The nail in the coffin of a series whose cultural influence is already dead.
By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Stranger Things has been a cultural phenomenon for nearly a decade, but the fifth and final season has been extremely eventful. Like many fans, I was hoping the series finale would hold up, making up for a lackluster Season 5 and generally bringing this ’80s pastiche to a satisfying conclusion. Unfortunately, this did not happen.
As I will explain in this spoiler-filled review (you’ve been warned!), the series finale failed to answer key questions, reduced its Big Bad to a joke, and spent nearly an hour giving us a fanservice epilogue over the phone.
The Stranger Things finale had so many questions to answer
As I already wrote, the rest of this Stranger Things The season left fans with many major questions that the series finale was likely going to answer. After the extremely lackluster penultimate episode (the one that is now officially the lowest rated of the entire series on IMDB), I was hoping that the final episode would tell us more about Vecna’s motivations, explain her crazy plan to merge worlds, explain who the hell Linda Hamilton’s Dr. Kay was, and so on. However, I was nervous because I didn’t think the series would have enough time (even in a movie-sized finale) to answer everything and still give us a satisfying ending.
The Duffer brothers managed to solve this dilemma in the most insane way by avoid these questions completely. The only thing we learn about Vecna’s motivation, for example, is that he was just an evil guy who was following the Mindflayer’s plans (the Mindflayer, incidentally, Also has no motivation other than to look scary and kill people).
We never learn what merging worlds is supposed to do (if it destroys our own world, what would Vecna rule over?). All we learn about Dr. Kay is that she likes to wander around and scowl at our heroes.
The Most Disappointing Battle in Television History
Speaking of our heroes, they manage to defeat the Big Bad in a battle worthy of low-grade fanfiction. While Eleven and Will Byers combine their powers to deliver a psychic blow to Vecna, the rest of the gang fights the Mindflayer.
The Mindflayer is visually depicted as a massive killer kaiju that could give Godzilla a run for his money. Everyone participates in the fight, and the monster that haunts Stranger Things since season 1 is suddenly deleted by kids wielding weapons like flare guns and slingshots.
Certain characters certainly had better weapons like real guns and flamethrowers, but that begs the question: why would those things hurt Mindflayer when the Demogorgons (conveniently absent in this dimension they live in) and Vecna are both seemingly bulletproof? If the Mindflayer is supposed to be this cosmic Big Bad, he should be stronger than his lieutenant and foot soldiers. For the final, he is now weak enough for the kids’ bike team to eliminate him.
Speaking of weakness, Vecna is defeated absurdly and quickly. This seems like an excuse to give Joyce a big hero moment (following Thor’s advice, she goes after the villain’s head).
The sacrifice that was not a sacrifice
This leaves only the military as the major threat our protagonists face, but they too are suddenly presented as more of an incompetent joke than before. Stranger Things Season 5. They capture our characters once they escape the Upside Down, but they can’t contain Eleven, who sacrifices herself (more on that soon) to end the endless cycle of creepy government research.
Presumably, without the Upside Down and the blood of Eleven or Vecna, future experiments will be impossible. However, that doesn’t explain why they let our heroes (some of whom killed a lot army soldiers) take place without any form of punishment or interrogation.
Eleven’s sacrifice is supposed to be a big, heartbreaking moment. This proves that the Stranger Things the showrunners were finally ready to let one of the main characters die.
However, we get an elaborate theory from Mike about how she could have faked her death and still been alive somewhere, essentially leaving the audience to choose whether or not they believe she survived or not. You can of course read this as pure business on Mike’s part, but the sad reality is that it’s the result of showrunners who are more concerned with pleasing people than telling a good story.
Constant fakes and more endings than The Return of the King
Unfortunately, this finale was typical of Season 5 as a whole: Stranger Things is afraid of annoying part of the fandom, so they avoid killing off major characters. We get constant fakeouts (like Eleven and Hopper inexplicably surviving earlier brushes with death, and Steve almost falling off the tower in the finale), but the show’s historical refusal to kill off the main characters effectively steals Stranger Things of any real issue. This habit is so ingrained that when they seemingly kill off a beloved character like Eleven, they have to give fans a way to believe that she, like everyone else, got a happily ever after.
Speaking of happily ever after, Stranger Things we rushed the series finale through the Vecna/Mindflayer fight so we could get close to a epilogue time. This includes mountains of fanservice moments, like more Dungeons & Dragons nostalgia bait and Dustin using his valedictorian speech to do exactly what Eddie wanted to do at his own graduation.
We also see what the older characters are up to now that Vecna is gone. Hopper and Joyce become engaged, Jonathan becomes a film student, Nancy becomes a journalist, and Steve becomes a high school coach.
Emotions rather than responses
In the end, how much you appreciate Stranger ThingsThe series finale will depend on whether you want an emotional epilogue rather than a satisfying fight with the Big Bad or answers to the series’ burning questions. Online (especially in the r/StrangerThings subreddit), many fans were happy to be able to say goodbye to their favorite characters. It makes sense: after loving this cast for nearly a decade, it can be hard to see it all come to an end. If you also like these characters or just enjoy a really awkward ending, you’ll probably find the finale passable, at bare minimum.
For me and countless other fans, the final episode of Stranger Things was disappointing because everything was safe from start to finish. The big fight was disappointing because the showrunners didn’t want to hurt anyone, as symbolized by the fact that the military let our heroes go, so no one the fans liked had to face consequences.
Stranger Things is the New Lost
The biggest insult here is that we got no answer to the biggest question of the series. This makes Stranger Things as a whole another Lost-a mystery box style show that builds one question after another, only to then give up on providing any answers.
Sorry, Stranger Things: I’ve been with you since the beginning, and as a D&D-loving ’80s kid, I’ve mostly enjoyed this nostalgic thrill-ride over the years. But this is a series that stopped being a period pastiche after season 2 and attempted to transform itself into a blockbuster sci-fi epic that would redefine genre television for years to come. His attempt completely failed and the final episode is the nail in the coffin for a series whose cultural influence is already dead.
THE Stranger Things the finale ended up being as disappointing as the rest of season 5. Or, to paraphrase the inexplicable catchphrase given to D*****t Derek, that last episode sucked.
