Grigori in Stranger Things: the Russian killer of season 3, from the fair to the machine
Character · Grigori · Season 3
Grigori says almost nothing, never smiles, and kills Alexei in the middle of a fair. He is the Terminator of season 3: a Soviet colossus launched at Hopper, and the only man in the show Hopper had to kill with his own hands. Here is who he is.
The essentials
- Name: Grigori, enforcer of the Soviet operation under Starcourt
- His crime: Alexei's murder, at the July 4 fair
- His end: thrown into the machine's gears by Hopper
- Played by: Andrey Ivchenko
Contents
Who is Grigori
In the summer of 1985, the Soviets built a base under the mall to reopen the gate with a machine. Grigori is their surface enforcer: he eliminates those who get close and intimidates those who serve, Mayor Kline first. Tall, silent, in a leather jacket, he is filmed like the cyborg from “Terminator”: he walks, he does not run, and he does not stop.
The Hopper T-shirt, his opponent.
In the shopWomen's Chief Hopper Hawkins Police T-shirt39,90 €See the product
The hunt for Hopper
When Hopper and Joyce discover the machine and kidnap Alexei, the Russian scientist, Grigori hunts them across town: at the mayor's, on the road, as far as Murray's house. He catches up with the group at the July 4 fair, where Alexei, cherry slushie in hand, has just won a plush. Grigori shoots him. It is the most unjust death of the season, and the one that makes the final duel necessary.
| Episode | Grigori |
|---|---|
| 3 | Eliminates those who get in the way of the Russian operation |
| 4 | Hunts Hopper, Joyce and Alexei after their escape |
| 6 | Presses Mayor Kline; finds the group again |
| 7 | Shoots Alexei at the fair |
| 8 | Faces Hopper in the machine room; dies in the gears |
The duel
Under Starcourt, while Joyce waits in front of the machine's two keys, Grigori appears and attacks Hopper. The fight is the longest in the show between two men: bare-handed, against the railings, until Hopper throws him into the gears of the machine, which crush him. The gesture costs Hopper his position: he can no longer reach Joyce, and she turns the keys alone, which makes him vanish in the explosion.
Andrey IvchenkoThe Ukrainian actor, a former bodybuilder, was picked for his build and his silence. He has said he worked the character from Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Terminator”, the acknowledged model of Season 3 for Grigori.
The Terminator of Season 3
Season 3 cites “Terminator” without hiding it: Grigori has the jacket, the walk, and the indifference of the cyborg, and his death in an industrial machine replays the end of the 1984 film. The show, for its last season, will go further by bringing in Linda Hamilton, the Sarah Connor of that same film.
Why the character matters
Because he is the only human antagonist of season 3, in a season of flesh monster, and because he kills Alexei, the character you had just learned to love. Without Grigori, Hopper's presumed death would not happen: he is the one who stops him from reaching Joyce.
Every appearance, in order
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The Hess farm
Hopper and Joyce look into the magnets and run into Grigori, who beats them badly and leaves them for dead. First meeting, and Hopper's first defeat.
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The mayor
Grigori is the Russians' armed arm with Larry Kline, who tells him where to find Hopper and Joyce.
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The fair
He kills Alexei, a cherry slushie in his hand, then chases Hopper through the house of mirrors.
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Under Starcourt
He bursts into the machine room while Joyce and Hopper are about to turn the keys.
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The turbine
Hopper, after a desperate hand-to-hand fight, throws him into the machine's gears. Grigori dies crushed, a second before the explosion.
The Hopper figure, Hawaiian outfit.
In the shopLego Jim Hopper mini figure14,90 €See the product
Why an almost mute killer
Grigori talks little, rarely smiles, and never yields: he is the model of Terminator's T-800, whose motif of the indestructible man-machine season 3, entirely turned toward the summer of 1985, takes up. Andrey Ivchenko, a Ukrainian actor, plays him with an economy that contrasts with the comic hysteria of Hopper and Joyce around him. Where the show's monsters have motivations, Grigori has only one: the order received.
That absence of psychology is a choice. Season 3 opposes two threats, the flesh monster and the Russians, and Grigori embodies the second in its purest form: the foreign state that kills without hatred. His death in the turbine, just before the gate closes, loops both plots in a single shot.
What he leaves the show
Grigori does not come back, but he leaves a trace: the fear of the Russians. Season 4 makes a whole thread of it, with Kamchatka, Dmitri, and Yuri, but reverses the roles, since the Russians of 1986 are corruptible jailers and sometimes allies. The killer of 1985 remains the only Soviet soldier in the show that nothing redeems.
For Hopper, Grigori is also a lesson. The Hess farm teaches him he can lose; the turbine, that he can win by cheating. It is that version of Hopper, craftier than strong, that the Russian prison will make survive a year later.
The house of mirrors, and the fair
The fairground scene, in the seventh episode of Season 3, is the peak of the character. Grigori shoots Alexei dead, in the middle of the rides, while the scientist holds his cherry slushie; Murray sees him die. Then he hunts Hopper through the house of mirrors, a hide-and-seek sequence among reflections, gunshots, and broken glass, that picks up the fairground motif of 80s horror movies.
Hopper gains a stay, not a win: Grigori will find him again under Starcourt. Andrey Ivchenko played the scene with almost no dialogue, and it is that lack of words, in a fairground setting, that made him one of the show's most memorable killers, halfway between the Terminator and a slasher killer.
Grigori in three dates
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June 28, 1985
He watches the Hess farm, where the Russians have set up their relay, and beats Hopper and Joyce.
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July 3, 1985
The fair: Alexei's death, the house of mirrors.
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July 4, 1985
The turbine, under Starcourt, a second before the explosion.
Three days, a week of terror, and a character who never needed a first name to mark the show.
The Season 3 poster.
In the shopJim Hopper Hawaiian shirt49,90 €See the product
TakeawayThe Soviet colossus, enforcer of the Russian base. Threatens Mayor Kline, then kills Alexei at the fair. The duel with Hopper, and the machine's gears. Inspired by Terminator; played by Andrey Ivchenko.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Grigori in Stranger Things?
The Soviet enforcer of Season 3, a silent giant who hunts Hopper and kills Alexei at the fair.
How does Grigori die?
Thrown by Hopper into the gears of the Russian machine, under Starcourt, in the Season 3 finale.
Is Grigori inspired by Terminator?
Yes: bomber jacket, walk, silence, and a death in a machine, like the 1984 cyborg.
Who plays Grigori?
Andrey Ivchenko, Ukrainian actor and former bodybuilder.
Where does Grigori appear for the first time?
At Hess Farm, where Hopper and Joyce investigate the demagnetized magnets: he beats them and leaves them for dead.
Does Grigori come back in season 4?
No. He dies in the turbine under Starcourt. The Russians of season 4, Dmitri and Yuri, are very different characters, sometimes allies.
Why does Grigori kill Alexei?
Because Alexei betrayed the Russians by helping Hopper, Joyce and Murray, and because he has to be stopped from talking. He shoots him at the fair, in front of Murray.