We all knew this day would come. The Duffer Brothers couldn’t possibly hope to keep Hawkins trapped in a nightmarish alternate version of the 1980s forever, no matter how many synth soundtracks and vicarious pop culture references they threw at us.
Stranger Things officially ended this New Year’s Eve with a feature-length series finale that delivered monster-slaying catharsis, some measure of emotional depth, and just enough ambiguity to keep Reddit theorists employed through 2030. If you’re still processing (or simply couldn’t tear yourself away from champagne duties), here’s everything that went down in “The Rightside Up.”
Spoilers ahead, obviously. You’ve been warned.
The final battle was chaotic and perhaps a little undercooked
The last episode wasted zero time getting to the good stuff. With Vecna preparing to merge the otherworldly “Abyss” dimension with our world, the Hawkins crew mobilized to foil his plans in one last desperate stand. Eleven, reunited with her sister Kali (remember her from that Season 2 episode everyone pretends doesn’t exist?), rescued the children from Henry’s mind prison and stopped the spell, and the rest of the crew took it from there.
We also got a glimpse into the moment when Henry first came into contact with the Mind Flayer. It turns out that the eldritch abomination has been pulling Henry’s strings from the very beginning—though the exact nature of their dynamic remains murky. Will insisted that Henry was just another victim of the Mind Flayer’s manipulation, while Henry himself claimed he was always the one holding the leash. Whether that’s genuine agency or the cosmic equivalent of Stockholm syndrome is left for viewers to debate.
The showdown with the Mind Flayer-Vecna hybrid was easily the most visually ambitious sequence the show has ever attempted, and it concluded with the crew working in concert to bring the monsters down. Eleven unleashed her telekinetic fury while Will tapped into the hive mind to hijack Vecna from within—a psychic one-two punch that finally ended Henry Creel’s reign of terror. Also, can we agree that it was fitting how Joyce Byers was the one to deal the final blow?
The Demogorgons and other Abyss-dwelling horrors were notably absent, but the Mind Flayer’s creature design alone suggests that roughly 90% of the season’s budget went directly into making this moment land. I’d say money well spent, but it did leave the final battle feeling slightly breathless.
Eleven’s sacrifice (or was it?)
Here’s where things get complicated. The entire final episode is structured to cast deliberate doubt on Eleven’s fate. El makes the choice to stay behind in the Upside Down when she realizes the government will never stop hunting her—that as long as she exists, she’ll be a target. In her final telepathic conversation with Mike, she thanks him for everything they’ve shared. Then the Upside Down is destroyed, seemingly taking her with it.
Except… maybe not?
During the closing D&D sequence (more on that in a moment), Mike offers an alternative theory to the crew, one that might explain why he and Hopper seem suspiciously at peace with El’s apparent death. Sure, 18 months is enough time to grieve, but their composure reads less like acceptance and more like people who know something we don’t. As Mike points out, when we last saw El entering the Upside Down, the military was blasting their sonic devices directly at her. These weapons neutralize her powers completely. So how was she standing there, seemingly unaffected?
Mike’s theory: Kali cast one final illusion before dying, making everyone—the military, their friends, even us—believe Eleven sacrificed herself. But did Kali actually die when Lt. Akers shot her? Or was the whole thing a ploy from the start? And if Hopper and El were in on it, why lie to Murray? Were they keeping the circle as tight as possible to sell the deception? Or is Mike just a grieving kid grasping at straws, spinning theories because the alternative hurts too much?
The Duffers aren’t telling, and the internet will continue to theorize and find hidden clues about this into the foreseeable future.
The time jump gives everyone closure, and the ending mirrors the beginning
As for the rest of our heroes, Max and Lucas finally go on that movie date, while Dustin heads off to college but maintains his friendship with Steve. Will moves to the city and finally finds acceptance. And Mike appears to be writing the story of everything that happened—whether this becomes a book or a screenplay or just helps him find catharsis, it’s a fitting role for the “storyteller.”
Nancy goes to college at Emerson, but then drops out to take a trainee job at the Herald, because the Duffers have never wanted her to take the obvious path. Steve stays in Hawkins, coaching little league baseball and teaching sex ed. Jonathan finally makes it to NYU—his dream since Season 1—where he’s working on an anti-capitalist cannibal movie. And Robin’s at Smith College. The four of them vow to meet once a month at Robin’s “weird” uncle’s house in Philadelphia to stay connected. It’s not quite the love triangle resolution some fans wanted, but then, it makes perfect sense. These people were never bonded by romance, but by shared trauma.
Stranger Things began with four kids playing Dungeons & Dragons in Mike’s basement. It ends exactly the same way, with Mike passing off the torch to the next generation, consisting of her sister Holly and her friends. (Yes, Delightful Derek is also part of the new party.)
Is it the perfect ending? Probably not. Does it give Hawkins the happy ending it deserves after years of traumatic events and character deaths? Absolutely. The Upside Down is gone. Vecna is defeated. Hawkins can finally heal. But more importantly, these characters we’ve watched grow up over nine years get to move forward and be normal. After nine years, so do we.
(featured image: Netflix)
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