks Dustin's process of navigating grief:''For it being the last [season], I was inevitably going to grieve that fun-loving side of him and being able to tap into it, because I had to jump into something new and find something different.''More on Eddie's death and Dustin's grief in Stranger Things in our story.How did Eddie die in Stranger Things?While each Stranger Things character had their fair share of problems, and they navigated grief as the seasons passed, Dustin experienced a personal tragedy in the penultimate season with the death of his confidante, Eddie. He was the guitar-playing idiosyncratic leader of the Hellfire Club, who developed a close friendship with Dustin, Mike, and Lucas over their shared love of Dungeons & Dragons.Eddie's first brush with Vecna and the Upside Down came in Stranger Things Season 4 when he saw Chrissy go into a trance created by Vecna. As the red, veiny monster pulled Chrissy into his lair, she levitated off the ground and Eddie ran away from the scene out of fear. While this cowardice weighed on him, he finally got a chance to redeem himself when he heroically played Metallica on his guitar in the Upside Down and distracted the demobats to save his friends.While Eddie faced the horde of Demobats that swarmed around him, Vecna's minions eventually overpowered him, and he died in Dustin's arms, setting his grieving journey in the final season.Gaten Matarazzo breaks down Dustin's grief in Stranger Things View this post on Instagram Instagram PostWhile Stranger Things Season 5 picks up almost a year after the events of the previous season, Dustin is still grieving for Eddie. However, his process of grieving is quite unconventional and rebellious, as he willingly picks fights with other kids who mock the Hellfire Club leader.In his interview with Deadline, Gaten Matarazzo shares Dustin's initial understanding of grief:''Dustin is convinced throughout the whole process that being miserable is the way to service a friend or to remember him, because if he’s not living through his grief and he’s not hurting, then he’s not loving and he’s not missing him properly.''This came to a head in Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 when Dustin enters into a brutal fight with Steve until he finally lets go and accepts that he is just scared to lose another friend. This emotional catharsis pulls Dustin out of his own trance and he understands that he can be happy and still grieve his late friend.After the Upside Down collapses in the Stranger Things Season 5 finale, Dustin prepares for his graduation with his friends and becomes the valedictorian. As he gives a powerful graduation speech (and flips off the principal and school like Eddie wanted to), he honors his late friend for real.Gaten Matarazzo unpacks Dustin's new grief as:''He’s entered a place in his life where he can tell stories about him and listen to his music and show pictures of him to people and talk about him with new friends and reminisce and do so smiling and laugh about it and not have to be on the verge of tears with it. That’s a new part of grief that’s actually quite beautiful, and it’s weirdly fun and refreshing to enter, because it’s inevitable.''You can stream Stranger Things on Netflix.For the latest scoops on your favorite TV shows and movies, follow SoapCentral.