Netflix’s most popular show, “Stranger Things,” which has around 1.2 billion viewers across the globe, came to a close as the show’s finale, “The Rightside Up,” was released on New Year’s Eve. The episode was two hours and eight minutes long, with its content leaving some fans angry and others satisfied. A popular opinion on social media is that a lot of questions were left unanswered by the writers. Fans speculate this may be due to the over two hours of footage that Netflix cut from the final season, or simply bad writing.
Some plot holes left in the series weren’t detrimental to the story’s ending, but others felt like they needed to be explained to fully understand how it ended. For us, two major plot holes include the role of the Mind Flayer and the other monsters in the Abyss, and why Will wasn’t affected by the harm to the Mind Flayer in the final battle.
For the plot hole concerning the monsters in the show, it was revealed in season four that the Mind Flayer has been the main villain, controlling characters like Vecna and even Will to carry out his plan to move the Abyss into Hawkins. This character’s first appearance was in season two, after Will returns from the Upside Down and has a vision of a large, shadowy creature standing over his school. This creature continues to haunt Will throughout the series, but is never fully shown until the finale, and this creature didn’t exactly live up to the hype. It wasn’t nearly as daunting as the shadow creature previously shown and was taken down way too easily by the kids. Another missing piece was the demogorgans, demodogs and demobats. All these creatures played major roles in the earlier seasons but when it came down to the final fight, they were nowhere to be seen.
As for the second plot hole, we see Will’s connection to the hivemind in season two, where his friends and family believe they exorcised it out of him. They were wrong, as we see signs of his connection in season three but not season four, as he was too far away in California. We saw this connection grow deeper with the revelation of Will’s ability to harness Vecna’s power at the end of Volume 1. One major issue with this plot is that they also show Will feeling the pain of the Demogorgons and Vecna throughout the show and in season five, but then fail to show any shared pain in the finale. Even though the group attacked not only Vecna but the Mind Flayer too. There are some speculations as to why this happened, but nothing has been explained by the directors, cast, or writers.
Some minor plot holes are also factors in the show, but they are mostly comedic rather than serious. For example, how did Max graduate with the rest of the party despite being in a coma for almost two years? Is Dereck’s family alive and well after being drugged and locked in a barn for days? How were there no legal consequences for their actions against the military? Or why did they have orange graduation gowns when their school colors are green and yellow? There are so many questions, yet very few answers.
Another critique of the finale was the lack of death for major characters. The Duffer brothers said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that “…we’re not trying to shock or upset anyone.”
The major problem with this is that when you’re writing a show, you can’t worry about pleasing all fans, especially not when it conflicts with the quality of the show. Every character is loved by someone, even characters like Billy and Vecna. Avoiding the deaths of major characters makes the finale feel unrealistic and the final battle less drastic or sacrificial.
Fans can only continue to assume that this reason is also why they wrote Eleven’s (El) supposed “death” the way they did. They show El sacrificing herself to the upside-down right after the big fight against Vecna, where Will and El used their abilities to defeat him. But, after graduation, with the party in Mike’s basement, playing one last game of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), Mike reveals his theory about El being alive with the help of Kali, otherwise known as Eight. That plot point allows fans to believe El is alive and living life somewhere else, again, showing the lack of death in the show’s finale.
Despite these negatives, we were mainly pleased with the finale as it felt like a strong, emotional closing chapter. One last D&D game in the Wheeler basement reflected exactly how the show started, and created a beautiful ending for fans to say goodbye to the show and the characters. The full circle moment allowed us to see how far the characters have come since their start on the show. Even with the finale not quite sticking the landing with some fans, it is believed that the actual goodbye scenes for the characters after the big battle were a perfect fit for the show and an amazing way to end the journey of each character.
Outside of the actual episode itself, two major things have happened. One is the conformity gate theory, and the other is the announcement of “One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5.” Conformity Gate was created by fans desperate for an alternate ending. They speculated that the Duffers created a secret ninth episode that would be released on Jan. 7. Fans began to hyper analyze the details from the finale to find any sign that the viewers had been trapped in one of Vecna’s illusions, just like Holly and the other kids were. Unfortunately, these fans were left disappointed as no episode dropped.
As for “One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5,” it is a documentary depicting behind-the-scenes clips from the creation of this season that will be released on Jan. 12. A lot is expected from this documentary, as the filming of this season took a year and involved the development of character arcs, music decisions, etc., that make season five what it is. The biggest hope for this documentary is that it will include some of the two-hour footage that they were forced to cut out from the show, and maybe fill in some of those plot holes left behind.
One thing to remember is that even though fans may not have loved season five, Stranger Things overall is absolutely remarkable and has made a significant impact on all of its viewers. The show goes far beyond entertainment as it emphasizes friendship, loyalty, bravery, and above all, the importance of being yourself, defining an entire generation of television.
