Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer have reacted to fans review-bombing the episode containing Will Byers’s coming out scene, saying they were surprised by it but still stand by the episode.
All episodes from the fifth and final season of the hit science fiction show, following the Hawkins group’s escalating battle with Vecna and the fallout from the Upside Down’s breach into the town, have been released on Netflix. The final episode of the show, titled “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up”, debuted on New Year’s Day.
The episodes were released in multiple parts, with Volume 1 dropping in November and giving Netflix its biggest premiere week ever for an English-language series.
The second set of episodes from the fifth and final season was released on 26 December, but saw audience scores drop sharply since. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the overall score stood at 56 per cent at the time of writing, down from over 70 previously. This is the lowest rating for any season of the series; the first season holds a 97 per cent audience score, the second 94 per cent, the third 89 per cent, the fourth 90 per cent.
Additionally, episode seven, titled “Chapter Seven: The Bridge,” which features Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) coming out as gay to his friends and family, has become the lowest-rated episode in the entire series, with many online complaining that the series had turned “woke”.
In a new interview after the release of the Stranger Things series finale, the Duffer Brothers discussed the importance of the scene for them and why they’re still “proud” of the episode and Schnapp’s “vulnerable performance”.
“The coming out scene is something we’ve been building to for nine years now. It was a really important scene for us, and a really important scene for Noah – not just from a thematic point of view, but also a narrative point of view,” Ross Duffer told Variety.
“This show has always been about our characters overcoming evil, and in order to overcome this evil, Vecna, in so many ways, represents all the dark thoughts and the evil of society. And for our characters to overcome that, it really becomes about embracing themselves, and then also embracing one another and coming together.”
In the scene, Will admits to his friends that the show’s antagonist Vecna has been using his fears about revealing his sexuality to friends and family to isolate and manipulate him, exploiting his terror of rejection to control him. He explains to them, as they prepare for their final confrontation with Vecna, that keeping it hidden has made him vulnerable, and naming it aloud will prove that his fears of being abandoned are misfounded.
Matt Duffer described the scene as being the “the final step in Will’s journey” and, at the same time, “the key to defeating Vecna”.
“Volume 1 is really about self-acceptance, right? I mean, that’s sort of step one. And then step two is Will is talking to Robin – it’s something that he wants to do. He’s trying to figure out how to come out, and he knows that he needs to do that, and that that’s the final step for him. And he finds the courage to be able to do it. And it’s really the ultimate fuck you to Vecna. That was the intention,” he said.
“We’re proud of the episode, and we’re proud of the scene, and proud of Noah, who gave a really brave, very vulnerable performance,” Ross Duffer said.
Matt Duffer said they were most concerned with ensuring that Schnapp, who came out as gay in 2023, was “comfortable and happy with the scene”. “And when he was, we felt good about it.”
However, he admitted that he had not anticipated the backlash to the scene.
“No is the honest truth,” he said. “Because it is, as Ross said, something we’ve been building for a really long time. I always say, Ross and I are many things, but subtle is not one of those things!”
The final season has received wildly polarised reactions from fans, with many complaining that the series still leaves multiple open threads and plot holes.
The Independent’s Nick Hilton, in a three-star review, described the series as “Netflix’s most important original IP has morphed from a brilliant, influential coming-of-age saga into just another CGI rock’em sock’em adventure.”
All episodes of Stranger Things are now streaming on Netflix.
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