Released Nov. 26, 2025, on Netflix, the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, rated TV-MA and starring Noah Schnapp, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Caleb McLaughlin, and Gaten Matarazzo. The season left fans conflicted on how to feel about the show’s ending.
The season starts off in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, in 1987. Prior to this season, a gang of high schoolers who play Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) came together to fight off the series’ main antagonist, Vecna. This humanoid creature is from a parallel universe, the Upside Down.
Over the years, the group went on many mission “crawls” to search for Vecna and prevent him from cursing the children of Hawkins–like the main protagonist, Will Byers. On the other hand, the military built a new base in the Upside Down called the MAC-Z. They hoped to find the other protagonist, Eleven, a teenage girl born with supernatural abilities, and conduct experiments on her.
In only the viewer’s perspective, Vecna deceives 7-year-old Holly Wheeler in disguise as a character from an old fantasy novel she reads, A Wrinkle in Time. With this, he plans to capture her and her classmates in his world. When he succeeds, Holly’s family and the gang create their final plan to rescue the children and terminate the Upside Down. In the end, their plan is successful, and after five arduous years, Hawkins’ curse is finally relieved.
Throughout the season, Stranger Things offers a thrilling journey that evokes memories of youth culture. It also highlights the importance of being true to oneself–an example being how music can save lives. There are also several emotional topics addressed in the story, including opening up about sexual orientation, and overcoming the loss of loved ones.
Some parts of Season 5 that may be confusing include the unexpected pieces of lore, which were built in earlier seasons. This mainly occurs during the final battle, when the gang discovers what really started Vecna’s curse, and they easily withstand it. Overall, the show tells viewers how the impossible is possible, and to never stop searching for the light in the dark.
There was a three-year-long wait for the new season, and fans, predictably, had divided opinions on its ending once it was released. According to IMDB, one side feels the ending was emotionally earned and well thought out, and that the season itself perfectly embodied 1980s nostalgia. The other side was left unsatisfied, saying that the ending had many plot holes and was overall poorly written; some fans say that this season didn’t properly connect to the earlier ones. More so, this led to a widespread fan theory that the final ending would be fake, and it was all controlled by Vecna. It would’ve been known as the greatest plot twist in television history. However, this theory ended up being false.
Throughout this debate, it can be agreed that the ending of a show about teenage rebellion and saving the world is emotionally touching. The series took 10 total years of production, and is now officially done telling its tale. It is truly a unique piece of work, and it’s safe to say that no one has seen anything more strange.
