The moment Stranger Things fans have been waiting has finally arrived. The Stranger Things 5 finale, "Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up," premiered on Netflix and in theaters around the United States at 8 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 31.
The two-hour season 5 and series finale concludes the stories of Eleven, Will, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Hopper, Nancy, Jonathan, Joyce, and all the rest of these great characters we've loved for five seasons.
So, how does his story end for the heroes of Hawkins? Let's get into it.
Spoilers ahead for the Stranger Things 5 finale!
How does Stranger Things end?
At the end of Stranger Things 5's "Chapter Seven: The Bridge," the gang heads into the Upside Down in Murray's truck, has a shootout with the military, and makes their way to the Hawkins Lab and the radio tower.
They split up into two groups. Eleven, Kali, Hopper, and Murray take on the lab to help Eleven go into Vecna's mind and kill him before the Abyss smashes into Hawkins. Then, the rest of the group, including Jonathan, Steve, Lucas, Mike, Will, Joyce, and Nancy, heads into the Abyss through a portal, like Holly did, to bring the fight to Vecna on his turf.
At first, the plan goes perfectly. Eleven climbs into Henry's mind, with Max and Kali's help, saves the kids, stopping the Abyss in its tracks.
Then, Vecna gets the upper hand. He tricks Hopper into thinking he shot Eleven inside the tank. In a panic, Hopper removes her from the tank and saves her, or so he thinks. But, really, he actutally sabotages the plan. Now, Eleven and the gang has to go to the Abyss to kill him there, but the military shows up and captures Kali and Hopper.
Kali dies in the Hawkins Lab
Murray uses Hopper's bombs to take out the military helicopter that was using the supersonic sounds to keep their powers at bay. Then, Eleven kills Lt. Akers. Unfortunately, he kills Kali first. She bleeds out in the lab before Eleven could save her.
Holly leads the kids through Henry's memories, while Vecna faces his fears inside the cave. She attacks Henry, but eventually, he takes her out before getting distracted by his memory of the scientist from the cave.
Henry Creel reveals he is one with the Mind Flayer
After the crew travels through the Abyss, Will gets close to the Mind Flayer, and he realizes Vecna is alive. He tries to convince the Henry that is still alive in there to fight against the Mind Flayer. We see the first time Henry was infected in the cave, and from that moment on, he became one with the Mind Flayer.
He turns down Will's offer to help.
As the group approaches the hand-like place where Vecna is hiding, the Mind Flayer, in its real physical form, wakes up. It's a giant alien monster, and Vecna has been living inside of it. We see the group try to flee, but the monster is too big and strong. They look like they are doomed.
Eleven and Will team up to kill Vecna and the Mind Flayer
Thankfully, Eleven arrives right then and brings the fight to the Mind Flayer! She goes inside and kills Vecna with a little help from Will Byers, who taps into the hive and uses his powers to freeze Vecna before he can kill Eleven.
Then, the rest of the group cuts out all the kids from the Mind Flayer pods, saving all 12 kids, including Holly.
Vecna wakes up, choking on his own blood inside the body of the dead Mind Flayer monster. Joyce finally gets her moment. She cuts Vecna's head off, and we see all the characters reliving the trauma caused by this monster.
Eleven stays inside the Upside Down and dies in the void... or did she?
Hopper and Murray rigs the Upside Down to blow as they make their way back to the Rightside Up. It's a party. They've won, and everyone lives.
Unfortunately, the military catches them on the other side. Eleven decides that she's not going to let this continue. She stays behind to stop the cycle of abusing these kids. It would never end if she's alive. She meets Mike in her mind, and she tells him that she loves him. Then, she throws him through to the Rightside Up as the bombs go off and she's sucked into the void.
Will, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas graduate while Hopper takes his old job back
We have a time jump to 1989! Mike doesn't want to graduate with the rest of the group. He hates everything that happened, but Hopper tells him to accept El's decision.
Eventually, Mike goes to graduation with the rest of his friends. Dustin gives an awesome speech about their life, about the new friends they made along way, about growing and changing. Then, he does the most punk rock thing possible. He rips off his gown and reveals his "Hellfire Lives" t-shirt, and the crowd goes crazy.
Then, the party gets invited to a real party, but they turn it down because Mike has a better idea.
Jonathan, Nancy, Steve, and Robin catch up at The Squawk
It's been a while since the crew has been together, but they share a little about what they've been up to. Jonathan is at NYU, his dream school, making an anti-capitalist cannibal movies, while Nancy dropped out of college at Emerson to get a job as a reporter trainee at the Herald. Steve isn't in school, but Robin is.
Robin admits how much she misses this group of friends and people. It's not the same, they say, and it never will be. They have a few tears over some beers and plan to meet up once a month in Philadelphia.
Hopper and Joyce get engaged
Hopper and Joyce finally have dinner at Enzo's! And, they plan their future. Hopper wants to leave Hawkins and take a job near Montauk. He says it comes with a pay raise, but he just needs to do something first. Then, he proposes to Joyce.
Of course, she says yes, and they finally have a future together.
But, it's all a trick! Eleven is actually alive in Stranger Things 5!
The party heads back to Mike's basement to play D&D. They need an incantation to summon the mage. Right then, Mike reveals they win the campaign. Max, who can walk and use her limbs again, is hyped, too.
After the game, Mike reveals the campaign is about them. Max and Lucas will always be together. Dustin will go off to college to study and also make time for adventures. Will will go off on his own adventure and find acceptance. And, what of the storyteller, Will asks?
Mike finally reveals that a spell was cast on him. Kali tricked Dr. Kay and everyone one last time to make it look like Eleven died, but she did not actually die. She was illusion. Instead, she lived!
Mike doesn't know where she went, but then we see....
Eleven is alive, alone, and looking at three waterfalls
We see Eleven hiking through a remote location with three waterfalls. It appears that she is actually alive and well!
There's some question about how Mike knows this information, and whether it's true. The whole party chooses to believe that she's alive. We see how Eleven escaped as Kali stayed alive just long enough to protect Eleven as she fled the MAC-Z while Kali made the illusion come to life.
Finally, Mrs. Wheeler calls them to dinner, and they put the D&D binders away after the campaign.
Holly, Derek, and her friends fly down the stairs after Mike and his friends leave to play D&D, and the legacy continues.
That's the end of Stranger Things! And, what an incredible ending it was.
You can now watch all 45 episodes and five seasons of Stranger Things on Netflix right now.
Before we go, I just want to give a big shout-out to the whole cast, crew, and creative team of Stranger Things. I know the show was not perfect for a lot of fans, but it's so obvious how much love, sweat, tears, and hard work was put into the show.
It's going to be so weird that we won't see original stars, like Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Natalia Dyer, and Charlie Heaton together on screen anymore. Then, you have all the newcomers at different times that stole the show: Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Dacre Montgomery, Joseph Quinn, Sean Astin, Eduardo Franco, Brett Gelman, and so many more. It's been a great ride, and I'm sad that it's over.