The last season of Stranger Things was supposed to be climactic, dark, and sad as the Duffer Brothers hyped it up to be. Even though the ending was heartfelt, there was an amount of overwhelming disappointment by the fans and critics. Plot holes, poor writing, and confusing character arcs left fans upset and even conspiring a “secret final episode”. Although there were some good parts of Stranger Things Five, I will be showing my dislike for the recent episodes.
1.. The epilogue. Don’t get me wrong, the conclusion of all the kids graduating together and keeping the main Dungeons and Dragons theme was cute. There’s just so much in it that’s wildly unrealistic, like, how did Max graduate after being in a coma for two years? How did ANY of the party escape the military? After tampering with their psychic experiments and killing their men, everyone just gets to walk off scot-free? When El dies, it’s just, “Oh well, that’s it. Everyone can go home!” Not much makes sense here.
2.. Dimension X, AKA, The Abyss. We’d assume that since Vecna dwells here and draws his power from the Mind Flayer, creatures would be roaming the area all over the place because it’s their homeland, right? Wrong. Even though the fight between El and Vecna was fun to watch, it was short lived and obvious that Vecna was holding back. Why wouldn’t he have got his minions like the demogorgons, demodogs, and bats to come help him? It seems like everything that was supposed to help Vecna during this fight just took a vacation.
Also, where did Vickie, Robin’s girlfriend, disappear to? We see her talking to Robin when the party enters the Upside Down, and then never again in Dimension X or after their master plan concludes and Vecna is dead. Despite Amybeth McNulty out-acting the whole cast, we never see her as Vickie again, not even in the epilogue.
3.. Will’s coming out scene. Again, don’t get me wrong, Will has a complex character that has been developed thoroughly during the five seasons. Although the scene was still heartwarming, it could’ve been written much better than him assembling all of the characters to tell them everything, and all of their responses just being “And me.” and nothing else. This scene could’ve been much more meaningful and better written if he came out to those closest to him first, ex. Mike, Joyce, and Johnathan. The whole situation just felt extremely forced in the end, and wasn’t a great conclusion to a character arc that the show has been building for a decade. The Duffer Brothers butchered the ideal way to make this scene so much more impactful.
Many scenes from the show also left the audience confused. For example, Nancy and Johnathan’s … unclear break up? Ending a relationship with happy tears and hugging left fans asking whether the two actually broke up or not. Mike’s interpretation of Eleven’s death also left fans confused whether she is still alive and escaped or if she’s dead in the Upside Down. Fans online also discuss how Season Five felt “off,” “wrong,” or just “forced,” to the point where many were suspecting a secret episode exists and the finale wasn’t real. When a show concludes open-ended and fans don’t have an outright answer to what happened, it means the directors may have done something wrong, and in this case, they just got lazy.
