Robin Buckley

Lore & Background

Robin attends Hawkins High School, where she is a member of the marching band playing the french horn, and is classmates with Steve Harrington and Nancy, though is somewhat of a loner and social outcast. She gets a job at Scoops Ahoy ice cream parlor at Starcourt Mall when it opened in 1985. Robin overhears Dustin Henderson tell Steve that he has intercepted a secret Russian radio transmission, and helps them successfully translate it into English.

She and Dustin deduce that it is a coded message and discover that it refers to a delivery due to be made to the mall that night. Erica Sinclair helps the trio access a secret elevator that leads them to discover a Russian base underneath the mall filled with containers of mysterious green liquid and a rift leading to the Upside Down. Robin and Steve are captured by the Russians, injected with truth serum, and interrogated. While in custody, Robin reflects on how much she resented Steve for his popularity at school and he tells her that he wishes he'd gotten to know her better back then.

After being rescued, Steve confesses that he likes her, and Robin reveals that she is gay, having had a crush on a girl named Tammy. Steve accepts her, joking that she is too good for Tammy. The group then attempts to find a way out of the mall, and Robin sees Eleven save them by telekinetically throwing a car at the Russians. Following the closure of Starcourt Mall, Robin and Steve get jobs at the town's Family Video store.

Reader's Guide

In Season 5, following the completion of Vecna's ritual, Hawkins becomes quarantined by the military between 1986 and 1987, who seal the gates with steel plates and tell the locals a false story to keep the truth hidden. Robin takes over the WSQK radio station, calling herself 'Rockin' Robin', with Steve working as her producer. She uses her broadcasts to transmit coded messages to the rest of the group and co-ordinate 'crawls' of the Upside Down in order to search for Vecna and kill him.

The group also use the station as their base of operations. Robin, now dating Vickie, frequently visits her at the hospital where she works as a candy striper. Their relationship is occasionally contentious due to Robin having to lie about her whereabouts so as not to reveal the truth to Vickie. Will accidentally sees the two kissing, and abruptly runs off.

When the group discover that Will still has a connection to the Demogorgon hive mind from his time in the Upside Down as a child, Robin suggests using him as a 'human antenna' to locate Vecna, though Joyce refuses to put him at risk. They trick Joyce so they can sneak out and head to woods where Will had an earlier vision. Robin asks Will if he saw her with Vickie at the hospital, stating that they are just good friends whose relationship may confuse some people.

Will assures her he saw nothing and discovers that Vecna is planning to abduct Derek Turnbow. Robin suggests using drugs to knock out the Turnbow family and remove them from their house so they can set a trap to find Vecna. While searching for drugs at the hospital, Will admits he saw Robin kiss Vickie and asks Robin how she knew Vickie would reciprocate, and Robin shares several anecdotes about their relationship and its beginnings. She also subtly reassures Will about his own sexuality after deducing that he is also gay and tells Will about her old feelings for Tammy and her subsequent coming out to Steve.

Robin later takes part in the plan to smuggle Vecna's other targets out of Hawkins, and she and Murray successfully help three children into his truck before they are ambushed by a group of Demogorgons and the children are taken. Will saves Robin's life by psychically killing the Demogorgons, having unlocked a newfound inner strength and self-acceptance as a result of their conversation. After finding out that Max is trapped in Vecna's mindscape, Robin and Lucas head to the hospital, theorizing that she will return to her body once she escapes.

When they get there, Robin is confronted by Vickie, who knows she stole drugs and is concerned for her well-being and constant evasiveness. Robin realizes that the military have arrived and is briefly apprehended, but flees with Vickie once Demodogs begin arriving at the hospital, and they are able to warn Lucas to get Max out of her room before the Demodogs can kill her. The four are cornered in the laundry room but are saved by Karen, who detonates an oxygen tank to kill the Demodogs.

Robin expresses support to Will when he comes out as gay to the others, with Steve placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Now aware of the truth, Vickie joins the group at the radio station where Steve proposes a plan to rescue the children and end Vecna once and for all. Robin joins the group in entering the Upside Down and climbs into the Abyss, helping the others take down the revived Mind Flayer before watching Joyce kill Vecna. Eighteen months later in the spring of 1989, Robin presents a new radio broadcast, detailing that the military have left Hawkins and that everyone has returned to town for the graduation of Will, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Max.

Later, Robin meets with Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan on the roof of WSQK, and the group promise to stay connected despite their differing life and career paths.

Did You Know?

• Robin's casting was announced on March 2, 2018, with the press release describing her as an 'alternative girl' bored with her mundane day job.
• Robin deduces that Will Byers is also gay and reassures him about his own sexuality.