Editor\u2019s note: This article contains spoilers for the series finale of Stranger Things.<\/p>\n
I remember the circumstances under which I watched most seasons of Netflix’s Stranger Things. Months after the first season\u2019s release, I was recovering from the worst stomach flu of my life my sophomore year of high school, so I decided to give the much ballyhooed show a try. Friends and family told me endlessly that I look just like the character Steve Harrington, a truth I fought for a while but now accept. Season 2 came out my junior year shortly before a water main break shut down my school for most of the week of Halloween, giving me time to binge it. As a college student interning in New York City, I saw season 4 reinvigorate the series after a forgettable third season (that might be why I can\u2019t remember what was going on in my life when I watched it) as Kate Bush\u2019s \u201cRunning Up That Hill\u201d became<\/a> the No. 1 song in the world decades after its release thanks to the show\u2019s masterful use of it.<\/p>\n Now a reporter at The Dispatch, I went to the apartment of my colleague to watch the series finale the day after Netflix released it on New Year\u2019s Eve, ending the nearly 10-year run of the show. Creators and brothers Matt and Ross Duffer had a big task ahead of them: They had to give a proper send-off to characters who meant so much to so many. Unfortunately, they did not quite do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of Stranger Things\u2019 core themes is the David and Goliath motif. Much like the hobbits in J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s mythology, which the series references multiple times, the small ones, the unlikely heroes, must find the courage to defeat much stronger enemies and save those they love. The nerdy core gang of Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will must stand up not only to bullies in the schoolyard but also monsters from another dimension who invade their town through the Upside Down, a parallel world to Hawkins, Indiana, where the show takes place. They do so with the help of Eleven, a young girl who gains telekinetic powers due to experiments by the U.S. government. These people, along with various minor characters, make up the heart of the small town that is besieged by enemies domestic (corrupt actors in the federal government), foreign (the Soviets), and interdimensional (the Mind Flayer).<\/p>\n The fifth season carries on this theme through Will\u2019s newfound powers\u2014which he uses to kill the monsters attacking his friends after Vecna, the main antagonist of the last two seasons, underestimates him\u2014and in the character of Holly, Mike\u2019s younger sister who demonstrates unexpected courage in the face of horrifying circumstances.<\/p>\n Another theme of the show is honesty and trust. After Eleven meets Mike early in the series, one of the first principles he teaches her is that \u201cfriends don\u2019t lie,\u201d and she adopts it as an absolute moral code. Even if they do so with good intentions, she still feels betrayed when people lie to her, such as in the third season when Mike, after the two start dating, tells a lie because he erroneously believes it is the only way he can save their relationship.<\/p>\n In the finale, Eleven\u2019s story ends ambiguously\u2014but both of her plausible fates betray at least one of the show\u2019s core themes. She learns that the government needs her in order to create more children with special powers, opening the possibility of creating another monster even if the party defeats Vecna and his master, the Mind Flayer. As the gang hatches a plan to destroy the Upside Down and sever Hawkins\u2019 connection with the interdimensional monsters, Eleven gets the idea to remain in the parallel world, leading to her death and an end to the possibility of more superhumans.<\/p>\n