Stranger Things Season 5 Spoilers!

[Loopytiles]

So excited about this! Can’t bear to watch without spoilers first.

I mentioned upthread that I almost expected Vecna to turn back to human when Joyce decapitated him, as a reference to Winona Ryder's character decapitating Dracula and finally putting his soul at rest when he rejuvinates. Nope, I was wrong and that was definitely not meant to be here!

Henry’s actual body was the one in the mindflayer spider thingy

I was happy overall with the finale, despite some niggles. I am glad that they didn't kill off a bunch of children, so no issues with the low body count. I would have hated them to kill off Steve for the effect it would have had on Dustin and I wanted Robin to be happy, so her girlfriend needed to live. I also like the ambiguous ending for El, although I believe she died. It's nice for them to have hope. Jamie Campbell Brown was outstanding and he will hopefully get more job offers from this. DP couldn't understand why I was yelling "you cheap dime store hood" at Derek.

The episode could have been a half hour shorter. I don't understand why no one was held accountable legally for killing the soldiers as they entered the upside down. No one would have known about the soldiers they killed in the lab, so they could have perished with the explosion. Spending so much time on Holly stopped the other characters having decent development for the whole series, which is a shame.

Were the pregnant women definitely left there ? I wondered if Dr Kay might have moved them

Yes I would have liked to see something like that. I was also expecting him to say her name “don’t do it Joyce”

Finally watched this, had to wait until dd and I could sit down together!

I enjoyed it and am sad it’s finished.

I wondered about Elevens mum who seems to have forgotten about, is she still making lights flicker from her rocking chair?

Jamie CP was outstanding and such a beautiful man, I think I’m in love with him even though he played an evil monster 🙈😂

Ok so better than I expected as I really enjoyed the previous series

I surprisingly enjoyed the Jonathan and Nancy chat the most, although he should have picked up the engagement ring

I’ve seen mention of BTTF. I also was really confused at the Will AI face at the beginning. It was so unlike him I also thought it was an other actor.

BTTF did a much more convincing replacement with a bit of plasticine with new "face of George" in Back to the Future Part II and Part III

Loved it. So much nostalgia for 1980’s era, but also a the timeline that has followed my own children’s childhood. My eldest was 11 when he watched series one. My daughter caught up and watched live from 2019. We watched and sobbed through the final together.

That’s a good point - I was happy with it all but forgot about Jane’s mum!

Hi all, I’m trying to do a deep dive on the ending and started by reading the whole of this thread!

Do we not need to make more of the fact that at the end, we see the ‘stranger things’ role play game shut? Meaning that none of what we saw actually happened - that it was all just a metaphor for coming of age?

My theory is that in reality there was an earthquake, a young girl took her life, and the ‘real’ things really happened. All supernatural things were part of the game only, and a way for the young characters to make sense of what was happening around them using their imaginations.

At the end, we have to see the characters move on (as we do in coming of age stories) and new younger characters take the stage.

That’s my theory anyway. Thoughts?

I read that the duffer brothers disproved the theory that it was all just a dnd game. I think the book at the end is what Mike wrote- we see him writing at his desk.

although I did see someone else with this same theory and they pointed out that Karen wheeler had lost her scars when she called them up for lasagne which they felt proved it.

I don't see how that could possibly make a lick of sense? The supernatural events run all through the show (sometimes not involving the kids at all, like Hopper ending up in Russia and fighting the demogorgon there).

Even if you could somehow unpick the supernatural events from the "real" ones - why? It doesn't add anything to the show

And why would characters who are in their mid-to-late teens would need to tell fantasy stories in order to process things?

Honestly, I think even that "Byler" silliness has more grounding in the show.

I noticed the ring hopper gave to Joyce looked exactly the same as the one jonathan had. Maybe he picked it up from the upside down lol

I've just rewatched that bit and I think it looks like she still has a scar on her neck.

But why doesn't El have a D&D book- Max does, Mike would have made her one. So did she not exist?

Did Eleven ever play D&D? She was absent (at least from Mike's life) for most of the timeline of the show, be it in Hopper's shed, California or her various vanishings.

Are we saying that Hopper and Joyce imagined her as well, or that Mike (and/or the others) made the whole thing up, and either created or continued the make believe when they were 17?

Karen had scars at graduation

I thought the earthquake thing was just a way for the government to cover up the weird events which is a bit of an 80s trope.

Yes, she has her scars in the final scene, it's just not obvious in the light.

This is them doing her hair for that last scene: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1DP35NbksY/

I can't help but feel there was a sly nod to "The Wire" in the looping around ending-as-we-begun closing scene with a new generation to continue the story. And The Wire was 5 seasons ....

I assumes this too.

But if we take the monsters and supernatural elements out of the equation what do the need to process over that length of time involving that many people?

DD has just mentioned that in S2 when Hopper is telling Eleven about Sarah he says the black hole took her, or words to that effect. Then it happens to her 😳

Just had the dispatch notification for the Lego Creel House, so excited to build it!

The pregnant women weren't in the upside down. They were in the base in Hawkins.

@Crinkle77 are you sure? I thought they were in the base in the upside down?