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Why the Stranger Things Finale Felt So... Off

MackInFlix

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Everyone is complaining that the final battle of Stranger Things Season 5 was too short. But the 15-minute runtime isn't why the climax felt hollow—it's just a symptom of a massive mechanical collapse. In this video essay, we break down exactly how the Stranger Things 5 finale failed its 10-year setup. If you walked away from Episode 8 feeling like something was just... off, you aren't crazy. We dive deep into the structural writing flaws that ruined the climax, from the confusing geography of the Upside Down and the glaring absence of Vecna's army, to the wasted potential of Will Byers and a fundamental betrayal of the season's core theme.

We also look at why Joyce delivering the killing blow undermined Eleven's journey, how the power scaling fell apart, and how the Duffer Brothers could have actually fixed the final fight to give these incredible characters the epic ending they deserved.

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CHAPTERS:

0:00 - The REAL Problem With The Stranger Things 5 Finale

1:28 - The Upside Down Plot Hole Nobody Noticed

4:04 - Where Was Vecna’s Army? (A Massive Mistake)

6:11 - How Season 5 Ruined Will Byers' True Power

8:54 - Vecna Was Nerfed: The Power Scaling Issue

10:05 - Why The Wrong Character Killed Vecna

13:04 - Eleven’s "Fake-Out" Ending Betrayed The Show

16:18 - How The Final Battle SHOULD Have Ended

18:10 - Did the Epilogue Actually Work?

(Note: English is my second language, so this video uses a voiceover as I’m not fully comfortable on camera yet, I’ve put a lot of effort into the research, writing, and editing, and while some ideas come from my own thoughts, others are shaped by research, articles, and media I’ve consumed, I hope you enjoy the analysis.)

#StrangerThings5 #StrangerThingsFinale #Vecna #StrangerThingsEnding #SceneShift

20 Comments

@Mackinflix Creator 6 months ago (edited) Pinned

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I spent way too much time thinking about this final battle. But that's just my theory on how I would have fixed it! How would you guys have written the ending? Drop your thoughts below! 👇
Check out my other movie analyses (like my MCU and horror deep dives) right here: 👉 https://youtu.be/JaD0kX3QDq8

@Liftingmanners 6 months ago

The danger and plot felt so phony the community thought it was a fake ending

@juberel 6 months ago

And we add the overuse of Max's song, which has already lost its impact, But writers think is not

@saonyx2282 6 months ago

"the hidden flaw that ruined stranger things" that flaw was nowhere near hidden brochacho

@shadzep2701 6 months ago

Duffer brothers had an awesome setup at the end of S4, they fucked the season up by not using that setup

@Deshon_Holmes 6 months ago

I would’ve loved to see Will and Eleven face off against Vecna like Cap and Bucky against Iron Man

@redtitanphoenix5759 6 months ago

Imagine writing such a shit ending everyone thought it was fake

@Kimo-w4y 6 months ago

One of the worst season finales I’ve ever seen

@ResidentCitrus 6 months ago

I disagree, the epilogue did not land, because the relationships did not get any proper resolutions. For example: just Mike grieves Eleven? Really? What about Hopper and his grief for a second daughter? Gotta be shitting me.

@TheSaiyanPrincess89 6 months ago

Once they immediately climbed the cliffs within seconds, I knew we were in for a shitshow.

@millennialmike575 6 months ago

Eleven's Fakeout is an emotional betrayal of the audience that warrants study. Years of committing to the show only for the show not to commit to anything. It leaves you with a profound sense of emptiness and meaninglessness. The arbitrary nature of how they chose to end her story goes to show that the show went on as long as it did only to hold your attention and there really was no point. I don't know about you but I'm going to be so much more picky before starting anything that doesn't have a guaranteed pre-ordained ending. I'm tired of TV storytellers wasting my time.

@acquaz10 6 months ago

The problems were there in part 1, most people just ignored them because they were so excited for it to come back after three years.

@crystalaice8069 6 months ago

Am I the only person who feels it was stupid for Will to have the power to kill off a hive mind that he's also a part of? Killing those demos should hurt him or kill him.
It creates an unnecessary plot hole. Maybe it's just me.

@kayleighdriessen 6 months ago

Stranger Things might as well have made the Mindflayer crawl over a giant spiderweb to catch up to the party quicker or trap them leaving them at it's mercy.

@JurassicRod 6 months ago

As soon as season 5 started they undermined themselves. They instantly hit us with an exposition dump about how the apocalyptic ending season 4 did such an amazing job building up to was fixed up easily, off screen! Like it was no big deal and amounted to nothing! Add to that the drop in visual quality with the p1ss greeny/yellow filter that TV shows seem to love covering the image with now for some reason, only highlighting the green screen lack of depth of field and season 5 lost me pretty quickly. A great final episode wouldn't have undone the damage the previous seven episodes had done.

@Dazgul 6 months ago

The problem is, the enemies are far too powerful for the team. Mostly invulnerable. It's not a big army against another where troop losses show how things are going. The team is small, and they don't kill any of them off. The set up is flawed.

@rminitials 6 months ago

I feel bad for you all that followed this show for years. Only to realize the writers didn’t even have a finished script for the ending WHILE ALREADY FILMING THE ENDING.

I can’t even comprehend how insane that is

@djcelestica 6 months ago

“mike and el got to say everything they never said to each other before she died” bro didn’t even say i love you back to her 😭 what show were you watching

@desireestevens1199 6 months ago

If Eddie hadn’t died in s4 he could have been the one distracting the flayer and got killed for a REAL hero’s death.

@12wer3wer9 6 months ago

The emotional high of the finale, the void scene between Mike and El, doesn't emotionally land.

Mike is not the one who knows El the best, they have shown that in seasons 3,4 and 5. They haven't resolved Mike's biggest insecurity, so he doesn't say what El has wanted to hear face to face since season 3. There is no love confession, nothing real underneath. The chemistry is even absent.

What we get is constructed to hit in our emotional core, but it's just air. It can't land, because the Duffer's forgot to build Mike and El's relationship this season!

If you go in blind, you wouldn't know, that they are supposed to be our main couple, who shares a close bond.

We see them separated almost the whole season without a second of worry for the other for days.

El and Mike's arcs are not connected. They don't need each other to defeat evil, to build each other up, to help each other grow.