Over nine years. That’s how long it took to get five seasons of “Stranger Things.” I’ve been here every step of the way.
If you were to tell 11-year-old me that she’d be 20 years old, spending her New Year’s Eve watching the finale to her favorite show for nearly a decade, she would’ve said you’re crazy.
That’s exactly what I did; and I’m feeling a mix of things. Now that I’m out of the five stages of grief, I can talk about it.
Maybe it’s because I’m a “Game of Thrones” fan, but I was expecting a lot more death. In the most gruesome of ways, to be extremely honest.
In episode six of the latest season, Holly (Nell Fisher) is falling from the sky. The scene cuts off to Holly falling, and her sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer) seeing her.
Then, we get to episode seven, Nancy and her brother Mike (Finn Wolfhard) reunite. Nancy looks emotionally distraught, but Holly’s not with them.
It was at this moment that I thought the Duffer Brothers were deranged enough to kill a little girl, “Amazing Spider-Man 2” style.
I’m not complaining about the fact that beloved characters didn’t die. I love a happy ending more than shock value. I was just surprised. I knew it wasn’t going to be a massacre when the Duffer Brothers said there was “no Red Wedding.”
To those of you unfamiliar, the Red Wedding was single-handedly one of the most traumatizing scenes in all of fiction. Think about all of your favorite characters who’ve been there since the first episode, massacred in one fell swoop with no warning.
It taught me a valuable lesson that even the most beloved characters can be killed just for the hell of it. Since this was the last episode, nothing was stopping the Duffer Brothers from pulling something like that. So, I was on edge.
My first concern: single mother of six, Steve Harrington (Joe Keery). I’m going to be quite frank: if Steve had died, I would’ve needed to be sedated. Not just because he’s hot (but c’mon), but because he has had one of the best character developments ever. From a cocky playboy jock to a hero.
Let’s also give a round of applause for Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono). M.I.L.F. of the year. She saved her daughter, got sliced and diced by a Demogorgon and proceeded to save all of them again by putting the oxygen tank in the hospital dryer.
We look back at older seasons, and the little things like them all eating dinner at her house or her scolding them like her own children, are all heartwarming. She’s everyone’s mom. So when she heard over the hospital intercom that Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) was in trouble, she got out of her bed and saved them.
I have no clue where Ted Wheeler (Joe Chrest) went for the majority of this season, and I honestly don’t care. Neither did the characters, apparently, because basically everyone forgot about him. I’m reluctant to give him “Walk-em down Wheeler” status because, yes, he did fight a Demogorgon with his golf club, but he’s also annoying, and people are giving him way too much credit.
I heard that we get a glimpse of Karen and Ted’s past before they were married in the Broadway show “Stranger Things: The First Shadow.” The same goes for information on Vecna/Henry’s (Jamie Campbell Bower) past. This really, really grinds my gears. Why are you putting key background information in a niche Broadway prequel that no one sees? It’s not even that I don’t want to see it. I can’t. It’s just inaccessible.
Speaking of Bower, I knew him as Caius in the “Twilight” franchise and Jace in “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.” This man is such a bubbly person, but, for some reason, keeps playing insane and dark characters.
It’d be amiss not to talk about the actual ending of the show. What the hell was that?
The battle scene was perfect. No notes. Clear increase in battle IQ.
With the amount of montages in the last episode, you would’ve thought we were in the “Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt. 2” ending credits. The specific montage where we see glimpses of what everyone had lost had me in shambles. Then you have Robin (Maya Hawke) and Steve, who were really just there for the love of the game.
Listen, I’m not even that upset about the ending. But why could they not just give my girl El (Millie Bobby Brown) a break? Her happy ending was right there.
As I said earlier, I love a happy ending. This was not it for me. I wanted her and Mike together, happy and thriving. But no, because the Duffer Brothers just hate joy, I cried because Hopper (David Harbour) lost another daughter. I watched everyone’s reactions to her killing herself and I had to hear the “goodbye Mike” all over again.
I knew something was up when they defeated Vecna and there was still an hour left. For my own sanity, El’s not dead. I saw someone say she uses her powers to visit Mike, and that’s what I’m going with. Leave me alone.
She “died” to escape Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton), but what happened to them afterwards? Dr. Kay and her team just… left Hawkins? That’s a bit anticlimactic for a woman who was hunting a child.
Iffy (potentially A.I.) writing aside, it was overall pretty good closure. After 10 years, the actors have grown and are ready to move on, and so is the audience. Though I wished for a happier ending for the girl who carried it all, I’m going to take what I can get. Because I believe.
