This post contains major spoilers for Stranger Things‘ series finale; yes, it’s our spoiler-FILLED review of Stranger Things 5: The Finale. No going back through this wormhole once you read them….
What do you most want from a series finale with a show like Stranger Things? A satisfying conclusion to the plot? Surprises? Death? Exciting spectacle? Emotional character payoffs literally years in the making? A happy ending? No matter which of those you care about most, the Duffer Brothers delivered with their show’s last episode. “The Rightside Up” got a whole lot right. This final chapter ended this party’s campaign with a satisfying farewell. But like the rest of Stranger Things 5, a few bewildering decisions and some weird pacing kept Stranger Things’ series finale from true greatness.
I love a good series finale epilogue. When done well, it’s an effective and moving way to say goodbye to your characters in a way that makes your audience feel like they got complete closure. That matters after a long emotional investment in a show. I’m less enthused when we get four or five of these epilogues, which is what it felt like during the final long 45 minutes of the series. In a vacuum, every scene that took place 18 months later was good or even excellent. When placed together, it felt tedious. Especially as it became more and more clear that everything about this episode was very straightforward. Because, despite being a sci-fi series full of alternate dimensions, there were very few surprises in how Stranger Things‘ story played out in its series finale.
Even the “big surprise” of this episode was anything but. The truth about Henry Creel and his association with the Mind Flayer was already canon. The fact that the Duffer Brothers thought it was a good idea to have their villain’s important origin story be revealed in a stage play that very few viewers ever saw will forever be one of the most baffling decisions in TV history. Why do that!? For those who managed to avoid ever learning about Henry’s worst memory in the cave, good for you. Unfortunately, many of us did after Stranger Things 5: Volumes 1 and 2. It completely took away the impact of that moment in the series finale of Stranger Things.
The show tried to have its Vecna cake and eat it too. It didn’t completely make its great villain a sympathetic figure despite his sad origins. Sure, Henry was a child the Mind Flayer preyed upon. But he chose to join it. …Yay. I guess? It’s certainly better than making Vecna nothing more than a pawn. It’s still a lot less interesting or scary than the monster we met in season four. There was also very little payoff to Henry’s obsession with time. And one of the few questions the show will never answer is what the new world he had planned was going to look like.
The amount of time dedicated to the military, the show’s least interesting subplot (yes, less interesting than even Kali), was also tedious and frustrating. It at least paid off with Eleven’s “sacrifice,” which did make sense when Kay was planning on scouring the shire. But that would have worked even without Akers’ attack.
But while those are the biggest reasons the series finale, and also Stranger Things 5, didn’t reach greatness, the reasons why it was still very good are far more important. As it did all season, the show delivered on its characters’ arcs. Notably, every scene with Hopper and Eleven was an A+. As was her farewell with Mike. Almost every character that mattered got a moment to shine in a way that felt authentic, too. And it was really fantastic that after three seasons, Stranger Things remembered why Mike used to be such a vital part of this story. Finn Wolfhard has barely done anything for three seasons, but he carried the last emotional 15 minutes. Wish we got more of that before!
For an episode that ran two-plus hours, I also would have liked even more Vecna. (That would have also meant less epilogue, even though, again, I basically loved every epilogue scene on its own). But the Vecna we did get in the Stranger Things series finale was incredible, as Jamie Campbell Bower somehow delivered his best performance yet. He was outstanding in both of his seasons, but in Stranger Things 5: The Finale? Truly award-winning stuff. He had me feeling bad for Henry Creel even as I wanted the party to kill Vecna.
The fact that it took the full Party to do exactly that was also incredibly fulfilling. Stranger Things has always been a show about friendship at its core. The fact that in the end, friendship not only mattered, but it also saved the day, was beautiful. As was Mike’s final story, which feels less like a mystery and more like an “Eleven is definitely alive” situation when you look at the facts. But that’s not the point. The point is that she got her big heroic death, and we get to walk away thinking Jane finally found the same peace she provided Hawkins and the world.
It also helped that the big showdown with the Mind Flayer/Vecna combo looked fantastic on Stranger Things series finale. A few sequences in this final season looked like they were filmed on stages with a subpar green screen budget. Maybe that’s cause all the money went to the big Mind Flayer monster? (Whose young son once attacked Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padmé on Geonosis.) I’m not upset about it! I don’t think the Mind Flayer was ever as interesting as the Duffers believed. But that horrifying action sequence was fantastic from start to finish. It felt like a payoff worthy of a series finale.
In the end, was it a little too easy to kill Vecna, the Mind Flayer, and the Upside Down itself in Stranger Things‘ final episode? Maybe. But that didn’t stop it from being fun. Nor did any of the episode’s obvious issues stop it from being good. Because while Stranger Things‘ series finale wasn’t perfect, it worked because it paid off both its plot and its character arcs. It delivered the kind of emotion the series always excelled at. And it did so while providing spectacle, excitement, horror, and even comedy. Most importantly, it did the one thing I want most from any series goodbye: it offered closure. And in the end, it’s okay if a farewell isn’t great so long as its still a good bye.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist and future The Squawk afternoon host. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.