Hana Grace and Shivangi Sharma have a lot say about the Stranger Things finale
If you have not watched the new and final season of Stranger Things yet, it is safe to say that you are way behind on the timeline and we are way past the courtesy of giving you a spoiler alert. It has been more than a month since the final episode of the show aired and we, like many other fans, have some thoughts.
Stranger Things has been a phenomenon since its premier in July 2016. The show that followed the adventures of a group of kids who, by all means, can be considered as outcasts rose to fame quickly, topping the charts globally.
Set in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana in the 1980s the show had all the ingredients to make a hit: nostalgia, action, mystery, romance, and drama. What made the show a chart topper was, I believe, the way it resonated with fantasy lovers across the globe be it kids or adults.
That in addition to its star studded cast including Winona Ryder and David Harbor, success was destined. Very soon after the first season aired, the show became one of Netflix’s biggest successes of all time.
Over a decade later the makers released its fifth and final season and as all good things ought to, the show came to an end. The finale of the season was long in the making and the makers had a lot of pressure to wrap things with a bow owing to the show’s popularity and anticipation amongst the fans.
This is where Shivangi and I come in. As two lifelong nerds and fans of the show we have some thoughts on Stranger Things season 5.
We all grew up.” – Hana Grace
Hana’s thoughts
Netflix split up the final season which was released in three parts: episodes one-four released in Nov. 2025, episode five-eight released in Dec. 2025, and finally the finale which was two hours long released on New Years Eve 2025.
The first four episodes to me were really the building blocks for the later half of the season. It seemed drawn out and boring at times. I understand the need to build up the premise for the two-hour finale, but I remember thinking to myself, “If this is what the entire season is going to look like …yikes!”
Personally, my favourite character was Steve Harrington and after Eddie Munson’s death in season four, I was prepared to watch Harrington die to protect his kiddos. You know, the hero, the martyr, the saviour. The build up for that was obviously apparent. Although to be honest, it would have destroyed me. The show’s creators often teased deaths during promotions and my anxiety levels were through the roof in the weeks leading up to the finale.
Luckily, Harrington lived to see the end of the show’s villain, Vecna, and the viewers got to see him become a baseball coach and sex-ed teacher at Hawkins High. A rather special thanks to Johnathan Byers!
Speaking of the final battle with Vecna, I found it to be rather anticlimactic. In fact, the coming out speech of Will Byers had a longer run time than the final battle.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for representation and Will Byers finally finding happiness and accepting himself after all the things he had to go through in the previous seasons. I, however, would have appreciated it if they developed the final battle a little more.
The show almost hyped-up Will’s moment over the conclusion of a five-season series. I found the final battle rather mundane as well. I watched a two-hour long finale for a total of six minutes of action which really was not that action packed either.
Now, the internet was not happy with how the show was wrapped up. Many people thought there were too many plot holes and missing pieces. Many wanted the show to end differently than it did.
As for me, other than the slow final battle, I really enjoyed the way the show wrapped up. The kids, now grown up, sitting in Mike Wheeler’s basement, playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), exactly how the show started ten years ago was something very special.
In the final scenes, the kids that carried the show are no longer kids. They put their D&D binders back on the shelf after perhaps playing the game for the last time and head upstairs for dinner. We then see Mike stop and look back from the stairs at his sister and her friends picking up the game, taking him back to the time where he had picked it up for the first time. It was powerful. I sobbed!
Honestly, for me, the hardest part was knowing that a chapter of my childhood had come to an end. Many of us grew up with this show. Even the actors are the same age as many of the fans. We watched them grow up with us.
Through pandemics, break ups, middle school, and high school, we always had Stranger Things to look forward to and escape into. Something closed off when the final credits rolled for the last time.
We all grew up.
Shivangi’s thoughts
I vividly remember the day I had watched the first season of the show. A former friend of mine had recommended it to me. We planned to have a marathon of all the episodes together. And so, we did, with grilled cheese sandwiches, chips, and pop. It was 2016 and life was simple. Well, at least simpler than it is now.
From the get-go, Stranger Things was a way to escape from the real world for me. A way to escape into a world where a group of kids and some straggling teenagers along with a middle-aged mom and a disgruntled former chief of police can fight interdimensional monsters and live to tell the tale.
My expectations from the final season were the same as they had been for all the previous seasons: an action packed drama where we see the now grown up kids take down Vecna once and for all with the power of friendship, teamwork, a banger background score, and some explosive devices which are usually considered unsafe for kids. And if you were to ask me, I got all of that. And to add to that, I also did not have to watch Steve Harrington die!
I liked that the last hour of the show gave us a proper closure for most of the characters, apart from Eleven 🙁. Through Mike’s story telling we got the glimpse of a future where the characters get to move on with their lives. Yes, even Mike. We see him channeling his loss into his writing and to me, that is growth. Having read countless books where most characters either die or don’t get a proper ending, I genuinely appreciated that.
The last scene, just as Hana mentioned, was gutting. Not in a way that makes one angry or upset but more so in a way that makes one deeply sad. It was watching a decade come to an end and suddenly realizing that it has been 10 years, and life has changed so much that you don’t even recognize the person you were when you started watching the show.
The friend who introduced me to the show is now a lawyer and I am in a different country doing science and working for a students’ media outlet on the side. When we started, we were just two high schoolers giggling every time Joe Keery (for me) or Natalia Dyer (for him) came to the screen.
Mike looking at the kids was, in many ways, similar to us looking back at 2016. Time has passed and we have all grown up. I cried tears and snots when the credits rolled and felt exactly how I felt when the Harry Potter movies ended in 2011.
So, in my opinion, while I was sad that the show had come to an end, I was not disappointed so much by the way it ended. I am aware of the internet’s response to the loopholes and the plots that weren’t tied up properly and I can see where they are coming from.
When writers for a show like Stranger Things, which is known for its brilliant writing, write a finale with obvious errors and gaping holes, it is bound to disappoint some fans. I guess I just didn’t expect the finale to be the greatest piece of cinema ever written and so I wasn’t bothered as much.
Mike looking at the kids was, in many ways, similar to us looking back at 2016. Time has passed and we have all grown up.” – Shivangi Sharma
Final thoughts
While Hana and I might not have the exact same thoughts about the final season, I think it is safe to say that we both agree that we were not totally disappointed in it.
We both agree that the finale’s ending was gutting, and we muchly appreciate not having to watch Steve Harrington die.
Now, with the haunting realization that we’re not teenagers anymore and life is getting a little too serious, on we go!
