{"id":448239,"date":"2026-05-18T20:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/448239\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T20:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:10:08","slug":"the-duffer-brothers-on-which-stranger-things-episode-they-wish-they-could-do-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/448239\/","title":{"rendered":"The Duffer Brothers on Which ‘Stranger Things’ Episode They Wish They Could Do Over"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stranger Things<\/a> wrapped up at the start of 2026, but Matt and Ross Duffer<\/a> are still being asked about it<\/a>. Frankly, they\u2019ll probably never escape their creation, especially with Netflix\u2019s determination<\/a> to wring every last drop of value out of the franchise. While the finale continues to be controversial (Can we all just agree that Eleven is dead<\/a> and move on?), the Duffers actually name a much earlier episode as the one they wish they could do over.<\/p>\n

That said, the episode in question does tie into the big Stranger Things endgame arc. It\u2019s episode 207, \u201cThe Lost Sister,\u201d which sees Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) flee on a side quest to Chicago, where she meets Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), aka Eight, a fellow Hawkins Lab escapee with psychic powers. While there\u2019s some instant trauma bonding, Eleven eventually chooses to return to Hopper and her friends rather than lend her talents to Kali\u2019s revenge scheme.<\/p>\n

Their clashing approaches to problem-solving resurface when Kali pops up during Stranger Things\u2018 final season. But speaking to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast<\/a>, the Duffers revealed that if they could go back in time, they\u2019d love to have a \u201csecond shot\u201d at crafting \u201cThe Lost Sister.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, let me just clear up some bullshit out on the internet [\u2026] it was never designed as like a spin-off shoot,\u201d Matt Duffer said. \u201cThat\u2019s gross. We would not do that. But I think the mistake was this idea of a bottle episode. I think if we had threaded it in more organically throughout the season, it would have worked. So it wasn\u2019t anybody\u2019s fault except ours. I think I just would have approached how we integrated Kali differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Ross Duffer, \u201cAnd Matt and I got so drawn into getting those last two episodes of season two written and prepping them because we were directing them. [Episode seven] just got lost in the shuffle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross also pointed out that they were \u201cracing\u201d to finish season two, which was \u201cthe only season that came out in an appropriate amount of time,\u201d nodding to the longer gaps that cropped up between subsequent installments.<\/p>\n

The experience of making \u201cThe Lost Sister\u201d and the way it was received taught the Duffers an important lesson: Stranger Things wasn\u2019t a show suited to bottle episodes. That said, they also tried to move on from the experience rather than retreating to a more familiar approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still remember coming in with the writers when we were on season three, and we\u2019re all a little bummed about it, because we\u2019re like, \u2018It feels like so many people are talking about this 40 minutes, and we did eight hours,\u201d Ross said. \u201cBut it kind of emboldened us. We were doing a big swing, and we knew it was a risk [\u2026] We all sat down and said, \u2018We can\u2019t be afraid now.\u2019 Because then the show [\u2026] it\u2019ll just be stale. It\u2019ll be like, rinse and repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo then we went and, you know, season three is a crazy season [\u2026] We were like, let\u2019s keep pushing the show [\u2026] It\u2019s not all going to work, but let\u2019s see what works and what doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stranger Things wrapped up at the start of 2026, but Matt and Ross Duffer are still being asked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,400,52092,411],"class_list":["post-448239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-netflix","tag-stranger-things","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}