Stranger Things 5: My (Hot) Take
- Lizbette Ocasio-Russe
- Jan 2
- 5 min read
Like many of you, I was left with complicated feelings after the long-awaited finale of Stranger Things. Not only is it the end of an era, a decade-long series that helped usher many of us through difficult moments in our lives, but there’s also something about that finale that was not satisfactory. I’ve thought about it consistently since watching the finale, and there are a few elements my thoughts boil down to: playing it safe (plot armor), too much death-teasing, and a rushed final confrontation. Playing it safe and death-teasing go hand in hand. It’s not that I wanted a main character to die; I just didn’t want to see the plot bending to ensure their survival. As a viewer, I don’t need to be coddled; I need to be trusted to endure the danger and loss the story demands.
I’ll start with Karen. I loved Karen’s confrontation with the Demogorgon, from her bravery with the wine bottle to being struck down, it made sense, and it had a great emotional impact that is doubled when Nancy arrives to find her mother blood-soaked on the ground. To our relief, Karen survives and even returns to kick Demo-butt one last time in the hospital despite her severe injuries, when Lucas, Max, Robin, and Vickie are in trouble. I can suspend my disbelief here, but I won’t deny that I was enticed by the possibility of Karen dying because of what it would mean for Nancy and Mike. The loss of their mother would be an interesting emotional obstacle that could’ve made the stakes higher (they’ve lost their mother, they can’t lose their sister too) and their journey more challenging. However, this would make Nancy the new matriarch of the family, thus trapping her in the domestic role she’s never wanted. Nancy would likely stay in Hawkins to care for Holly and miss out on her independent and unconventional life, which is what she wants. So, I understand the decision to keep Mrs. Wheeler alive from a writing and characterization perspective. The problem arises as the season progresses and we continue to experience close calls, each one diminishing the impact of the previous one. When characters are consistently placed at death’s door only to be saved, danger doesn’t feel like danger anymore; it’s like the illusion of danger to ensure excitement without consequence. There are few consequences to major dangerous actions, which leads me to my next death-tease:
Nancy and Jonathan trapped in what I’m calling the slime room.
After Nancy shoots what she thinks is a shield generator, but is actually exotic matter holding the walls of the Upside Down together, her and Jonathan are knocked unconscious. The ground beneath them melts, and they fall into a room where the levels of melted material are quickly rising. When they wake up and realize they may soon die, both confess their true feelings, acknowledging their shared love but also that their relationship has been over for a while. This was one of my favorite decisions in the season, having Nancy choose herself, not Jonathan or Steve; this is consistent with her characterization and a beautiful reflection of how some relationships fizzle out without any specific cause. With this resolved, they can at least die in peace. But then, suddenly, Nancy notices the building has stopped melting and that the slime has stopped rising and has solidified; they're saved! Why did everything stop melting, and why did everything solidify? We don’t know, we just have to accept it. To me, this is the plot bending to ensure the survival of two important characters. After Nancy and Jonathan got out of this so easily, I figured no one important would be in any serious danger because either the plot or another character would rush in to save them.
This is applicable to Eleven’s ambiguous ending. Instead of allowing the audience to sit with her sacrifice and loss, the Duffer Brothers, using Mike, give us an alternate ending for Eleven that seems just plausible enough to give viewers hope that Eleven could be alive somewhere. I’ve heard convincing arguments for Eleven’s survival and death; there is evidence to support both. The theory of Eleven surviving depends on Kali having lived long enough after being shot to create the illusion of El vanishing with the Upside Down. The theory of Eleven dying rests on our assumption that Kali is already dead when Hopper finds her and Eleven. There is also the “kryptonite” to consider, which is active when Eleven pulls Mike into her head for their final goodbye; another possible indicator of Eleven staging her death. Regardless, I don’t think whether Eleven died is important; what matters is that she’s gone for good. I agree with the Duffer Brothers that Eleven had to go to end this story. If she’s alive in a remote town with two, not three, waterfalls (make of that what you will), I consider this a great ending for her character. Yes, she’s forced to never see her chosen family again, but she gets the one thing she’s never had and has always craved: freedom, which can only come with a fresh start away from everything tied to her trauma. If she’s dead, that’s satisfactory as well; she created the Upside Down, so she goes down with it, genuinely ensuring the whole debacle can never happen again, because, let’s be honest, as long as she’s alive, there is a risk that it can start all over again. The important thing is, and I applaud the Duffer Brothers for this, that Eleven is gone.
The last thing I’d like to discuss is the final confrontation between the gang and Vecna and the Mind Flayer; it was too easy, considering the build-up. There are some snafus and death-teases, namely Eleven “getting shot” by Hopper and Steve almost falling off the radio tower, but as mentioned before, these had no impact in creating tension because, at this point, I had been conditioned to characters surviving every brush with death; the true surprise would’ve been to kill one of their darlings, unequivocally. The placement of these death-teases also made me assume they were just that, a tease. Steve dangles off the tower in the first 25 minutes of a two-hour episode, and Hopper is tricked by Vecna into supposedly shooting Eleven in the tank within the first 35. My immediate thought was “they’re not dying this soon,” and I was right.
Nonetheless, I did enjoy the finale and agree that, regardless of the form it took, Eleven had to leave in order for this story to end properly. As she says to Mike, it’ll never end as long as she is there . . . unless she loses her powers for good? Just kidding, just kidding. Dr. Kay and others like her and Papa would’ve probably kept experimenting on her anyway, trying to bring them back. Speaking of the military/government presence, I don't believe we've seen the last of them. Hopper's line about taking the position of Chief of Police in Montauk, New York is enough for me to believe there will be a spin-off series that delves deeper into what inspired ST and that will carry the original title of ST, Montauk.