The Season 5 finale marks the end of an era.

This article contains spoilers for the series finale of Stranger Things.

In 2016, when the world was first introduced to Stranger Things—the Duffer brothers’ hit Netflix fantasy adventure that follows a group of kids in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, as they try, repeatedly, to save the world from supernatural ruin in the 1980s—I don’t think anyone expected it to unfold into a nearly decade-long saga. Yet, here we are, with a fifth and final season officially in the books after its staggered release between Thanksgiving and the end of the year. With the finale episode, a two-hour special titled “Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up” that hit the streaming platform on New Year’s Eve, the world says goodbye to Hawkins and the lovable gang of kids we watched grow up within it.

Admittedly, the show has struggled to retain its prominence over the years, having plenty of breakout moments but also stumbling under the weight of industry strikes significantly delaying releases, the outpaced aging of its young cast, divisive writing and plot development, and even a supplementary Broadway play that critics, at least, definitely did not like. Still, Netflix has billed the end of Stranger Things as such a defining end-of-an-era moment that it even received a lucrative special-engagement theatrical release. But, after such a sprawling five seasons, was the destination worth the journey? To answer that question, we must first parse everything that happened in the supersized finale.

Let us first recall that, in Season 4, the supreme villain behind all of the bad things that have happened in Hawkins is revealed to be Henry Creel, who was the very first child experimented on at Hawkins Lab (“One”), and whose evil form the gang has dubbed “Vecna.” In Season 5, the gang—Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Will (Noah Schnapp), and Max (Sadie Sink)—are still trying to defeat Vecna/Creel/One (Jamie Campbell Bower), alongside their allies. Before the finale, Max, whose physical body has been in a coma while her mind has been trapped in Vecna’s mindscape, reunites with her body and her friends, and Will is revealed to be a “sorcerer” who is able to tap into Vecna’s mind, allowing him to control the hive mind Vecna uses to command his demogorgons and demodogs. However, this power is a two-way street: Sometimes Will is able to see Vecna’s planning and stop Vecna’s demo-goons, but sometimes Vecna can use this mental connection to infiltrate Will’s mind and spy on his friends and see their plans to stop him. Oh, also, Will finally comes out as gay. Hallelujah!

In the penultimate episode, Dustin figures out Vecna’s true plans: For the near-decade we’ve watched our onscreen pals explore the Upside Down realm, it was always thought of as a kind of opposite dimension. However, Dustin explains that the Upside Down is a “wildly unstable” “interdimensional bridge that rips through space-time” that is held together by “exotic matter,” whatever the hell that means. The unstable center of the exotic matter—which exists directly above the Hawkins Lab in the Upside Down—is a wormhole, a bridge that connects Hawkins to another world Dustin dubs “the Abyss.” Dustin theorizes that the Abyss is the “true home” for Vecna, the demo-goons, the Mind Flayer, and all the other evil supernatural entities we’ve encountered over the seasons. Vecna’s wish is to use the minds of the children he captured—which includes Mike and Nancy’s (Natalia Dyer) younger sister, Holly (Nell Fisher)—to amplify his powers so that he can merge the Abyss with the real world, all on the anniversary of the date when he first captured Will.

As if that weren’t enough, the gang also has to battle a human element in addition to a supernatural one: The military has put Hawkins on lockdown as cover for a new evil scientist, Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton), who is trying to resume the work of Dr. Brenner (or Eleven’s “Papa,” played by Matthew Modine) and reboot the program that created One, Eleven, and the other test children. Knowing that transfusing Henry’s blood into pregnant women is what created Eleven and the other supernaturally gifted children, Dr. Kay theorizes that all she needs to create more lethal Henrys is to repeat the process. But, after capturing Kali (Linnea Berthelsen)—FKA “Eight,” Eleven’s found-sister who appeared in Season 2—and using her blood to no avail, Dr. Kay sets her sights on capturing Eleven. Meaning, our telekinetic heroine has to come to terms with the possibility that the only way to end this nightmare for good is to die, in order to avoid becoming the tool that could create another supernatural-human weapon.

And that all brings us to the show’s two-hour finale, “The Rightside Up.” The gang has developed a plan to infiltrate the Abyss to stop Vecna and blow up the Upside Down on their way out, effectively destroying the bridge connecting all of the Abyss and the Upside Down to the real world. They must attack from all sides: Eleven and Kali (who was rescued from Dr. Kay’s capture by Eleven) use Max as a guide through Vecna’s mind to try to stop him and save the abducted children. Hopper (David Harbour) watches over Eleven’s and Eight’s bodies while they attempt that part of the mission from the sensory deprivation tank left in the Upside Down. Murray (Brett Gelman) also waits in the Upside Down with the explosives meant to destroy that bridge realm, while Erica (Priah Ferguson) and the gang’s newly recruited science teacher, Mr. Clarke (Randy Havens), post up at a watch point in Hawkins to monitor Dr. Kay’s movements and any incoming danger. The rest of the gang—Steve (Joe Keery), Robin (Maya Hawke), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Nancy, Dustin, Lucas, Will, Mike, and Joyce (Winona Ryder)—travel into the Abyss to stop the corporeal Vecna and save the bodies of the children.

Hopper ends up pulling Eleven from the tank a tad too early, causing Max, Kali, and Eleven to prematurely exit Vecna’s mindscape and leaving Holly and the children to try to escape themselves. Moments later, Dr. Kay and her goons end up capturing Max, whose body was hiding in Hawkins, while her subordinates in the Upside Down capture Kali and Hopper, who got Eleven to safety amid the chaos. Murray uses some of the C4 to blow up the military chopper and stop them from killing Hopper and Kali. Unfortunately, Kali gets injured in the kerfuffle and dies. Since their plan to stop Vecna in his mind had failed, Eleven gives Hopper what feels like a final goodbye as she goes to the Abyss to help the others defeat the corporeal Vecna.

As Vecna chases the escaping children, led now by Holly, in his mindscape, he must confront a painful memory. The memory reveals how Henry Creel obtained the powers that got him into the test program in the first place. In it, a young Henry finds an injured and paranoid man while exploring nearby caves, but when Henry tries to give him aid, the man shoots at him. The child-aged Henry nearly murders the man in self-defense. Forever scarred, and believing the man to be dead, Henry opens up a case that the man was clinging to and, within it, finds a piece of rock that looks like it comes from the Abyss/Upside Down. When Henry picks it up, the rock, a manifestation of the Mind Flayer, speaks to the boy and merges with his mind and body. The dying man warns the young Henry to “resist it” or “it will consume” him. Henry reaches an outstretched hand to the man but accidentally kills him with his newfound powers. Will, who sees this memory through his mental connection with Vecna, tells him that Henry was just like him, a kid that was “used” as “a vessel” by the Mind Flayer. Will tries to get Vecna to turn on the Mind Flayer, but Vecna rejects the sentiment, saying, “It showed me the truth. It showed me that this world is broken. That man is broken. It needs me and I need it. We are one.”

In the Abyss, the Mind Flayer surprisingly rises and comes to attack the gang just as Eleven arrives and begins to fight Vecna. The Abyss crew decides to help Eleven’s final showdown with Vecna by attacking the Mind Flayer with guns and grenades, a battle strategy they probably should’ve thought of years ago, considering how quickly and effectively it takes out the all-powerful evil they’ve been fighting for multiple seasons. Our heroes successfully defeat the Mind Flayer and Vecna, and rescue all of the children. Joyce hacks at a dying Vecna’s head, earning catharsis for all of the characters who were harmed by his actions as she chops it off, officially killing him. To the tune of Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” the gang ushers the kids back to safety in Hawkins while rigging the rest of the C4 to blow up the Upside Down, only to be ambushed by Dr. Kay and her military minions. Knowing what she must do, Eleven pulls Mike into her mind to share one last kiss and tell him goodbye (a scene set to Prince’s “Purple Rain”) before diving into the rigged explosion and disappearing alongside the alternate dimensions.

The rest of the finale takes place 18 months later: The militia is gone and Hawkins is no longer on lockdown, Steve has become a coach for Hawkins’ Little League baseball team and is teaching sex ed, Hopper proposes to Joyce, Nancy and Jonathan have been amicably breaking up throughout the season, and the OG gang (Lucas, Mike, Will, Dustin, and Max) graduate from high school. At graduation, valedictorian Dustin gives a rallying speech with Easter eggs tying back to the late Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn). In a somewhat uncharacteristic send-off scene with Steve, Nancy, Robin, and Jonathan—who I guess became best friends at some point?—it is revealed that Jonathan is going to film school at NYU, Robin is going to school at Smith, and Nancy dropped out of Emerson to take a job at a local paper. They all promise to meet in Philly, a central meeting point for all of them, to stay in touch.

The younger gang of friends, meanwhile, launches one last Dungeons & Dragons campaign, which includes glimpses of their future life. We see Dustin studying at an unnamed university, Lucas and Max finally going on their long-awaited movie date, Will meeting a guy, likely his boyfriend, at a bar, and Mike beginning to write.

Mike, dungeon master for this last campaign, tells his friends of one last theory about Eleven that he had realized earlier that day. He remembers that Dr. Kay and her cronies had aimed a device that suppresses Eleven’s powers at her when she died, meaning she wouldn’t have been able to use her powers to kill herself or pull him into her void. So, he hypothesizes that Kali had actually survived and together they had concocted a plan to make everyone think Eleven died, which involved Kali making Eleven invisible (one of Kali’s established powers) so that Eleven could get away, and creating an illusion of Eleven to serve as the version of her that “died.” Mike believes that Eleven is out there somewhere, living a peaceful life in a small town, safe from danger. When the gang asks Mike how they know it’s true, he simply responds that they don’t, but says “I choose to believe that it is.” Each member responds that they, too, believe, before tearfully putting their D&D character books on a shelf and walking upstairs, out of Mike’s basement where the show first began. But, before Mike exits the basement, Holly and her friends run down the stairs excited to try to play D&D themselves, signifying the start of a new generation (and a new Netflix spinoff opportunity?). Will watches them with a teary smile before closing the door to the basement.

What are we to make of Mike’s final theory? Fans have been debating it since the finale aired. On the one hand, it’s a nice thought, imbued with a sense of optimism. On the other hand, it could just be a coping mechanism, as Mike is still processing his own grief and looking for ways to make peace with his girlfriend’s possible death. Coming at it from purely a technical point of view, the theory doesn’t quite work—Dr. Kay’s devices that successfully suppress Eleven’s powers were themselves powered by siphoning Kali’s abilities while she was in captivity, so how they would work when Kali was not detained by them is a mystery to me. Still, I can’t begrudge anyone the feeling of hope!

Stranger Things Has Finally Come to an End. Did It Stick the Landing?

Overall, though, does the Stranger Things finale stick the landing? Eh. In many people’s opinions, the show had jumped the shark some time ago, amassing a decade’s worth of world building and a zany web of characters in the process. Which is to say: The odds were always going to be stacked against the sprawling show as it neared the finish line. Indeed, most of the finale felt too easy—like defeating the Mind Flayer in five minutes with zero casualties—and some things, like the truly random reappearance of Kali this season, felt contrived. But, no matter how many holes I could pick in the finale, Netflix is right about one thing: The end of Stranger Things is an end of an era, one in which ’80s nostalgia was all the rage, and sprawling fantasy shows signified promise, not ruined endings. There is something inherently satisfying about saying goodbye to characters (and actors) you watched grow up, and putting an end to a saga that has captivated your attention for such a long time. The Duffer brothers may not have made every right move in everyone’s eyes—and yes, the show probably should have hung up its hat a season or two earlier—but it’s never easy to say goodbye, a sentiment that the Stranger Things finale ultimately proved.

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