Just like last time I know it all finished airing over Christmas and New Years, but since those are inconvenient times for some, let’s discuss the series finale of Stranger Things.
When they made season one they still thought they might do an anthology series, not necessarily more with the same characters. That’s why el had a similar ending in season one and five, that’s what was always planned for that character.
I absolutely loved it. The Duffer Brothers stuck the landing. They tied off all the characters perfectly.
I absolutely loved how the show ended with a shot of the Wheeler’s house and sprinkler that fades to Dustin, Will, Mike, Lucas and now Max playing a D&D campaign.
That was the first time the audience met the kids in E1 of S1 ten years ago!
The final scene with Mike’s sister now taking over the basement and there is a new generation of Wheeler kids in the basement cave. That brought a tear to my eye.
The animated credits at the end were spectacular. I noticed immediately that the open crawl of the final episode didn’t identify any star’s names. It was so cool how they worked key moments of the show into the credits.
I really loved the scene where Joyce was hacking off Vecna’s head while each characters relived an evil and or a hurt that Vecna had done to them, damn that was spectacular. That was a really cathartic moment for the characters.
The Duffers had a lot of characters to resolve and while not perfect they did a really good job of tiring them off, while leaving enough what if?
I really loved the scene where Joyce was hacking off Vecna’s head
There was a moment a few scenes before where I noticed just how big Joyce’s axe was. It was a Chekhov’s Axe moment for me where I was left wondering just how she was going to use it. I completely agree that Joyce walking up to Vecna and hacking away at his head was just perfect. He’d caused Joyce so much pain I’m glad she got a moment to shine.
Yeah until she started chopping off his head I was confused as to why she had an axe, then remembered she used one to chop a hole through the wall in Season 1 in a fruitless attempt to get to Will.
There was so much pointless bickering in season 5. Multiple times I was thinking bro shut up now is not the time to care about this random thing.
I did like that all the characters are moving on with their lives. Being a highschool coach makes so much sense for Steve.
“I am so angry at you!”
“Why?”
“Because I’m afraid I’m going to lose you too!”
uh… okay.
I guess you haven’t known tooo many teenagers?
The bundle with thier emotions all the time…. A teenage boy responding to death of a good friend with anger is completely normal, for fuck sakes…
Yeah indeed there were several times I was like “WE NEED TO HAVE THIS CONVERSATION RIGHT NOW!?”
They did a good job giving all of the characters something to do and wrapping up the overarching supernatural elements. They did about as much saying goodbye to the characters as they could get away with in the time limit, and it’s a rare example of an ambiguous ending that didn’t leave me feeling frustrated or that the writers had chickened out.
Part of me is simply relieved that the show got an ending at all, let alone a good one. I’m sure that in a few years time I’ll want to watch the whole thing again, which I can’t say for a lot of shows.
I rewatched the first four seasons as a lead up to season five and season five overall really did an excellent job wrapping everything up. I would happily (years from now) rewatch the entire series again.
I think it helps that season 4 is both an excellent season with an excellent finale, but also sets up season 5.
Part of me is simply relieved that the show got an ending at all
Yep, too many shows are open-ended because they want to leave an opportunity to continue the show if it’s evaluated and considered viably profitable.
I was just waiting to get emotional like I did with the season 3 finale, when El reads the speech that Hop wrote for her. But it never really hit that high for me. I cry at everything and I didn’t cry until the episode was over, and that was just because I didn’t want it to end.
I mean that ending with Mike telling the I Believe story and the group putting their binders away was a huge emotional hit. Both because I didn’t want it to end and because I think they gave El a great ending.
We have to sit and wonder if El is really dead for a while, and then Mike has his moment at graduation where he figures out something, but we’re not quite sure what.
It hit hard. It hit good.
Season 3 was a perfect ending. If the show had ended there it would be 10/10 to me.
Overall I enjoyed the ride, but I really hate how they “Disney-fied” the Upside Down.
And just how much of a waste of screen time the military was. They were just so damn incompetent it wasn’t even funny.
Especially Linda Hamilton.
I think if the military was just that random dude who yelled at people, that might have worked. Even having a Linda Hamilton type that wasn’t Linda Hamilton might have worked. But when you HAVE Linda Hamilton… Do something with her. Give her a storyline.
Re Russian Demogorgons.
Really this is a season 4 question, but I assumed season 5 would explain it. How did the Demogorgons get to Russia? How did Hopper get to Russia? Did the Russian portal open into Hawkins?
I need Dustin to explain.
How did the Demogorgons get to Russia?
Same way they got everywhere else.
How did Hopper get to Russia?
I mean presumably they captured him after the incident where he was presumed dead.
They can just have the sequel take place in London. They’ll have to shut down the Russian bridge.
I liked many things, but man did they fumble the ball in so many ways this season.
For example, explaining important backstory in a Broadway stage play accessible to only like .1% of your viewing audience. Not only this, but then making that backstory inconsistent with established lore. Hawkins was, according to Hopper, a boring town where nothing happened. But now there were those supernatural murders years ago. I guess he just forgot.
I have many more criticisms for the season, but I’ll limit this to the finale here on out. The main thing is, just be consistent.
One gripe is where were the other creatures in the Abyss? The Mind Flayer is supposed to be a hive mind, but there were no demogorgons, demodogs, bats, or other alien creatures. It just seemed like the MF was hanging out on this planet by itself.
Another is, why isn’t everyone under surveillance after they lost El? Are we supposed to believe the military just let everyone go and isn’t looking for any sign that she could be alive? They e done that in previous seasons, hell that was the point of using the radio station to deliver coded messages. Now they gave up? Ok.
A minor one: I’d have thought that with facing death Mrs Wheeler would finally either work on or leave her failing marriage, but there didn’t seem to be any character growth after all.
That said, I liked that they killed El and that her sacrifice had meaning. It felt earned. I really hope they don’t undo that. The talk with Mike and Hopper was great.
Why are you trying to find consistency in the worldbuilding for this, it’s nonsense. Like, by all means enjoy it for whatever reasons, but logical and consistent lore and narrative is not one of those reasons.
Mythical worlds can still be logical. That’s why it’s called Sci-Fi.
Of course they can. But Stranger Things most definitely is not.
Another is, why isn’t everyone under surveillance after they lost El?
I mean they might be. But it’s also 18 months later and they maybe have just have one dude on it. Or standard NSA listening to all their conversations or something.
But honestly the original Hawkins experiment ultimately lead to a huge scandal (end of season 2 I think). Papa dies twice and is replaced at some point, but returns and dies. And of course this season is a whole quarantine and ultimately fails again. So this project has been funded at least three times and ultimately has nothing to show for it? At a certain point you just give up.
I have seen the play and the only part of the supernatural that anyone saw all died in the Creel house or were explained away as the ravings of a lunatic and finally covered up by the staff at Hawkins.
The only thing Hopper, Joyce and Bob Newbie saw were mutilated animals and unexplained radio noise, that all the adults explained away as a coyote.
Part of the Broadway play is a high school play that Joyce directed, while as a new kid Henry was in the play most of his interactions were with Bob Newbies Sister who ran away from home at the end of the play. Newbie’s Sister and Henry kept their romance a secret from everyone because her father did not want her dating.
To all the adults that you know from the TV show Hawkins was just a boring little town and pretty much everything that happened in the broadway play happened to characters who died or where part of the lab.
The play is an incredible experience and really does a great job of threading the needle of the show’s story. The play talked about what went on in that cave as for the reason the Creel family moved to Hawkins, but it really had Dr. Brenner moving things to make that happen.
As far as the life in the Abyss, the planet sure looked dead to me and I thought it was pretty clear that the kids were being used to reanimated the mindflayer. Something killed everything there.
Re Nancy Wheeler.
During the epilogue I believe all of these young adults have moved on. I believe Johnathan is an awkward filmmaker. I believe Steve coaches children. I believe Robin is just vibin in life. But I don’t believe Nancy.
Nancy started this series as the “preppy” girl and ended it as Ripley/Rambo. Leaving college made sense. She obviously wanted to be a reporter, so jumping right into reporting makes sense. But even as she says she’s happy about it… She isn’t. And maybe that’s part of her story. Maybe her story isn’t over.
I think we needed something more of Nancy. Maybe we see her trying school and trying reporting, but she doesn’t really feel at ease until discussing monsters with her friends, who seemingly have moved on.
It would be great if she just lied and embraced her Rambo side in a secret job like a sniper
I also got Rambo vibes from her with the bandana. Was also a bit ridiculous every time this ragtag bunch of teenagers invaded a military base and killed a bunch of soldiers with zero casualties and absolutely zero “holy shit, I just killed a man” reflection.
Seems like we’re going to get a Nancy Wheeler book soon. So maybe we’ll find out what’s in her head.
Re Kali/Eight/Eleven’s magic power sister.
I thought it was a bold choice to bring back Kali as part of this season. It was one of the big cliffhanger moments of season 5 volume 1. But… I don’t think it worked.
If you work backwards from the ending, it makes sense why you have Kali. She has illusion powers so Eleven’s fake out “I believe” ending can work. I like that ending. But what did Kali do during the series?
Well she convinces El the only way to end the cycle of monsters and torture is for them to die. And if you work backwards from that, that’s why Hopper has his “the only solution is to die” moment earlier in the series. It’s a parallel.
So Kali has a key purpose… But what does SHE actually do? They have another super powered person and she just wanders around until she dies.
I know she was a bit of a nihilist at that point on her life, but even as they’re putting together the final plan, she doesn’t have a part in that plan. Her death just doesn’t matter.
I want to believe as well.
The problem with Mike’s story is that Kali was in the lab that was the closest to the explosion she would have been killed before she could maintain the invisibility spell that hid El.
I have to hand it to the Duffers it was a nice touch.
Kali spent her life on the run robbing banks until she was captured to have her blood drained.
I didn’t see S3 or S4, and I was wondering who this random woman was in the background of every other shot.
I mean she was in season 2. It’s just that she was in the weird one off worst rated episode.
Bringing her back was a bold choice… I’m just don’t think it worked.
I saw part of S2. I remember there being several psychic kids at some point but I can’t recall anything else, or her specifically.
My fault for not bothering to catch up before watching the latest, of course.
I mean it was a bold choice to feature a character from a disliked backdoor pilot episode. The best thing to do would have been to just let everyone forget about it and move on. The decision to bring her back is odd, but if you’ve got a good reason then let’s do it.
But… It doesn’t seem like they did.
Like it’s not your fault at all. You saw the previous episode she was in, the one with the psychic kids. I could blame you if that character was mentioned at all in season 3 or 4, but they weren’t.
This would be like referencing something Superhero Bob did. Remember that speech he gave Will?
I don’t ultimately hate the decision, it was just kinda meh.
/boggle
The sister was introduced in E8 of an 9 Episode season. The dude saw that episode but doesn’t remember her. He then skips the next two seasons and is lost in S5.
YES IT IS FAULT…
Give me a break.
Ummm, if you saw pretty much all of S2, but dont remember it. You then saw none of 3 or 4…. you probably had no idea who Max was, who Henry was, who Vecna was.
How were you not completely lost in S5 and more importantly why did you bother seeing it?
Spouse is a fan, I watched in classic dad mode from a standing position behind the couch. I don’t think I’d seen Henry or Vecna before. I saw Max’s introduction I think.
Re Will.
So the obvious point of discussion, Will coming out. I’ve seen a lot of hate online about this. I’m assuming the issue is that we didn’t need a coming out scene in the middle of the world coming to an end story. Which I understand.
That being said I think it was a great scene, well told and well acted. We’ve had hints about it for at least a season or two, so it showing up in the finale made sense. Plus for Will’s character it was a great way to show his continued growth.
I do think it would have been great to have Will be a super sorcerer as part of the finale. I really think Vecna should have had Demogorgons and Demodogs attacking the party, only for Will to take them over. It would have made the fight cooler. It would have made the fight more believable. And it would have really shown how much stronger Will had become.
Second, I think they should have done something more with Will and Mike’s relationship. Previously Mike said, “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls”, which I really thought meant that he already knew and took their argument too far. Add to that Will basically confessing how much he loves Mike, but understanding that Mike will never love him the same way, but also Mike was completely oblivious. I’m glad they got a little extra heart to heart moment, but it probably could have been told a bit better to have it feel more realistic. I’m glad that Will came out and everyone’s reaction was supportive, that’s how it should be, but it just could have used a little more to feel more realistic.
I’m assuming the issue is that we didn’t need a coming out scene in the middle of the world coming to an end story
It did feel forced but I guess everyone has to come out sometime.
We’ve had hints about it for at least a season or two
It was hinted in the first season,when Joyce was speaking with the principal and she said something the lines of “the kids keep calling him gay” and the principal said “Well is he?”. I remember being pissed off at that response because it was realistic.
Previously Mike said, “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls”, which I really thought meant that he already knew and took their argument too far.
If you weren’t a kid back then you may not realize that calling people gay was a common insult. My friends said shit like this to me all the time.
I think demogorgons turning on the Mind Flayer because of Will would have indeed made the fight more believable, but I assume they just didn’t have the budget for that.
I have to assume Mike knew on some subconscious level, which is what led to that remark.
I kinda liked the ending, but unfortunately I was thoroughly bored through most of the season. There are just too many characters, the pace constantly stops to fit in a heart-to-heart that doesn’t affect the overall plot at all, and they are all immune to death and any other kind of lasting consequences. So many times I found myself rolling my eyes as the characters stop to have a chat about their feelings in the face of impending doom, but it always turns out great anyway, so I guess they know better than me. I wanted to like it because I really liked season 4, but this felt like a huge step down. There are so many plot holes and inconsistencies, which may not break the show, but it’s weird how it seems like the writers haven’t watched their own show sometimes. It’s not the worst thing ever though, there are some good moments here and there, and I’m happy it got an at least decent ending.
