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Dustin also honored Eddie by doing exactly what Eddie said he was going to do when he graduated.

Eleven will return in Avengers: Doomsday

The ending with the kids playing D&D was better than them defeating Vecna.

One easter egg you missed: The older kids drinking on the roof of the radio station was an homage to Reality Bites which starred Winona Ryder and Maya's dad Ethan Hawke. Nancy is wearing the exact same haircut as Winona. It also takes place on a graduation day. Mike becoming the writer of the story is similar to George Lucas's American Graffiti.

Eleven is alive. This is why.

1. We hear her exhale after she disappears, and when the screen goes black we hear her heartbeat again before the epilogue.

2. The sonic waves were active and pointing in all directions, so she couldn’t use her powers (as Mike points out). Yet later, she shows no nosebleed after talking to Mike and uses her powers to push him away.

3. She couldn’t have reached the gate. she jumps down the truck and is guided by the soldiers. This is when Kali makes her invisible. With the sonic waves and military everywhere, she couldn’t have run to the gate.

4. Her “11” tattoo is missing and her clothes don’t move from the wind, suggesting she wasn’t physically there.

5. The lab itself did not explode. The bomb detonated above it and triggers the energy ball to send the bluewaves towards the wall. We even see the lab intact just before the waves hit. Eleven was closer to the wall than Kali was in the lab, so she could have held on the illusion.

6. Movie logic here cause Kali wasn’t shot in the head or heart, so her “death” could have been an illusion for Hopper - which explains why Eleven’s hands aren’t bloody afterward. Eleven also brought Max back to life in season 4 and it’s never explained how, she could had stopped the bleeding or healed Kali enough.

7. Hopper knows she could have not used her powers because he’s the one we see noticing the sonic waves first, they literally show us his point of view and him realising this. Mike only realised at the graduation with the speakers. Go and rewatch that scene with this in mind. Hopper knows.

8. Eleven tells Mike: “One day you’ll understand.” “I need you to tell the others” and That’s why Mike later accepts Max question if it’s just a theory (cause he never actually states if it is) and refers to El as the mage. He can’t let anyone be certain. In case The military is listening. They all have to be uncertain because if they are certain than the military would go after her. El wanted to break the cycle of being chased and putting everyone in danger. But she also listens to Hopper, and gives herself a chance thanks to Kali who we see doubts. When Mike and El talk about the waterfalls in the Cabin, Kali is listening. She also stares at them in the truck when El nods and agrees to do it. She is only finally convinced by Hoppers speech that El could actually live in a future where Vecna is dead. El finally lives in peace but she decides to stay away. Mike and Hopper respect this and let her be free — even if it’s ambiguous to us. Mike has always felt El, no matter where she is.

9. Heroes plays again. The same song used when Will’s death and Hopper’s death were fake-outs, signalling another false loss. She is 100% alive for probably a future return. Wish Mike had gone with her though.

This is not me overanalysing, this is all in the finale and I think it’s very clear she escaped. They went full circle with season 1 ending

Edit: Am not here to force you to believe, I love the ambiguity of the ending. I’m just pointing out the clues  they left. You get to choose what you want.
Also  Shawn Levy just said ¨In case you're wondering: You better believe I believe. Always did.¨

12:55 The girl who invited Dustin to the party was the same girl who turned him down at the Winter Ball dance.

The poker didn’t just appear holly left it there when they were digging thru the rocks

Also an Easter egg I have seen nobody mention is that Henry/Vecna had their left hand chopped off. In D&D there is a magical artifact called "Vecna's Hand"

1:54 Thankfully there was not an ad during Steve's fake-out death

I also didn’t mention that Max and Lucas finally got their movie date.

The poker was left behind when Max and Holly escaped the first time

The Lord Of The Rings references were HEAVY this season.  Mr. Clarke's "mellon" password was the obvious one, but that final battle was so LOTR coded...

9 people walking through a strange land.

The Abyss / Dimension X and Mordor have a similar look.

They're heading toward a scary looking tower to confront an evil sorcerer.

2 members of the party break away from the rest at one point.  1 of them is carrying a heavy psychological burden and had visions of their enemy, the other is intensely devoted to him.

They take on a huge spider monster and attack it by stabbing it in the belly from below.

The Steve/Dustin bromance has a lot of parallels to Legolas/Gimli.

Sauron's power is in the One Ring, Vecna says he and the Mind Flayer are One.

And Eleven might have metaphorically left the Grey Havens for Valinor at the end, having saved the world for her friends but not herself.

My brother pointed out one Easter egg thats been overlooked by a ton of people. Winona hacks off Vecnas head just as she hacked of Draculas head in Bram Stoker's Dracula

Couple of call outs:
1) the back and forth mind convo between Will and Henry looked a lot like the “say my name” scene  from Neverending Story with the face close ups.

2) Lucas is wearing a Cross Colours shirt for the last scene in the basement. This is chefs kiss level of wardrobe as that was a VERY popular brand with African Americans at the time.

love this breakdown. the final scene with them playing dnd one final time and mike storytelling, and mrs wheeler calling them up for dinner, and then holly and her friends coming down to take over the dnd table, was the absolute best way for them to end this epic series. yeah there were plot holes in the final season and episode, but understandable given this was an original series, not taken from a book series like GoT or LOTR, so they were literally writing it as they were filming it, a very difficult feat.

The campaign Mike is running at the end is an actual D&D campaign called Ravenloft.

Missed the IRON MAIDEN song at the graduation when Dustin revealed his Hellfire tee. Iron Maidens mascot is Eddie referring to Eddie and hellfire as well as when Eddie in S4 picks up an iron maiden cassette and says ‘this is real music’, when they were looking for music

I loved this season, and the finale in particular. Too many people are overthinking it, but I just enjoyed the ride.

Another theme of this episode is choice. Henry chooses not to resist the mind flayer, Eleven chooses to sacrifice herself to give her friends peace, and Mike chooses the road of acceptance and believing El is alive in order to cope and keep her memory alive in the party’s minds. (Which is why I think it fits better that she’s actually dead)