Spoiler Warning for Stranger Things Season Five
While “Stranger Things” season five brought an end to the series and attempted to answer many of the questions left by the near-decade-long series, it may have left more questions than answers.
Between the Turnbow family being left to rot in a barn after being drugged and kidnapped and the “Never Ending Story” of Dustin and Suzie seemingly coming to an end off-screen, many fans were left disappointed by the lack of resolution for many storylines.
Some fans were convinced that the abundance of plot holes couldn’t possibly be a mistake. This belief spawned a viral conspiracy theory known as “#conformitygate” on social media.
Though the theory differs by source, the basic story goes that Vecna was using his powers to put Mike in a trance and that none of the last episode was real. The theory convinced many that a secret episode was still yet to come and got so big that it was addressed in a sketch on Stranger Things cast member Finn Wolfhard’s episode of Saturday Night Live.
This rapture-like belief in a secret episode indicates that, if nothing else, people are still clamoring for answers.
Here are three of the biggest remaining plot holes and an attempt at an explanation.
Explainable: Lack of Arrests
After Eleven’s apparent suicide in the rift to the Upside Down, we never see any further interactions with the military. Life goes on for the gang as they try to process the loss of their friend and move out of Hawkins.
Except, didn’t Hopper and Nancy gun down multiple soldiers in an attempt to get back into the Upside Down?
Why would the military just let multiple people who repeatedly and purposefully impeded on a secret government operation just walk away? The answer may simply lie in the fact that it was a secret.
The group had knowledge of the experiments on pregnant women, the MKUltra-inspired operation and the Upside Down as a whole. After going through the effort of covering up the destruction of the Starcourt Mall and the opening of rifts all over Hawkins as a fire and an earthquake, would the government really risk the scandal that could have spawned by that information getting out in a trial?
A simple non-disclosure agreement, as alluded to in season two, seems like a fair enough explanation. Still, the series taking the time to actually explain it would have been a welcome addition.
Iffy: Malted Milkshakes at Melvald’s
Will’s coming out scene has received criticism for multiple reasons, with some reasoning based more in homophobia than the writing.
One part of the actual writing of Will’s speech that caught some viewers by surprise at a second glance was when he recounted a memory of “biking to Melvald’s for malted milkshakes” with the rest of the party.
The only problem? Melvald’s was no longer a diner by the time the party was growing up like it had been in the 50s. It had been turned into a general store in time for Joyce to be employed there in 1973 as a clerk and enough of a history to notice a downturn in foot traffic following the opening of Starcourt Mall.
Many took this as evidence of “#conformitygate,” with the prequel play “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” being used as further justification.
Melvald’s as a diner was a set design in the play, where Henry/Vecna visits and kisses a girl. With Vecna and Will sharing a connection, some believed that Vecna was still using Will as a spy and was pretending to be him. The milkshake memory was one of Vecna’s memories.
This theory falls apart when you realize little of the play is used in the plot for the rest of season five.
Despite the Duffer Brothers calling the play canon, the plot is largely ignored for convenience in the writing of the actual show. That is likely why Joyce and Hopper never realize that they were high school classmates with Henry and explains the age gap of the Wheeler parents being completely forgotten in the play.
The explanation as to why an impossible memory made it into the monologue is more likely based in shoddy writing rather than deeper meaning.
Unexplainable: Demogorgon Disappearance
After traveling to the Abyss, the group engages in the final battle of the series against the Mind Flayer/Vecna. They do not have to fend off any iteration of demogorgons, demodogs or demobats, who are oddly missing.
In an interview for TheWrap, Matt Duffer explained that their absence was because “Vecna was not expecting this sneak attack on his home turf,” before adding that there is not an abundance of demogorgons in the Abyss as some might believe.
This excuse comes off as just that; an excuse.
If there is a lack of demogorgons, where did Vecna get three at the end of part one? How about all the demodogs underground in Hawkins in season two or the demobats that killed Eddie in season four?
An easier explanation may have been to just say that the demogorgons had been absorbed to form the Mind Flayer’s physical figure, reminiscent of the monster in season three.
Instead, they were simply absent with no signs of being called for assistance. There is no in-universe reason as to why Vecna could not have called for backup.
In what was supposed to be the biggest battle of the series and climax of a five season long-war, the creature who started it all was MIA and explained away with a lazy excuse that crumbles under even minimal inspection.
While many of the plot holes can be explained away with common sense, this is one of the few that has no clear and reasonable explanation.