Spoilers Ahead!
The Stranger Things finale wasn’t good; it was brilliant. After running for nearly 10 years, ending the show wasn’t an easy task. Despite the recent hate for the Duffer Brothers’ choice of closing the show, describing it as “a crushing disappointment” and “TV’s ultimate crime,” I, for one, thought the opposite.
Season Five, the final season of Stranger Things, was released in three separate volumes.
The first volume consisted of four episodes and was released on November 26, 2025; the second volume contained three episodes and was released on December 25; the final episode was released on December 31, 2025, and alone ran for a total of two hours and eight minutes.
The final season came with high anticipation as the show is loved by many worldwide, myself included. To my surprise, however, S5 of Stranger Things received a lot more backlash than I expected.
When the show was first released in 2016, I remember watching it with my mom. Despite the fact that I was only in third grade, the show immediately had me hooked. That’s the thing with Stranger Things: it’s always been successful in drawing attention. Regardless of the potential of being “too scary” or “too mature” for a young audience, the show never felt like it was tailored to entice strictly adults or strictly kids. I’ve always admired that about the writing; maybe it’s because it’s set in the ’80s, but the show has never overdone the dialogue between the kids in a way that felt inauthentic. If anything, the show has always felt natural to me, almost as if I’d wake up in the “Upside Down” the next morning.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, S5 is the lowest-rated season out of the entire show, receiving a score of 83%, which is a large difference compared to the show’s tendency to receive a minimum of 90%. A large portion of the low rating comes from the so-called “disappointment” brought to people’s screens during Volume Two of S5, specifically through the finale.
Forbes, in particular, wrote, “The second part of the final season of Netflix’s mega-hit sci-fi series spent far too much time stalling the action with grueling, cheesy heart-to-hearts, riddled with awkward dialogue, all nuance and subtext be damned.”
However, I beg to differ. I think both Volume Two and the finale have more to offer than people recognize. Stranger Things was never meant to be just about Sci-Fi, nor has it ever lacked nuances.
The main thing that people are missing is that the show is not just sci-fi horror; it symbolizes growing up. The Duffer brothers even said it themselves. Although this may be apparent, with the obvious fact that the characters on the show are quite literally growing up and navigating through that, it’s more nuanced than it seems.
Between the Demogorgons, Vecna, and the Mind Flayer, all three monsters are representative of the looming anxiety of adulthood and the struggles of growing up. A main example of this is following the disappearance of Will Byers. In Season One, it was his friends who were quick to figure out the reality behind said disappearance, leaving them subject to the gory realities of the Upside Down, or the reality of adulthood. A main reason why so many adults in the series turn a blind eye to the various disappearances, or the fact that their kids have been outside for questionable amounts of time, is that they’re adults; they’ve already grown up.
This is a main reason why I think the finale works so well; it closes the chapter of childhood and begins the next one about adulthood. In the finale, the party (Mike, Will, Lucas, Max, and Dustin) all graduate, and the chaos simultaneously ends with that. While one could argue that the chaos ends due to Eleven’s death, I don’t think the graduation was unintentional; in fact, I think everything about the show is highly intentional. The Duffer Brothers didn’t have to add the time skip, yet they did, further emphasizing the end of the party’s childhood.
Speaking of Eleven and her ending, I really enjoyed the choice to leave it up to the viewer. While I personally do believe that she is really gone, I don’t think the meaning of her ending is as simple as whether she is or isn’t dead. Eleven is representative of the magic of childhood that’s carried throughout, regardless of the hardships, and her sacrifice is that magic going away. Allowing both the party and the viewer to make their own theory forces everyone to use their imagination, something that is predominantly used throughout childhood, showing that the childhood magic still lives within everyone.
Moving away from the metaphorical aspect of the finale, another unpopular opinion I have is regarding the final fight scene with Vecna and character deaths. One thing I’ve noticed about Stranger Things is that the main characters tend to never die. While I’ve seen many people online say that S5 should have resulted in a “blood bath,” I think the opposite. Death and gore are not synonymous with a strong plot, and killing off the majority of the main characters all in one season is the epitome of poor writing. If more characters were to be killed off, it should’ve been done earlier on and more sporadically, but certainly not all at once. On the other hand, two deaths that I think could have added more emotional weight to the show would be either Nancy and Jonathan during their “un-proposal.” That scene felt like a good setup and time to end their story; however, the decision to continue their story didn’t negatively impact the rest of the season at all.
Now, regarding the final fight with Vecna, the main critique I’ve seen online is that it was underwhelming and too short. I disagree with this. Much like my opinion about the character deaths, gore doesn’t add any plot value. While the final fight was shorter than I anticipated, if it had been any longer, I would’ve been bored. My favorite part of the show is how well it captures the plot beyond the sci-fi aspects. And I don’t think fulfilling people’s desires to see more gore would do any justice to the show.
Another major thing to address in the final season is “Byler.” Byler, the ship (internet slang short for relationship) name for characters Mike Wheeler and Will Byers, has been up for debate throughout the show, specifically between the ship, Mileven (Mike and Eleven) vs Byler. Personally, I’ve always been in favor of both. I think realistically, the outcome of both couples made the most sense. I was a big fan of the way Mileven played out, and the choice of using “When Doves Cry” and “Purple Rain” by Prince to end their shared moments was beautiful to me. Specifically with “When Doves Cry,” the meaning behind the song explores Prince’s fear of repeating his parents’ mistakes, a theme seen through the Wheeler kids and their parents’ questionable relationship. Mike throwing away his long-term relationship with Eleven would be bad writing to me, and I think if Byler were to happen, it should’ve had more build-up towards the beginning of S5.
The outcome of Byler didn’t leave any major negative impact on me, but the way it played out is more complicated than Mileven’s story.
The first point is the situation with Will, Mike, and Tammy. Will, admittedly having a former crush on his best friend Mike, then describes that crush as his “Tammy,” referring to another queer character, Robin Buckley, describing her experience with a girl named Tammy. I don’t think Will comparing Mike to Tammy was written in a way that diminishes the impact of Mike on Will, but rather to emphasize that Mike was Will’s stepping stone to accepting his queer identity.
Furthermore, having Will stuck on his feelings for Mike would feel like the writers simply reduced Will to an adjunct to Mike, when he is clearly not that. This isn’t to say that the Duffers addressed everything with Byler; in reality, there’s a lot they missed.
For me, the main issue I had with the outcome of Byler was that the painting Will made for Mike in S4 was never acknowledged in S5. For something that played a significant role in S4, I was surprised to see that neither Will nor Mike ever addressed their attraction towards one another. It would’ve been very interesting and important to see Mike, who knows Will liked him, address that instead of their very short-lived interaction regarding Will’s coming out. This goes beyond lazy writing and forgotten details; it’s representative of the commercialization of this potentially queer relationship.
Throughout S4, it seemed like Byler was the direction the show was headed towards, specifically with the seemingly very intentional choice of body language, color coding (blue and yellow), and the overall details. More specifically, the usage of blue and yellow and their relation to Will and Mike, whether it’s through their clothing or the lighting around them, shows Will and Mike as the human representation of “… blue and yellow meet[ing] in the west” from the Russian code in S3. This made it seem as if Byler was supposed to be “end-game” (internet slang for a couple being destined to last forever), specifically with the fact that the reveal, through the painting he made for Mike, of Will’s feelings for Mike, occurred once they met in the west, in California.
I do strongly believe that the writers’ strike and the current political climate of the world impacted the Byler storyline and led to it being sidelined. Especially with Mike, I think if the directors were to keep the complicated dynamics between Byler and Mileven, it would’ve allowed for Mike to be a very well-written queer character, but that did not happen; instead, it seems as if Mike was sidelined in one of his own ships.
Needless to say, the finale of Stranger Things was anything but awful. This show has done an incredible job capturing the feeling of growing up through the lens of sci-fi, and that’s brilliant. As someone who has quite literally grown up with the show, it’s sad to see this almost decade-long era come to an end, but is this really the end? One thing that has stayed consistent throughout the show’s existence is the fan community and the theories. One of the most recent theories is “Conformity Gate,” suggesting that the “final episode” of the show may actually be a false ending, and the Duffers have set up the season to lead up to their “actual” surprise episode. This idea was popularized by fans who were dissatisfied with the ending. Yet, I still believe everything in this show is intentional. While “Conformity Gate” has been disproven, the details aren’t a coincidence; they’re placed to have people continue to talk about the show, making it a “Never-Ending Story.”
@paulfoisy Conformity Gate Theory Explained: A Secret 9th Episode Coming Out on Jan 7th🤯 #strangerthings #strangerthings5 #conformitygate #theory #vecna ♬ Suspense, horror, piano and music box – takaya
I’m devastated to see Stranger Things officially come to an end. As much as I wish I could count down the days to the next season one last time, I’m very pleased with the rather complex ending of the show. Stranger Things has been there with many people throughout the years, and that’s exactly what the show was meant to show: growing up. So, to Stranger Things, thank you. Thank you for growing up alongside all of your viewers.
