Fans held their breath on January 7, and their eyes were glued to the screen as they reloaded the Netflix homescreen, clinging onto one hope: a secret final episode to Season 5 of Stranger Things would drop. Was the finale really fake? As the clock struck 12 A.M, January 7 ended with the disappointed faces of countless people. There wasn’t any hidden ending: the Duffer Brothers were merely bad writers. The Duffer Brothers promised a rollercoaster of an ending, and gave us a toddler choo-choo train to ride. Excitement seemed to be removed from the Duffer brother’s vocabulary, queer representation was ruined, once again, and the characters we’ve come to cherish were thrown away. The shining seed that Stranger Things was planted from sprouted to a gnarled, flopping plant. Disappointment ran through me as I watched the ending. It sucked.
As the finale rolled out, unanswered questions hesitated in the air. The plot twist we waited for never arrived: where were the promised deaths and heart-pounding sequences? Steep buildup over the seasons heightened to a teetering cliff, only to leave fans dissatisfied with the most predictable, uneventful ending that could’ve been written. Plot armor had enveloped the characters, padding us from feeling strong emotions for them. The lack of deaths wasn’t about fans wanting characters to die — it was the unrealistic number of survivors that shattered the screen that separated fantasy from reality, and breaking the promise the Duffer Brothers made of a dark Christmas and emotional New Years. I didn’t shed a single tear during the finale. The emotional outburst I was worked up for never arrived, leaving my pent-up emotions splattering over social media in the form of theories and rants.
Stranger Things’s queer representation was also snuffed out during the last season. The light of having queer rep in a mainstream show made many people hopeful for Mike and Will’s quiet flame to grow into a blazing heart. However, the finale of their wavering relationship was terminated during the finale. Many queer ships have remained docked in other forms of media — including various popular TV shows — but Stranger Things could’ve changed that. It could’ve created hope for young queer people. It could’ve proven that gay relationships were valuable, but it was instead used as a tool to string viewers along.
The characters were also reduced to mush as their personalities surfaced to encompass just a few shallow adjectives. Robin was, frankly, lobotomized. Her sassy attitude bubbled up to be ditzy, awkward, and reminiscent of a 2000s sitcom “quirky” character. Steve and Dustin were also twisted around and inside out, completely out of character. Steve was also soured, his bitter feelings seeping into how he treated Dustin and Jonathan as the two fought in the face of world-endangering threats. What were supposed to be two maturing men embodying courage and perseverance turned into two immature boys arguing about puddles whilst swimming in an ocean.
I still hold Stranger Things dear to my heart despite the ending. I remember how the first season swept me off my feet into the world of Hawkins and how I felt like I was growing up with the characters. Whenever they faced danger, my heart raced along with them. I celebrated their victories, cried about their failures, kicked my feet at romantic scenes, and cherished the memories I created with Stranger Things. It was the love I had for Stranger Things that drove my hatred for the ending. Dissatisfaction welled up in me as the final episode came to a close. The ending had to be fake. The Duffer Brothers’ writing couldn’t be that bad, right? Unfortunately, it really was that bad.
Personally, I believe in Conformity Gate: the ending really was fake, and Vecna had twisted the ending, manipulated our minds. Somewhere out there, Will and Mike got their much deserved ending, Jane is alive, and nobody lost their spark. Somewhere out there, they’ve escaped Hawkins and right now, are hiking up a verdant hill to see three vast waterfalls, spraying their shining faces with hope for a new start.
