It seems like only yesterday the first four episodes of Stranger Things season 5 arrived on Netflix, and yet we’ve somehow already reached the end of the road.
Netflix’s global phenomenon comes to an end in Stranger Things season 5, episode 8, “The Rightside Up,” which watched as the Hawkins crew rode off into the Upside Down for their final battle against Vecna. Heading into the finale, it was clear that certain characters were in more danger than others with Eleven, Hopper, Kali, Henry, and Steve at the top of fans’ minds as the most likely candidates to perish in the series finale.
These concerns came with good reason, but were the concerns justified?
Below, we break down the deaths which occur in the Stranger Things series finale, as well as the characters who have close encounters with death but ultimately survive. Needless to say, there are spoilers ahead.
Who dies in the Stranger Things 5 finale?
Heading into the finale of Stranger Things we expected that at least a few characters would have to die. As our watch began, things started slow, with no characters dying immediately within the finale. However, once the episode got going, there are a few major deaths that left us speechless.
Lt. Robert Akers
The first big death of the finale is Dr. Kay's right-hand man, Lieutenant Akers. Leading a search for Eleven and Kali, Akers and his men eventually find Hopper and Kali and press the pair for answers on Eleven's whereabouts. When Hopper refuses to tell him where Eleven has gone, Akers prepares to shoot Kali as Murray throws a bomb at the helicopter in the lab, creating an explosion that sends Akers and his men flying back and takes out the sound device that is rendering Kali powerless.
The explosion causes him to fire a round off, shooting Kali as Eleven then enters the room. Seeing her sister injured, Eleven uses her powers to turn Akers' gun against him and fires off a round into his head, killing him instantly.
Kali
Heading into the finale, Kali's plan was to go down with the Upside Down. We expected that she would be one of the finale's deaths and we were correct. However, her story came to an end in an unexpected way.
After being captured by Akers and his men when rendered powerless due to the military's sound devices, Kali was held at gunpoint by Akers as he pressed Hopper for information on where Eleven had escaped to. Before he could take aim, the bomb went off leading him to shoot her in the stomach. Sadly, the injury is too severe for her to survive, and Kali ends up dying as a result of the gunshot wound.
Henry/Vecna
Heading into the finale, it was expected that Henry would not make it out alive. That was indeed the case as our heroes managed to defeat Henry and stop his plan to merge the worlds. Henry's death ended up being much more gruesome than we expected, and his death came at the hands of an unexpected character.
During the final battle, Eleven and Henry face off head-to-head in his lair from the Abyss. Eleven is able to ultimately overpower her brother, and impales him on one of the jagged teeth within the cave. That's not how he dies though. Enter Joyce who finishes the job by delivering a series of blows to Henry's neck with an axe that eventually severs his head from his body.
Eleven
Heading into the final episode, there was a growing fear that Eleven would not survive the final battle with Vecna. It seemed that Eleven was going to go along with her sister's plan to remain in the Upside Down to bring an end to this cycle once and for all and that was indeed the case.
After defeating Vecna, Eleven and the team loaded into the box truck to return to Hawkins before the bomb went off in the Upside Down. Upon returning to the Rightside Up, the Hawkins group was rounded up by Dr. Kay and her men, but in the chaos Eleven somehow made it into the Upside Down.
Eleven brought Mike into the Void, where she made it clear she was going to go down with the ship. In a tear-filled goodbye, Eleven asked Mike to thank their friends for embracing her as they had and then professed her love for Mike. After a passionate kiss and heartbreaking goodbye, Eleven cast Mike out of the Void. He and the others then watched as the gate was closed forever as the Upside Down was destroyed, with Eleven taking her life by remaining in the Upside Down when the bomb went off.
Technically speaking, Eleven did die in the series finale. However, in the final moments of the series, it's implied that Eleven did not die after all.
In a monologue from Mike, he mentions how Eleven should have been impacted by the military's sound devices but somehow she was not. He then tells the group a story of how before Kali's death, she used her abilities to cast an invisibility spell on Eleven allowing her to escape the Upside Down. Kali then projected a vision of Eleven within the Upside Down gate, making the world think Eleven had died when the Upside Down vanished. We then see a shot of Eleven reaching the top of a cliff overlooking three waterfalls, hinting that she indeed survived and got her happy ending, even if not the one fans might have been hoping for.
As for fake-out deaths, there are a lot of near-death experiences in the final battle, which was to be expected. There's no one character in particular who has a big fake-out death this time around. Rather there are just moments when our heroes find themselves in danger while trying to survive the final battle with Vecna. The biggest fake-out death of the episode is Eleven's death, which does leave room for interpretation, despite being heavily implied that Eleven does not die in the Upside Down.
Stranger Things is streaming now on Netflix.