TV Finales are the Strangest of Things
Ethan Airada | COPY EDITOR
January 29, 2026
Three years after season four’s conclusion and a total of ten years of production, the phenomenal and mysterious Stranger Things has finally ended, and it certainly left the audience asking one question that remains to be answered: Is that it?
All the pieces were in place for something spectacular. The series was going like a firework show that captivated its audience, with colorful shapes and patterns that painted the sky with wonder. But, when it was time for the finale, it suddenly seemed to end on a flat note. A few explosions, maybe more than usual, but nothing new. There’s no “wow” at the end, just a disappointed “oh.” So, what happened?
The main plotline is simple. The cast (Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, El, Joyce, Hopper, Steve, Robin, and many others) has to defeat the main villain Vecna, an interdimensional man made out of hamburger meat, and save the world from being merged with the Upside Down. This is often interrupted by the unresolved drama and other developments between the characters.
This is important since the audience has been attached to these characters for a long time, but it works better in some places than others. On the one hand, Dustin confessing that he’s terrified of losing anyone else is heartfelt and is the result of him losing people all throughout the series.
On the other hand, the scenes seem rather shoehorned—first with Max taking her time to give a speech to Holly in the realm where Vecna has functionally infinite power, and Will finally coming out as gay to his friends and family.
These scenes are important for resolving every personal conflict, but they could have been executed much better. They were both scenes set up in places and times where the characters had no time for it—places that interrupt the story, legitimately five minutes before the world is going to get crushed—something that has never happened before in the show.
This highlights the main problem with the writing overall, in that the stakes felt artificial and there were no real risks taken. There was the fakeout with Steve, one of the most popular characters, the death of Kali, perhaps the least popular character, and El’s “death” scene.
In the documentary released after the fact, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, the Duffer Brothers go on record to say that this was supposed to be one of the aspects leading to the characters eventually moving on, “closing the door to Narnia.”
However, one of the final scenes in the show is Mike telling what he chooses to believe about how El survived, therefore making the scene ambiguous. It’s a sign that the script wasn’t willing to commit to a major decision that might disappoint the audience, even though that is exactly the problem here. It’s reductive to the impact of what could have been a truly heart-wrenching scene.
Speaking of the documentary, it’s also on record that the writing is where most of the difficulties occurred, with them even saying that writing this season was the “most difficult writing circumstances.”
This is debatable since, although it is rather arduous to write the ending of a generational show like this, the Duffer Brothers still had three whole years to finish a project they have dedicated everything to.
The documentary shows that they were even making the story up as they filmed. It was clear that the production was more focused on “making it work” instead of giving the show the proper sendoff it deserves.
There is even speculation that Leigh Janiak, now Ross Duffer’s ex-wife, was the ghostwriter for the show the entire time. The divorce lines up right around when the show was being “written.” It’s not impossible; she did write and direct Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy, but, assuming this is true, it’s not like anyone would admit anything.
In their defense, however, the scale of the production as a whole is a demanding affair to manage. Most episodes have the same production and effects as a feature-length film, with the last few episodes even reaching the same length.
That is not to say that, despite most of this, the season was not bad; it just didn’t fulfill the potential it had to be a true sensation. It must have been agonizing to make millions on their dream job, right?
Were the Duffer Brothers just so burnt out that they couldn’t follow their own planning? Did they buy into their own hype and think that this was enough? It’s the same story all over again, such as with other shows with finales like Game of Thrones or even The Sopranos, both infamous for their endings after genuinely masterful runs.
Audiences are clearly disappointed. So much so that fans have gone back and dissected every detail of the series—only to be more disappointed—and eventually accuse the Duffer Brothers of using AI software to write the finale after catching it open for a few frames in the documentary.
The director of the documentary, Martina Radwan, has tried to deny these claims, saying, “Nobody has actually proven that it was open” in an interview from The Hollywood Reporter, though this hasn’t been disproven either.
Fan reactions were so intense that a conspiracy theory, “Conformity Gate,” appeared a few days after the final episode aired this past Christmas. It assumes that there was a “secret final episode” in which Vecna won and everyone is in an illusion. This has so far proved false, despite the mountains of evidence that TikTok users continue to invent. Fans even made Netflix crash on the date of the supposed secret ninth episode.
The conspiracy theories are just a coping mechanism, for sure, but they all cement one thing in particular: the worst kind of endings for stories aren’t bad, just bland. If it were just bad, fans would trash it and move on.
If it were good, fans would be watching it again right now. But no, the fans are in denial. But who knows? They could be right. Stranger things have happened…