I’m going to come right out and prop up a spoiler warning here for Stranger Things’ final season, particularly the eighth and final episode which aired on Netflix on New Year’s Day.
Right, with that out of the way, let’s discuss what happens in the finale, particularly with regards to what happens to Eleven, one of the show’s central characters.
As viewers will know, Stranger Things ends with Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, apparently sacrificing herself to ensure that her blood can’t be used to create another Vecna / Henry.
18 months later, we get a rather tearful farewell from the other kids who have met up following their high school graduation ceremony.
It’s here that Mike Wheeler, played by Finn Wolfhard, posits a theory: what if Eleven’s supposed death was actually an illusion created by Kali, another one of Brenner’s test subjects with supernatural abilities?
Mike’s theory suggests that Eleven was able to escape unnoticed by the military, allowing her to leave Hawkins and live the rest of her life in peace.
What actually happened is left up in the air for viewers to make their own minds up about, with the actual point of the theory not necessarily being about knowing what actually happened, but rather what you believe to be the truth.
Speaking in a new interview with Josh Horowitz (thanks, IGN), series creators Matt and Ross Duffer have confirmed that only they and Millie Bobby Brown know the truth.
“You're writing from a point of view of understanding what the truth is, right? And the reality is?” explained Matt Duffer.
“So yeah, Ross and I know. And we were just talking to Millie about it. But I think it takes away the power of the ending if you tell people what you were thinking as you were writing it.”
The Duffer Brothers also revealed that during the writing process, they explored an ending where Eleven and Mike had a “full happy ending”, but that they couldn’t find a way to make it work.
Given the number of plot holes already present in the Stranger Things finale (how are none of the characters in jail for murdering several members of the US military?), I can’t imagine this being a problem, but overall the ending the Duffers went with works best for the story.
Topics: Netflix, Stranger Things, TV And Film