How will Stranger Things be remembered? No matter how you feel about the often frustrating yet potent finale, it’s impossible to talk about the show without reflecting on its mammoth global success. It began as a humble sci-fi drama that charmed audiences with a lot of fresh faces, a well-executed suspense, Winona Ryder, and an ode to ’80s pop culture. The series cemented Netflix as the binge-watching streaming platform in the summer of 2016 only to eventually spiral into a larger-than-life hit that churned out a Broadway play and soon, an animated show (and you can bet the IP won’t rest with this). Everything that grounded Stranger Things became excessive with each passing adventure, from the color grading to the runtimes to the story itself. Season five highlights how this chase for grandeur over substance became an almost unfixable problem. Or, to steal from Dustin’s (Gaten Matarazzo) graduation speech, the Duffer Brothers gave up on the “good chaos” that bred innovation. The two-hour series ender highlights that being high on their own supply was not a good idea. Still, I’m pleasantly surprised that the conclusion was passable and oddly satisfying at the expense of some illogical turns.
There was just no way Stranger Things was going to meet everyone’s expectations or answer the open-ended questions. Once you accept that, “The Rightside Up” becomes digestible and not as awful as, say, Game Of Thrones‘ series finale. It’s faint praise, I know, but I’m genuinely alright with how the show wrapped up. Some of the most interesting parts of this movie-length installment are the scenes with emotional build-up, like the conversations between Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Hopper (David Harbour), or the cool action sequences (I’m talking about El killing the soldiers and Vecna tricking Hop, not the Mind Flayer kaiju on The Abyss). All this good stuff does get buried in the exhausting length and ugly CGI, though. Raise your hand if you were annoyed when Vecna was beheaded, but the episode still had almost an hour to go. At least Stranger Things gets a moving epilogue that felt straight out of E.T. and some other movies it was inspired by. It’s bittersweet to watch Hawkins move on with actual sunshine and without the threat of the dreary Upside Down (or without El to save the day if something should go wrong). All things considered, the protagonists bid farewell with speeches that distill what the show always aimed to be about: The power of friendship and a community of unlikely heroes putting their differences aside to defeat the enemy. The actual writing lacked finesse, but all in all, it was…fine?
The big fight against Vecna/Henry Creel/Mr. Whatsit/001 (whew!) goes down as predicted, minus a few hiccups. One of the smartest things this episode does is rely on Jamie Campbell Bower without the veiny, pointy prosthetics. That man has a sincerely expressive face, and he switches it on a dime, going from heartbroken to maniacal. So it was a thrill to watch him chew the scenery and walk out as the finale’s not-so-secret MVP. In this episode, he finally enters the cave and confronts his worst memory: The time when he was a child and came in contact with a rock from another planet that turned him into the evil he is today. This story has direct ties to the play, which most of the audience is unable to see, and is the basis of a live-action spin-off. So I’m not about to theorize why the scientist was in that cave and how young Henry was turned so quickly. What matters most about this scene is Henry/Vecna telling Will (Noah Schnapp) that he chose to give in to darkness and to surrender to the Mind Flayer, who is the real Big Bad ruling over The Abyss. In a way, I’m relieved Vecna wasn’t redeemed, despite Will’s pleas for Henry to join their team instead.
Let’s start at the beginning. Almost everyone heads to the Upside Down, where El, Hopper, Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), and Murray (Brett Gelman) split off to go to the lab. El immerses herself in a water tank one last time to try and get inside Henry’s mind and break the kids out of captivity. She gets help from Kali and Max (Sadie Sink) after the superpowered sisters rope the latter into the mix. After spending 18 months in Vecna’s mind, Max guides them through it and straight into Henry Creel’s living room, where he’s in a trance along with the 12 children he’s kidnapped. While this is going on, the rest of the gang is atop the radio tower, about to be hit by a planet descending on their heads. Steve (Joe Keery) almost falls to his death before Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) comes to the rescue. I was confident Stranger Things won’t have the guts to kill off its most beloved character, despite the scene fading to black to briefly trick us. The only real death in this episode is Kali. The writers never really knew what to do with this character; not when she was introduced in season two, nor when she was brought back in season five. So unfortunately, her demise at the hands of the militar doesn’t affect anyone except El.
Speaking of the military, Dr. Kay gets a really generic arc, but at least it’s the easiest money Linda Hamilton has ever made. She walks around most of this episode alongside her lackeys, trying to arrest the group and nab Eleven. When they enter the Upside Down, Hop dashes off with El but leaves Kali to be caught. By the time he realizes his mistake and El comes to help him, it’s too late. Her “sister” gets shot and we see her die—this is important to remember later on, when Mike is in theorizing mode. But we’ll get to that in a minute. After Kali’s loss, El and Hopper have a frank conversation about what they mean to each other, with El expressing gratitude. “You became my dad,” she tells him, but reminds Hop that she isn’t Sara. She asks that he realize she’s a grown-up now and has to make a choice: To go back to the real world once they win, or sacrifice herself and put an end to all things Upside Down. It’s a tough conversation, but I’m glad it happened because Hop needed to hear it. As Vecna tells him, too, there’s still a lot of rage inside him. Releasing his pain and trusting El is the only way he can move forward.
Once The Abyss stops merging with Hawkins, the crew heads up to the planet to hunt down Vecna’s real body, and Eleven joins them. It’s time for the gory, ridiculous, Marvel-like fight sequence that feels rushed in the moment, but it has been a long time coming. El gets her Captain America, flying-in-the-sky moment—she jumps directly into the Mind Flayer’s body, where Vecna’s been keeping the kids. As the two duel, El’s friends fight the Flayer from the outside. It’s a proper team effort: Nancy (Natalia Dyer) agrees to be bait, at one point Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) saves Dustin from being chomped on, and Dustin gets yet another “For Eddie!” moment with Steve. Visually, season three’s “Battle Of Starcourt Mall” was far more enticing and scary to watch. Once again, a grand scale doesn’t automatically make Stranger Things better. But the stakes for this fight are more sentimental. This much is made clear when the Flayer and Vecna are defeated, and Joyce (Ryder) steps up to chop off Vecna’s face. As she’s decapitating him, the camera zooms in on everyone’s faces, with flashbacks to the trauma each of them has suffered. Is the show beating us over the head? Yes. Does it work? Kind of.
Just when you think all is right with the world, with a Prince song playing in the background as the entire group victoriously leaves the Upside Down, everything goes to hell. Dr. Kay is waiting in Hawkins to capture and arrest everyone. Her intention is to take El and her blood to try and keep making more kids with abilities whom she can manipulate. Instead of giving herself over to Dr. Brenner 2.0 or having to spend her life running, El decides to stick to Kali’s plan. She stays in the Upside Down as it’s being blown up. All her loved ones watch in shock and horror. Before being turned to dust, she takes Mike (Finn Wolfhard) on a trip inside her mind. That’s when she explains her choice to him, even if he doesn’t understand it yet, and the two tearfully kiss. Honestly, this moment kind of got me. I’m not a fan of El’s choice and I think it would’ve been impactful to watch her survive and fight, considering all that she’s been through. At the same time, it’s a pivotal way to close the chapter on all of their childhoods.
Ultimately, Stranger Things is all about wonder and imagination. It was represented in how Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will viewed the world through a Dungeons & Dragons lens. They were shunned and dubbed losers, but their belief is what saved the day. Eleven was, quite literally, a manifestation of that awe. So I don’t mind that the Duffers leave it upto us to interpret if Mike’s final theory is correct. At the end of the epilogue, once the kids have graduated, everyone meets up for one more round of D&D in the Wheelers’ basement. Mike, ever the storyteller, tells his friends about the future he envisions for them. Lucas and Max are going strong together, Dustin goes off to college and stays close to Steve, and Will moves to another town and finds acceptance and love. Mike ends up as a Stephen King-type of author so he can tell the story of the Mage, who tricked everyone into thinking she’s dead, but she’s actually alive and living in peace somewhere far away where there are mountains and three waterfalls.
It’s a noble idea, but it’s still a story. His theory hinges on the fact that Kali was still alive and found a way to create an illusion to save El, except Kali was very much dead by the time the Upside Down suffered the impact of the C4. Mike has to tell himself and his friends a whimsical tale so they can move on. 18 months after Eleven’s death, it’s clear the group is still finding ways to live with the grief of what they went through. But the only way out is through. So Hopper proposes to Joyce at Enzo’s and suggests they move to Montauk, Steve becomes a baseball coach (and takes Delightful Derek under his wing), Nancy drops out of Emerson and takes a job at the Boston Herald, Jonathan fulfills his dream of going to NYU, and Robin (Maya Hawke) moves out of Indiana to attend Smith College. Each generation has to cope with loss and go through growth. In the case of Nancy/Jonathan/Steve/Robin, they promise to meet up each month, but we all know how that will play out. Meanwhile, Mike/Lucas/Will/Dustin/Max choose to believe in Eleven and close the door on their own adolescence, while Holly (Nell Fisher) and her pals take over the basement for their own D&D game.
Perhaps the legacy of Stranger Things can’t be summed up yet since the franchise has more to offer (whether we want it to or not). But the show, in its prime, affected and captivated us in one way or another. It’s why the emotional moments of this episode land, including Hopper and Mike’s conversation at El’s memorial, or all the callbacks to the pilot. Rockin’ Robin said it best in the narration at the end: Hawkins isn’t the same place she remembers, but it’s likely because she’s grown up now. So has everyone around her. So have we. The Stranger Things finale works when it does because of the character development. Neither the episode nor the show needed to be this long, and while they didn’t ace the finale, it’s a worthy enough of an ending—warts and all.
Stray observations
- •Erica was so right for saying that “this situation demands cussing.” I wish Priah Ferguson was given more material in this season, but I loved that Erica also helped Dustin out during his rebellious valedictorian speech at graduation by bringing the confetti.
- •I’m obsessed with the 10-second clip of Derek in the rescue van, giddily waving to his “best friend,” Mike Wheeler.
- •Mike apologizes to Will for not being there for him and the two promise to remain best friends. Sorry to the Byler fans out there, but they’re canonically not together—and that’s that.
- •Does this officially make us interdimensional space travelers?” “Suck it, Armstrong.”
- •I’m sorry but I was so annoyed by how long the group took to march through The Abyss once they got up there. Did Jonathan and Steve really need to have a heart-t0-heart about Nancy while they’re on another planet?
- •It’s hard to contend with the fact that some of the earliest Stranger Things images are of Joyce with the Christmas lights. Remember when the show’s color grading used to have an impact? I thought about that a lot in every scene taking place on The Abyss.
- •So, let’s talk burning questions: What happened to the pregnant women in the Upside Down? Why did the military let everyone go scot free after El’s death? Did Dr. Kay just up and leave Hawkins? Where did all the demogorgons go during the big fight?
- •I do love the tiny callbacks, like Ted Wheeler’s “language” and disdain for Dustin, or Hopper’s annoyance at all things D&D.
- Is it not jarring to hear the word “sexy” come out of Lucas’ mouth as he makes out with Max, or to see Will sitting at a bar? These are children!
- •A lot of people are complaining about plot holes, so I just want to say not everything needs to be spelled out. We can safely assume Robin and Vickie broke up off screen, as did Dustin and Susie. Vecna needed 12 kids because they made his powers stronger. Murray and Mr. Clarke were at graduation, so let’s assume they’re still hanging around in Hawkins.
- •What’s your favorite needle drop from the finale and the show overall? I loved the use of “Purple Rain” in this episode, but “Running Up That Hill” is closest to my heart at this point.
- •Do you have a ranking of Stranger Things seasons yet? I think mine is 1, 3, 2, 4, 5.
- •As far as performances go, I do think Bower was the big hit. But shoutout to Sadie Sink, Caleb McLaughlin, Joe Keery, Gaten Matarazzo, and Millie Bobby Brown for their work.
- •And that’s a wrap on Hawkins, for now. Over and out!
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