After a decade, Stranger Things has finally concluded. It really was the end of an era, and I don’t believe the show will ever be truly replicated or matched in vibe or execution. That said, I was disappointed with the finale. There was a lot of wasted potential, it felt overall sloppy and rushed, and I was just expecting so much more. There were some good parts that I’ll talk about, but this season and finale just let me down. For the last time, SPOILERS AHEAD and let’s dive in.
Starting off with my biggest critique: the details. Something that made Stranger Things so good and intense in the past were the little details like the vines in the Upside Down moving in every shot, or the intense music in fight scenes, or the characters’ facial expressions when they’d realize something went wrong, etc., etc. That was definitely lacking in the finale. Honestly, I felt like a lot of elements were lacking. For instance, everyone goes into the Upside Down and it’s just not scary? The vines aren’t moving, there are no monsters in sight, and the melted lab to me looked a little too fake, if you know what I mean. There were definitely details that the creators skipped over and not only in the set design.
The biggest let down of the finale was by far the fight scene between the kids and the Mind Flayer/Vecna. This fight has been built up for a decade, these are supposed to be the hardest opponents the crew has ever faced. Don’t get me wrong, the Mind Flayer looked great, intimidating and very well animated. I’m still reeling over the fact the fight was over in 10 minutes. Let’s take a moment for that. You mean to tell me that the strongest enemy (two by the way at once) was defeated in…10 minutes? IT TAKES LONGER TO KILL ONE DEMOGORGON!!!! I’m sorry, but that just makes no sense.
There are so many questions with this fight scene — and plotholes, because there’s no explanation. For instance, how did Nancy manage to outrun essentially a mega spider and not die in the process? Why did bullets affect the Mind Flayer at all? How did they all get up the canyon that fast? Did Vecna give the Demogorgons a vacation? That last question is what really throws me because they were fighting on the monsters’ home turf. This is where they ORIGINATED, yet there isn’t a single thing around other than these two enemies. And the second one gets hurt, the other monsters aren’t alerted? There’s just no way, and that’s what I’m talking about when I say the finale fell short. This wasn’t a small detail that could just be missed, this was a huge plothole that other people have commented on as well. My final comment on the fight scene and a plothole was that Will somehow doesn’t feel any pain from the hive mind even when he’s IMPALING Vecna? Explain that. The fight scene between Vecna and Eleven was fine, but it wasn’t that good.
Another thing I would like to discuss is the lack of deaths in this season. I talked about it in my two previous articles as well, but I’m frustrated with the refusal to kill anyone who holds value this season. They killed Kali, and while that was an important character death, the audience hasn’t seen her since Season 2 in one of the most hated episodes of the series. She didn’t hold much, if any, emotional weight and making hers the emotional death fell flat for me. Eleven’s “death” would have carried a lot of weight if it wasn’t “left up to interpretation” and Steve’s fakeout death was just annoying. Time and time again this season characters have come close to dying, and then it’s like “Sike! Haha, nah, they’re fine, close one though did you fall for it? No but really, did you?” It lowered the stakes so much, and for a show previously not afraid of death it was disappointing to see this route.
I know that was a lot of bad, but there was some good. I actually really enjoyed the Epilogue, I thought it was a good way to send off the show. Dustin’s graduation speech was perfect, the hypothetical endings for the main cast all sit well with me, and the reunion of Robin, Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve was sweet (by the way, where did Vickie and Murray go? Once again, details!). Hopper proposing to Joyce was adorable. I truly wouldn’t change anything about the Epilogue. The ending of passing the torch to the next generation to play D&D was heartwarming and nostalgic, and a perfect closing shot. The epilogue was by far my favorite part of the season.
Overall, I’m sorry to say this was a pretty negative review. I feel like if they had the stakes and details of the Season 4 finale I would have loved it, but instead I’m just left annoyed and sad. I truly love this show, and I’m sad to see it end this way, but it will always hold sentimental value in my life.