The Upside Down may be destroyed, but Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) still isn’t done causing trouble.

After defeating Vecna and saving the world in the Stranger Things series finale, order is restored in Hawkins, and Will (Noah Schnapp), Dustin, Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Max (Sadie Sink), and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) finally get a moment of teenage normalcy: high school graduation.

It’s a textbook ceremony — until Dustin steps up to the podium with a speech that definitely wasn’t cleared by the administration. His address challenges the status quo and points out that to pretend the last six years were normal would be ridiculous. Dustin caps it all off by ripping off his gown as confetti rains down on the class — courtesy of Erica Sinclair (Priah Ferguson) — earning roaring applause from his Hawkins peers and an unmistakably proud reaction from his mom, Claudia Henderson (Catherine Curtin).

Dustin’s graduation mayhem may feel spontaneous, but longtime fans know it’s a love letter to his late Hellfire brother, Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn). Back in Season 4, Eddie joked that his graduation plan was simple: look Principal Higgins in the eye, flip him off, and snatch his diploma. Since Eddie never got the chance, Dustin carries it out for him, capping the speech by revealing a Hellfire Club tee under his gown that reads, “Hellfire Lives.”

“A lot of it was inspired by Eddie — even at the end, where he rips the diploma and flips off the principal, which is something that Eddie said he wanted to do,” Ross Duffer tells Tudum, confirming the speech was intended as a tribute to the Hellfire legend. “A lot of it is honoring Eddie and what Hellfire had been.”

Beyond honoring Eddie, the speech speaks to a much bigger idea at the heart of the series. “So much of the show is [about] unlikely friendships,” Matt Duffer tells Tudum, pointing to bonds like Dustin and Steve’s. “The point of Dustin’s speech is that because of everything that happened, it thrust people together who never would have interacted in the first place and enriched their lives because of that.”

Watch our favorite Hellfire Club member cause a little chaos at the ceremony above, then read every word of his speech below:

I just wanted a normal childhood, but that childhood was stolen from me. It was stolen from us. And this past year, if you want to know the truth, I’ve been pretty pissed off about it. But then I thought back to the past six years, and I realized that even though there was a lot of bad, there was so much good, too. 

There’s this game I like to play. It’s called Dungeons & Dragons. And in this game, there are two types of chaos classes: chaotic good and chaotic bad. Now, bad chaos brings anarchy, destruction, war. But good chaos can bring innovation, change. And this school, frankly, it needed to change because we were so divided into the jocks, the nerds, freaks. And in the chaos, all those walls broke down. And I made new friends. I made friends who were never even supposed to be my friends. And this wasn’t just me. I saw this happen with so many others. And when you get to know people who are different from you, you begin to learn more about yourself. You change, you grow. I’m a better person now. I'm a better person because of them, because of my friends. 

So I’m not pissed off anymore. But I am worried. Worried because now that the chaos is over, Principal Higgins and every square like him is gonna do their damnedest to put everything back in order. And I don’t want order, which is why it’s pretty hypocritical that I’m even wearing this thing. I mean, we look ridiculous. What is this? We look like Roman senators. I mean, it's not who I am. I don’t think it's who any of us are. So, honestly, just screw it. Screw the school. Screw the system. Screw conformity. Screw everyone and everything trying to hold you back and tear us apart, because this is our year!

All episodes of Stranger Things are now playing, only on Netflix.