Nearly 10 years after its arrival on Netflix, the once-beloved show Stranger Things has officially come to an end. The finale was long-awaited, allowing many theories and expectations to emerge in the meantime. While the show succeeded in having an emotional and nostalgic ending, many fans were left with unanswered questions and wanted more.
Every Stranger Things watcher knew the finale was going to include the final battle. This fight has been building up since season 4, where Vecna was first introduced. Throughout the final seasons, Vecna presented as an indestructible creature. He murdered and mind-controlled people, as well as sent a beloved character since season 2, Max, into a two-year-long coma. Yet, when the battle finally started, it lasted only a few minutes, ending almost immediately after. There were no complications at all. In fact, everything went entirely as planned. Alison, a student at Clinton, thought this battle was a let-down, saying, “I feel like the idea of Vecna being this indestructible and powerful monster was not shown at all during the final battle.”
With the finale being over two hours long, the battle was more of a box that needed to be checked rather than a pivotal and significant moment for the show as a whole. The many unrealistic aspects of this fight were another let-down. For one, guns seemed to damage the mind flayer, the creature that controlled Vecna, when in the previous seasons, they were ineffective against demogorons, a much less powerful creature. The lack of demogorgons during the final battle was another unrealistic aspect that ruined the battle. In every other season, demogorgons were unavoidable and took many characters’ lives. The fact that they are absent during the fight against the mind flayer, the creature who controls and produces them, is completely inconsistent.
The pacing of the episode was also a major flaw. The final battle lasted around 3 minutes, despite the entire episode being over 2 hours long. Many fans thought this made the battle feel rushed and compressed. Alison was one of them, saying, “After watching it, I was honestly confused about how this was the huge finale they were talking about. It was definitely emotional, but for a two hour long episode with almost an hour-long epilogue, I felt like the grand battle and defeating Vecna were really rushed.”
Yet even with these two hours, there were still plot-holes and unresolved conflicts. As Alison said, “I also felt like they missed the chance to clear up all the plot holes throughout the show and make this feel like an actual ending.” The relationship between Robin, a significant character since season 3, and Vicky, a character introduced in later seasons, was developed throughout season 5. But during the resolution of the episode, she disappeared and there’s no mention of her again. We also see Derek, the 10-year-old who became a crucial character alongside Holly, and his family being kidnapped by “the party” (a nickname given to the core group of original characters), in the first episode of season 5. However, only Derek escapes, and there is no follow-up on his family again, which is something that many fans thought would be resolved in the finale. After Vecna was killed in the final battle, the party was arrested by the military, who had been hunting Eleven, the main character with telekinetic powers, since season 1. There was never an explanation of how they escaped or got out of the military’s possession, but instead, the next scene just cuts to the party at high school graduation. There are many more plot holes that fans discovered as well, and it is disappointing that after two hours, fans are still left with so many questions.
Despite these frustrating moments, there is no denying the emotional impact the finale had on fans. Even if the final battle was rushed, that left plenty of time to finish the show in a meaningful way. Each character’s storyline was (mostly) completed, making the ending feel nostalgic and bittersweet. But, it also felt as if there were too many characters. At the end of Stranger Things, there are over 15 main characters who all needed to have a complete ending, which is double the amount when the show first started. That explains why the Duffer brothers spent over an hour on the characters’ resolutions. Fans were expecting some of these characters to die in the final battle, which was another letdown, as this would have made the battle more high-stakes and emotional.
In the end, the finale was anticlimactic and predictable. But it had the thing every fan was looking forward to: an emotional ending. While the rushed battle was disappointing, it allowed the show to end full circle by focusing on the characters’ storylines. Despite the many plot holes, any show running for 10 years would inevitably leave fans with a couple of lingering questions. But after almost a decade on Netflix, Stranger Things is officially over, leaving some fans teary-eyed and some shaking their heads.
