The following story contains spoilers for the ending of Stranger Things. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n THERE IS SO<\/strong> much that happened in Stranger Things\u2014<\/em>not only in the Netflix smash hit’s recently-released fifth and final season<\/a>, but in the entire run of the show, which began way back in July 2016\u2014that you could probably discuss it with friends for a few hours. Over the course of its 42 episodes (told over the course of nearly a decade), the show introduced viewers to characters they would grow old with, along with several different storylines, worlds, and antagonists that would help the show become an undeniable pop culture phenomenon. <\/p>\n The final season of the show was as jam-packed and filled with stuff <\/em>as any other. As we’ve seen our characters evolve through the years\u2014kids become teens, teens become young adults, adults become… older adults\u2014we’ve also found our way into a story that needed to both conclude and tie up as many loose ends as possible. That includes items like what would become of Vecna\/Henry Creel<\/a> (Jamie Campbell Bower), the show’s ultimate big bad villain and mash-up of Darth Vader\/Freddy Krueger<\/a>\/Pennywise<\/a>, but also more thematic happenings too. Stranger Things <\/em>wasn’t just about a supernatural battle between monsters in a small Indiana town, but about how that battle and experience would change the people we met and grew to love from that small town. We couldn’t possibly get into the full scope of Stranger Things, <\/em>or even the full scope of the show’s blockbuster-style final season in just one short article. What we can and will get into, however, is the note the show ends on: the death of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and the “ambiguous” way in which the show seems to present it and how many have received it in the aftermath of the show. <\/p>\n In quick summary: As the main storyline of Stranger Things <\/em>wraps up (and after Vecna had already been defeated and beheaded by Winona Ryder’s Joyce Byers), Eleven makes the decision to remain in the Upside Down as it’s destroyed, ending her own life and killing the government-run program that would have otherwise continued with her blood along with it. It’s a crushing loss for our main characters, who have gotten to know and love this super-powered girl they found in the woods for years as she’s impacted all of their lives and made something special of her own.<\/p>\n As the show jumps forward for an extended epilogue\u2014a brilliant choice by The Duffer Brothers, who have shepherded this story from when it was just a pitch called <\/a>Montauk<\/a>, <\/em>to give each character a neat, well-explained ending and conclusion\u2014we also get a few vital scenes dealing with Eleven. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), who was always both romantically involved and the closest to Eleven, talks with Hopper (David Harbour), who was Eleven’s adoptive father, about loss. <\/p>\n Mike can’t quite come to grips with what happens, but Hopper has dealt with this kind of thing before; His daughter’s death destroyed him, and the Hopper we met in season 1 was a shell of himself because of it. He explains that he’s been torn apart and crushed by death before, and that the only way to not let that happen again is to take a deep breath and accept what happened. In the show’s concluding sequence, Mike\u2014who opened the very first season of Stranger Things <\/em>as the group’s Dungeons & Dragons <\/em>storyteller and master\u2014is once again leading a game, using the characters to explain where the show’s characters would end up going, and what would eventually happen to them; We see Max, Lucas, Dustin, Will, and Mike’s own futures all play out on screen. When he comes to the Mage (a stand in for Eleven), he explains a theory: The Mage isn’t really gone. In fact, she made a grand, complicated escape from the final battle, faking her death and escaping to live far away in peace and anonymity. The kids, understanding the code to what Mike is saying and doing, are all in tears by the time he finishes his explanation. Mike says it’s just a theory, and in short order, the game is over. In the aftermath of Stranger Things<\/em>‘s conclusion, many fans and viewers have wanted to believe that Mike’s story wasn’t just <\/em>a story. There’s a desire among some to believe that it was actually <\/em>what happened, and that Eleven was actually still alive. But I’m here to tell you that it’s not\u2014and that the show’s ending works best, and makes the most sense, if you do exactly what Mike did in that final sequence, and what Hopper told him to do slightly earlier: Accept that Eleven is gone. However you need to do it. <\/p>\n For our heroes, that meant presenting a theory they could believe in. Something that could make sense in their head, but would also never require ever hearing from her again. Something that wouldn’t hurt to think about, and that would put their minds at peace whenever a memory from that time in Hawkins arose. <\/p>\n But anyone who’s ever lost someone close to them could also understand Hopper’s advice\u2014there’s no point in wracking your brain and destroying yourself over and over thinking about what could have gone differently, or what different choices could have been made. What happened happened, and in order to move on and move forward, you have to accept it for what it was. For many of us going through a similar kind of loss, that can be really, really hard. Grieving, and thinking about someone who’s gone, and someone who we have really impactful memories with, is one of the most difficult things that anyone can do. It’s something we all have to deal with, and, eventually, it’s something we all have to move on from and accept. <\/p>\n The idea that Eleven is still alive and living in peace in a far away land is a nice one. But it’s hollow. It doesn’t involve the characters wrestling with any kind of difficult inevitability of life, and, more importantly, doesn’t ask the viewers at home\u2014who have grown with those characters\u2014to do the same. <\/p>\n The idea that Mike, who we saw clearly having the toughest time of anyone with Eleven’s loss, was able to cook up his story as his way to listen to Hopper and accept that she’s gone, and shared it with his closest friends in the world, is a powerful one. <\/p>\n The group didn’t necessarily believe in what Mike was saying literally (and in his explaining that they’d never know the truth, he’s admitting that he knows it too). The group’s tears in that moment meant more than just sadness that their friend was gone, or sadness reflecting on their own loss of youth, innocence, and time. <\/p>\n It was a visual, unspoken acknowledgement that the group of them, collectively, had realized that they’d cracked the code. They had found the way to accept what happened, and to finally move on. <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n![\"stranger](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/strangerthings-s5-0788-r-695d5a5247916.jpg?crop=0.752xw:1.00xh;0,0&resize=980:*\" "\\"hopper")
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<\/p>\n![\"stranger](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/strangerthings-s5-0821-r-695d59cdb37ea.jpg?crop=0.752xw:1.00xh;0.0204xw,0&resize=980:*\" "\\"millie")
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<\/p>\n![\"stranger](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/strangerthings-s5-1002-r-695d59fdb1471.jpg?crop=0.75xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:*\" "\\"finn")
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