Stranger Things Season 5 Finale THOUGHTS | Inspiration

**Originally written when Stranger Things Season 5 Finale aired on January 1st, 2026.**

I LOVE STRANGER THINGS. It is a phenomenal show, and I would even go so far as to say it is one of the greatest series ever created. Up there with Doctor Who and Arcane. The story is amazing. The characters are awesome and unforgettable. It gave us moments that will live on in our memories forever. Brilliant. Imaginative. A work of art unlike any other.

I ALSO LOVED STRANGER THINGS SEASON 5. It was fun. I’m happy I was able to see how it ends, and I am glad that they didn’t kill off Steve or Dustin. Will getting powers, Erica and the pie, Delightful Derek, Dustin and Steve’s breakdown and reunion, the Demogorgon attack on the military base, and the final scene of them playing D&D were the highlights of the season, for me. I enjoyed it. I almost cried. Stranger Things is one of the most inspirational shows I have ever watched, and I will take what I felt, what I saw, and what I learned to heart and use them to create my own worlds. It inspired my creativity like crazy!

BUT I DO STILL HAVE QUESTIONS AND ISSUES. I was hoping for so much more during this last season and the finale. For what it is, it’s good. It’s like we got the happy ending to the show, instead of the darker, bad ending most fans thought we were going to get. Here are some of my thoughts!

MY QUESTIONS and ISSUES with STRANGER THINGS SEASON 5

THE SEASON FELT EMPTY. Like, a lack of people and creatures empty. Yes, there were a lot of characters and soldiers, and in the first few episodes in the school, we saw kids and people roaming around. It did feel populated. But as the season went on, things began to feel desolate. Holly was alone, and the forest had no wildlife. The Upside Down had no creatures, no life. Dimension X was just barren and empty. The WSQAK had no people. Even when the soldiers were around, it looked like a handful of soldiers and not an entire army. With that said…

Where were the Demogorgons, Demodogs, and the Demobats? The Upsidedown and Dimension X had no monsters! nothing. It used to be dark, dangerous, and teeming with creepy crawlies lurking in the shadows. The air was thick and filled with spores. People needed to wear hazmat suits to even enter the Upside Down! There were Demos slinking around, bats flying in the air, among other unseen horrors that I imagine populated the Upside Down, outside of what we saw each season. But in season 5, there was nothing. We got what, like 5 Demogorgons and 3 Demodogs? Was that the whole population left in the Upside Down? Where did they go?

I BELIEVE THAT EL SURVIVED. Maybe not in the way that Mike described, but she had to have survived. They kept showing her kryptonite (the sound cannons) in those final moments. So how was she able to talk to Mike in his mind? That would not have been possible unless she was out of range of the sound cannons. After everything that happened, El deserved to be free of all the terror and pain. I wish she had ended up with Mike, but I like to think that he eventually found her again. Somewhere, in another time, when they’re adults, and Hawkins is just a long-forgotten memory.

VECNA AND THE MIND FLAYER died like little bit**es! It was cool, but I wanted more from the battle. It was too quick. And all Vecna did was reach, throw his arm, and force push. Rinse and repeat. And isn’t the Mind Flayer capable of thought? Didn’t it tell Henry, in the cave when he was a kid, to “find me”? Why was is running around like a dog chasing a chew toy? There was no thought, just a huge kaiju biting at the air.

WHY DID THEY NEED THE KIDS? Now, as I understand it, Henry needed them to open 12 more gates. That’s what I thought at first, at least? So when episode 7 ended, I thought he was about to snap the sh** out of these kids! I was like, welp, they’re all dead. But with the kids, Henry was able to merge the worlds, right? Which is why when El bi*** slapped Vecna out of the house, the merge stopped. Okay, I get that. But why 12 specifically? Was there a reason for that number? Like we can assume, but is it ever explained or mentioned? And why did he just have to posses them, whereas he needed to fold the sh** out of Chrissy and that reporter dude?

Oh, and what was the point of hooking them into the creepy hoses by the mouth? To inject Mind Flayer particles, because… why? The kids didn’t end up being controlled by the Mind Flayer, or Henry, like the flayed in season 3. Were the hoses there to supply power to the Mind Flayer, or to Henry? Also, why did the Mind Flayer just all of a sudden wake up in the final moments? Was it always dead? Did the kids bring it to life and cause the worlds to collide? What about the kids made them so specific that Henry needed them, and not just a bunch of random people?

Why pretend to be friends, and make believe, instead of going full on fu**ing villain mode and snatching people, and shoving them into a wall? Does making them believe in a dream make them less susceptible to escaping the mouth hoses? And he shoved Will into the wall several times, and never showed him a peaceful Alice in Wonderland world to keep him there? So why not just snatch up some kids, maybe a few adults, and just have the Demogorgons shove their a$$es into the Mind Flayer by force, like they did with the flayed in season 3?

Why go to all that trouble? Vecna and the Mind Flayer were more efficient when Billy was under their control. And if he knew El and company were such a threat, why not just scoop up Will, El, Mike, Dustin, Robin, Steve, and the whole crew and shove them into the Mind Flayer wall with hoses? Threats neutralized! But he kept letting them go!

WHERE WAS THE TRAITOR? I was waiting for the moment when it was revealed there was a member of the party that wasn’t on the up, and up, you know? Not just Will as a Spy, but a full-on villain reveal that one of their closest companions had just sold them out, for whatever reason. I thought it was going to be Kali, of course. But that was too obvious! So I thought maybe Robin, or Will, the whole time, Icky Vicki, or Max, seeing as how she was in Vecna’s head for so long, that maybe it scrambled her noodle a bit too much. Who was the traitor? Was there even any betraying being done? And did the Duffer brother’s actually say there was a traitor, or was that just one of those irritating fu**ing Tiktok rumors that people spread around for clicks? I hate that sh**.

SO EVERYONE IN THE UPSIDEDOWN FACILITY died, right? The remaining soldiers and all the pregnant women? Just gone. Oh, and why were they able to just chill in the Upsidedown, no problem, when it was a horribly dangerous place in the earlier seasons?

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TURNBOWS? I know they’re alive, I just think it’s funny that we never saw them again, and never alluded to them not being in the barn the whole time.

WHO IN THE F* WAS DOCTOR KAY? I was hoping that she would do a big villain reveal, explaining who she was and why taking up Brenner’s legacy was so important to her. Was she El’s mom? Brenner’s wife or sister? His once-upon-a-time assistant? But no. Doctor Kay was just another random Doctor, with no spoken or mentioned ties to anything, experimenting in the Upside Down because she wanted to? No explanation of how her crew survived down there. How did they get in there? How did they build a full-on fu**ing military base, without being absolutely mauled by Demogorgons and other Upside Down monstrosities? How did she get that tentacle, and what was it from (I thought it would be important later, but no)? How did she have the technology to weaken psychics like El and Kali, but Brenner never had it? Doctor Kay just did, because reasons.

WHAT HAPPENED TO OWENS? I’m pretty sure he was still alive. I guess he’s chillin with Argyle and Suzie, somewhere.  

WHAT WAS DIMENSION X AND THE MINDFLAYER? I heard they existed before the Upside Down, before Will was taken, before El force pushed the living f*** out of Henry. Right? So what the f*** is it? We never get an explanation. It’s just there, because it is. All this time, all this hype, and we never learn about what this mysterious realm actually is. Hell, we barely even know or understand what the Upside Down is! Also, I heard that Henry got his powers from entering Dimension X, and it changed his blood type, which is why he has powers. So… how come the entire cast, and the kids, that entered Dimension X never had their blood changed? I mean, even a line like, “This world has existed since before time began. Some call it paradise. Others have called it heaven and hell. We just call it Dimension X.” or some shit. And…

WHY WAS THE UPSIDE DOWN STUCK ON THE DAY WILL WAS TAKEN? What is the Upside Down? What kind of place is it that it would get frozen in time? Why did it freeze in that moment, and what power, what in-universe nonsense caused it? Why? Is it a snapshot? Does it have to do with Vecna and the clocks? Why is it frozen in a specific moment? Yes, Will was taken that day. Cool, noted, I get that. But why is it an echo of Hawkins? Why does it mirror the real world? Why are the lights affected in both worlds? And why do the Demogorgons have the power to teleport at will through the Upside Down? Is that a Dimension X power, or something that the Mind Flayer and Henry gave to them? So why don’t Henry and the Mind Flayer just teleport through and wreck people? I mean, it’s crazy that we spent so much time exploring this mysterious realm, and we never got an explanation on what it is or how it actually or theoretically works. But, there is exotic matter there for some reason that can destroy everything, because? Once again, it just is. Why does the Upside Down exist? What is its purpose, and how could El create it by shoving Henry into Dimension X? And why didn’t, say, El doing the same thing to the Demogorgon at the end of season 1, create another Upside Down space, like the Sideways or something?

WHY WAS THE FIRST SHADOW stage play so important? It introduced Hopper and Joyce as high schoolers who knew Henry back then. That Henry was flayed by the Mind Flayer. That Henry fell in love with Pattie Newby, and Patty is still alive somewhere. Yet, we never touch on it in the show?! Hopper and Joyce never acknowledge that they knew Henry! Patty is never mentioned or seen. In the final episode, Henry himself says he was never flayed, that they are “One,” but the stage play shows he was actively fighting the Mind Flayers’ control and did horrible things under its influence. Aside from the cave and Henry finding the Russian spy with the briefcase, what was the point of adding the lore of the stage play when it had almost no bearing on the actual show?! Cool? Yes. A nice addition to the Stranger Things world? Absolutely. But you could watch the show with no idea about the First Shadow and be all right.  

WHAT I WANTED TO HAPPEN

EDDIE COMES BACK. Or at least allude to what Vecna said about the people he kills being alive in his mind. I know, Eddie wasn’t coming back. He’s gone, and it has always been wishful thinking. But I loved the idea that people had of him being Kas, being turned into a Vampire, and helping them defeat Vecna somehow. It’s cheesy, doesn’t work, but I’d still love it.

THE SOLDIERS TO HELP OUT. Did they ever see Henry, or realize that El wasn’t the one taking all the kids? One thing about Stranger Things is that they never explain sh** toanyone else! Like Eddie. Yup, he’s part of a cult, and everyone will roll with it. El is taking kids and killing people? Sure, let’s roll with it. Let’s never reveal what’s actually happening to the soldiers or the world at large. I mean, if they knew El wasn’t an imminent threat and knew that Henry was alive, would they have helped them? I mean, they wanted Henry’s blood, so there would be a conflict of interest at some point. But Doctor Kay and the army never even learn that there is a dude named Vecna or that the Mind Flayer is a thing! It’s infuriating.

I HOPED SOME OF THE THEORIES WERE RIGHT. Two of the most interesting ones that I found, that I would have liked to see happen, were Will/Vecna or us being flayed.

VECNA TO TAKE THE BULLIES OUT. We got such a horrific scene of the jocks wailing on Dustin. And we never return to it? They never have any consequences? Everyone is just like, well, Dustin provoked them, he deserved that beating. It’s just good ol’ Dustin being all kinds of crazy. No, fu** that! The bullies were a-holes, and they deserved something to happen to them, in the same way Scott did in season 4! Or at least have the other characters say something to the jocks, or stand up to them in the very least for beating the ever loving sh** out of my boy, Dustin.

AN ONSCREEN TEAM UP WITH EL, KALI, AND WILL. I remember a shot in promotional material of El, Will, and Kali standing together in front of a gate. Maybe it was AI or a fan edit, but in either case, I wanted that moment to happen! To see them combine their powers, together, in a moment of unity. To also show that Vecna was such a huge threat that he couldn’t be taken on alone. Yes, Will did jump in at the end, but he should have been by El’s side. And Kali should have died in a battle, and not some accidental gunshot wound.

I WANTED A PROPER FULL POWER VECNA AND MIND FLAYER. I saw someone show a TikTok of Magneto on a train in X-Men First Class, and I was hoping for some crazy psychic shenanigans like that! The final battle was similar to the battle with the Mind Flayer in season 3, in Starcourt Mall. But I feel like there was more visual tension, stakes, emotion, and dynamic fight choreography in season 3, and the presence of the Mind Flayer had more gravitas in season 3. Whereas the Mind Flayer in season 5 was kind of just a crazy Kaiju.

I feel like Vecna should have had the ability to control or capture the kids (adding more tension and perhaps adding more power to Henry’s abilites), thus causing the worlds to continue to collide (adding a ticking clock), while fighting off El and Will, and also defending the Mind Flayer with his telekenisis by force pushing, blocking attacks, and almost killing the rest of the group. I wanted to see him go nuts!

Maybe I am grossly overestimating his powers, but we did see Henry having the ability to take over people from far away! So, in this battle, partially have Henry taking over the others, Chrissy-style, while they fight off the Mind Flayer, but on a grander scale, maybe snatching two or three of them at the same time.

Oh, and while this is all going on, he summons a horde of fu**ing Demogorgons, Demobats, and Demodogs! I’m talking Lord of the Rings Helm’s Deep sh**, and this is where the military comes in. Guns blazing, fighting off the Demo-horde with fire, tanks, guns, with utter chaos unraveling, like the Demo attack in Season 5 episode 4, but on a larger scale. All the while, Hawkins is showing cracks, streets, and buildings crumbling! We see people running and fleeing! It’s a moment where the people of Hawkins, the Bullies, and the world cannot ignore that something “strange” was unfolding. They played off (played on?) Vecna’s plan was to destroy the world. Make the final battle feel like a world-ending moment that the whole world can see and feel!  

AND, and?! Right, while all this craziness is going on, we see Will snapping Demos left and right, but also see him take control of a few other Demo-creatures, seeing through their eyes as he uses them to defend his friends! The Will-Demos save people, collide and die with other Enemy-Demos, only for Will to flick his hands and take over a few more Demos! His nose is bleeding, his eyes are flooded white, and we wonder if this dude is going to die using his powers to save El and his friends? Because that’s something else we never saw in the show: what happens if they use their powers too much? A nose bleed, yeah. But what if they pushed, if they kept using their powers? Plus Ultra, you know? How far could they go, and would their eyes bleed, their ear bleed, their bodies begin to shake and convulse, or even break?

And I get it. Story, time, and budget constraints. I get the reality of the situation, and the hoops and other red tape that might have kept them from doing something more. But I am just speaking about wishful thinking.

I feel like while everyone was fighting the Mind Flayer together, they should have been the ones who opened a hole for El to use, to get inside to Vecna. The worlds should also have continued to collide, giving a sense of dread and an actual timer. Vecna should have taken the kids, had them in his power, and forced the worlds to collide while El was fighting him.

All of Hawkins and the world should have felt the impact and gravity of this final fight, the same way the ending of season 4 did when the town split into 4. Compared to the final battles in previous seasons, the finale, like the rest of the season, felt smaller in scale and less threatening. I would go so far as to say Hawking should have been destroyed in the aftermath, thus deleting the Upside Down and the cursed town. Shady Sands Fallout style, if you know what I mean?

CLOSING THOUGHTS

What are your thoughts on Stranger Things Season 5? What did you think was going to happen? Do you feel like this was a satisfying end to this beloved show? It was an okay ending. I will admit, it did make me sad. I teared up a bit, and despite my favorite characters surviving, Stranger Things still left a hole that made me depressed, in a good way. I will rewatch it from time to time, maybe each year before New Year’s. Just like Christmas movies playing in the background to set the tone for the Christmas holiday season, Stranger Things will live on in my household as a show playing in the background during December. My family will play seasons 1-5 throughout December. And on New Year’s Eve, every year from here on out, it will be a tradition to play Stranger Things just before the New Year. It is sadly over and done. But it will be a part of our lives forevermore. I, for one, am heartbroken that it has come to an end.