This article contains spoilers for “Stranger Things” season five.
After almost 10 years of nostalgic adventures and excessive plot armor, the series finale of “Stranger Things” premiered on Netflix on Dec. 31, 2025.
The feature-length episode of just over two hours brought the story to a semi-ambiguous conclusion, implying that Eleven faked her death inside the Upside Down and was still alive.
The Duffer Brothers, the creators of the series, also hit on many of the major questions left for the final half of season five. We discovered how Vecna or Henry Creel got his powers, and in a full circle moment, we saw Joyce Byers kill him by decapitating him with an axe.
The existence of the Upside Down is also explained as a tunnel of the worm hole located between Earth and the Abyss, which is introduced fully this season.
Will’s connection to the hive mind is further played with, showing him hack into Vecna’s mind and control his actions to save Max (who is also brought back from her coma).
However, many questions were left unanswered, and further plot holes were created that took away from the viewing experience for many.
Will’s connection to the hive mind not affecting him in the final battle was one of the plot holes, as a major plot point found throughout the second half of season five was completely ignored in that sequence.
After the expansion of the Demogorgon to include dogs in season two and bats in season four, no form of the creature is seen in the final battle as they completely abandon the Mind Flayer and Vecna whom they are controlled by.
The unexplained endings of side characters such as Suzie and Vickie also left some feeling shortchanged by where the show left off for some of their favorite characters. The basic plot and outcomes outside of the glaring plot holes, however, leave the story in a fine place.
Seeing Robin and Vickie break up or continuing a now three-season-old plotline of Dustin having a long-distance relationship (that hasn’t been significant to his individual character development since season three) would have been inconsequential. These holes were not as important as the scene where Jonathan Byers, Nancy Wheeler, Robin Buckley and Steve Harrington reunite as they return to Hawkins, Ind. after going their separate ways.
There is also an argument to be made that the inclusion of Demogorgons in the final battle would have distracted from the main fight against the Mind Flayer and Eleven against Vecna, even if it comes off as lazy more than as an artistic decision.
The first half of the episode is bare bones, to the point method of wrapping up the Vecna plot, removing the Mind Flayer as a threat and closing the book on the Upside Down.
The episode really thrives in the second act, in which it gives an emotional look at the characters’ lives after chaos and shows the kids graduating from high school to move towards adulthood. Joyce and Jim Hopper get married. Steve Harrington is a baseball coach with Delightful Derek as his backstop.
We get to see the characters who we fell in love with, the reason we cared about the plot, move on to bigger and better things. If you can get past the plot holes, it’s a sentimental and fitting ending that answers enough questions to satisfy.