By Chris Snellgrove | Published
THE Stranger Things closed out 2025 with more of a whimper than a bang, giving us a very controversial series finale that fans just can’t stop arguing about. While there were a lot of things wrong with this final episode, what I found most distracting was that it was filled with bizarre plot holes that threatened to turn this epic, action-packed episode into a disappointing farce.
If you don’t believe it (and you don’t mind serious spoilers), go grab a slice of Surfer Boy Pizza and keep reading to find out the worst Stranger Things series finale storylines that will haunt us forever!
Why did the army let our heroes go?
After our Stranger Things the heroes defeat Vecna ​​and Mindflayer (more on that in a moment), they escape the Upside Down only to be caught by the military. It looks like all hope is lost, and then the unthinkable happens: Eleven stays behind while the Upside Down explodes (unless you believe Mike’s theory that she survived). The girl’s goal with this self-sacrifice was to ensure that the government would never be able to continue its frightening research without access to the Upside Down or its super-powered blood.
That’s all well and good, but then something crazy happens. The army lets everyone go! Keep in mind that these are people who have killed many soldiers and caused insane damage to federal buildings, and they are the only ones whose knowledge and experience could help the government learn something useful from their years of experience. However, the military (including Dr. Kay, whose origins are never really explained) suddenly agrees to let everyone go into a sloppy hole intended to give Stranger Things a happy ending.
How did Hopper get his old job back?
Part of the series’ happy ending mentioned above is that Hopper (who is surprisingly unfazed by Eleven’s apparent death) returns to his old job as Hawkins’ police chief. He even exploits this job and the influence of an old pal to get a new, better-paid police job where he and Joyce can (now that they’re engaged) be closer to where his children go to school. Everything is sweet and moving, but that Stranger Things the finale never answers a very basic question: how the hell did Hopper get his old job back?
As far as everyone in the community (including his fellow police officers) knows, Hopper has actually been dead since the end of Season 3. If they know anything about his most recent activities, they know that he spent his time breaking laws, killing soldiers, and raising a government fugitive. Add in the fact that he was a drunk who barely did his job in season 1, and it makes absolutely no sense that he could ever work in law enforcement again, let alone land two different police chief jobs in the blink of an eye!
Where were all the Demogorgons?
Part of what made Stranger Things The series finale is so exciting (at least on paper) that our heroes fought Vecna ​​and Mindflayer by entering the Abyss armed to the teeth. There they faced a surprisingly easy fight. Although Vecna ​​is stronger than ever and Mindflayer is a divine being from the cosmos, they are both defeated by an oversized Scooby gang. Of course, the fight is made even easier by the absence of the Demogorgons, and the fact that they are nowhere to be found makes no sense.
In case you haven’t been following the series’ tangled storyline, Demogorgons live in the Abyss (as seen in the play Stranger Things: The First Shadow) and enter the real world via gateways in the Upside Down. In theory, the Abyss should absolutely be crawling with these guys (who have been the most iconic villains of the series since the beginning), but they are completely absent. Some fans have speculated that Vecna ​​absorbed them all to enhance her own powers, but there are two problems with this theory: 1) it makes no sense to destroy your army when your enemies get close, and 2) this, like so many other things, is never explained on screen!
Sorry, Duffer Brothers: if fans have to come up with their own answers, that’s a sure sign your writing sucks.
Why are Vecna ​​and Mind Flayer so weak?
Perhaps the most confusing thing about Stranger Things The series finale is that our two Big Bads were just surprisingly weak. Vecna ​​is supposed to be stronger than ever now, but he can’t even pry Holly away from a big, rude brat. Later, Eleven proves that he is an absolute pushover in their final battle, even though he put up a much stronger fight during their showdown in the Season 4 finale (keep in mind that he was supposed to be much less powerful at the time).
Meanwhile, the Mindflayer was defeated by a combination of a flamethrower, guns, and (sigh) flares and slingshots. It wouldn’t have been so insulting if earlier Stranger Things the scenes hadn’t proven that minor minions like Demogorgons were more or less bulletproof. Suddenly, the Mind Flayer is much weaker than his minions, just as Vecna ​​(also a bulletproof guy) is suddenly vulnerable to an axe-wielding middle-aged woman.
Hopefully someone at Netflix is ​​taking notes here: when you make your main villains incredibly weak in the final fight, it’s hard for us to root for the bad guys. Or heroes very seriously.
