About a month ago, what many might consider as one of the greatest TV shows of all time concluded. Stranger Things has left an impact on society and Gen Z that will last ages even after the show has finished. While the show gets copious amounts of praise, watchers were very torn on how to feel about the conclusion of the series. Many loved it, feeling like it ended the show perfectly, while others thought the ending was so bad that they started making theories how there was going to be a secret new episode coming out after the finale. With all the divided thoughts, I’d thought today I would give my two cents on all of this.
Fair warning, there will be spoilers ahead. I will be talking about events that happened across the entirety of Strangers Things, including all of season 5 all the way up to the final minutes of the finale. Now let’s get into it.
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It’s easy to see why many fans were disappointed in the ending. Stranger Things is meant to be this creepy show with unstoppable monsters who show no mercy. And the finale, let alone the whole last season, failed to show that. Yes, it was unrealistic how fast Vecna/The Mind Flayer was defeated. They built these two villains up for a multitude of seasons just for them to get a few battlewounds and poof! We defeated the big bad evil. Not to mention all of the plotholes left unanswered from Season 5 and every other season; I can’t even name all of them. All and all, the writing this season was definitely off and was not as good as previous seasons, especially the finale.
But at the end of the day, I loved it. Stranger Things is a show based around its characters at its core, not so much the exterior plot (though it obviously does play an important role). It was so amazing to see most of the characters happy for once in their lives and have hope for a better future. Even when Mike struggles to cope with the loss of El, he still figures out a path forward and continues all of his friends and El’s legacy.
Speaking of El… she’s dead. Mike didn’t see Kali die, so he has no idea of the condition she was in the last time viewers and El saw her. Which, if you forgot, was not great. Kali couldn’t have casted her power that far back into the real world as well. Therefore, that actually was El standing at the border of the upside down and Hawkins.
However, the whole “I believe” section left me sobbing. It really showed how much the kids all miss El and are united together through the events of the series. Watching their campaign books being put back onto the shelf made it feel like the end of an era. I felt so many emotions those last 40 minutes I can barely describe right now.
A lot of us Gen Z grew up watching Stranger Things and it’s a crazy feeling for this thing in our lives for so long is just over. The ending of this show was special, and I think only a couple will get it. And for those who get it, it will stay really near and dear to their hearts for a while now.
