[Spoiler Alert] Okay, so this is one of the most burning questions on the internet right now: is Eleven really dead? Those who have already watched the Stranger Things Season 5 finale might be aware of the fact that El sacrificed her life in the last episode, because she believed killing herself was the only way to stop the military from coming after her friends. In the second volume of Season 5, Kali had told El how the military hunted her down and slaughtered her friends in front of her eyes because they wanted her to create more psychic children like her, and when her blood failed to yield any conclusive results, they started looking for El, believing she could be the key to fulfilling their sinister objective. However, till the very end of the finale, El couldn’t decide which path she wanted to choose. In her heart, she’d always imagined a peaceful life with her friends and in Hawkins, but in her mind, she knew that Kali was right. Such a life was nothing but a mere fantasy, because as long as the military was on her back, she would have to live in fear of getting caught. And coincidentally, that was what volume 1 of season 5 was all about. El had been running and hiding from the military so she could help her friends find Vecna and put an end to his menace. But that Vecna was gone, and things were back to normal; El didn’t want to run anymore. She wanted to put an end to this cycle by any means necessary so she could either live or die in peace. But the question remains the same: what did El choose ultimately? In one scene, we saw her jumping into space to end her life, but later, Mike had a theory suggesting that El didn’t die. Instead, she enlisted Kali’s help to fake her death so she could break the cycle without actually killing herself. So if you believe the first possibility, that El is most likely dead, then there’s really nothing more to add, because coming back from nothingness is impossible. However, if you think Mike’s theory holds some water, then I have a few things to add to it, because I think it’s too flawed to be true.
Kali Might Have Faked Her Death
So first thing first, I don’t think Kali could have created such a grand illusion with a bullet in her gut. I mean, she was bleeding pretty fast, and using her powers in such a condition doesn’t seem logical to me. Also, correct me if I am wrong here, but we haven’t ever seen Kali casting a spell from so far away. She was hit with a bullet inside the Hawkins Lab, which was the center of the Upside Down, and the gate where El and her friends were stopped by the military was miles away, or so I believe. So if we put our trust in Mike’s theory, then Kali created an illusion from Hawkins Lab after she’d been hit with a bullet? He believed that she still had some life left in her when we literally saw her taking her last breath in the show. Well, I think that’s one of the major flaws in Mike’s theory.
So what I believe might have happened is that Kali might have faked the bullet wound. We know that she was fixated on killing herself, because the death of her friends had traumatized her to the core, and she didn’t think she would ever be able to recover from it. However, El’s situation was different. She was lucky enough to find an adoptive father like Hopper and friends like Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Will. Their journey helped El to understand that trauma can be overcome without sacrificing one’s life. The cycle can be ended without choosing violence and pain. Even in the darkest times, one always has the choice to fight back in the hope of seeing happy days on the other side. El had friends who had survived worse. Even after hitting rock bottom, her friends and family have risen from the ashes, and Hopper wanted El to follow their example. But alas, Kali has no such friends to admire or look to as examples to follow. She once tried to build a world of her own, but it was all burned down to the ground by the likes of Dr. Kay, and now she doesn’t have the strength left to build one all over again. However, she knew that El wouldn’t leave her behind, no matter what happens, which was why she faked her death so El would leave the Upside Down with her friends. But when Dr. Kay and her uniformed minions stopped the truck near the threshold, Kali might have communicated with El using her psychokinetic powers and planned her escape. In short, Kali was never hit with a bullet, and I think she might have been hiding out somewhere near the gate to cast this illusion.
Eleven Might Have Escaped
If you revisit the scene near the gate, then you might notice that when the military stopped the truck, El was sitting beside Mike. However, the moment they started dragging the children out of the truck, El disappeared into the crowd. So there’s something amiss here. I think it was during this time that Kali might have contacted El and cast the spell of invisibility so she could run away to a safe location. Simultaneously, Kali created another illusion of El standing near the gate in order to divert everyone’s attention towards it so that no one would notice El breaking into the office, from where she likely escaped. And as soon as El reached a safe location, she contacted Mike to bid him a final farewell before disappearing forever.
By the way, El bringing Mike to the void is one more reason why I think Mike’s theory could be true. You might have noticed those sonic cannons, also referred to as Kryptonite, near the gate. And from what we have seen in the show, El or Kali couldn’t use their powers in the presence of these weapons. Also, El often needs to close her eyes to make such contact with people, but I don’t think we saw her concentrating that hard in this scene. Well, even if the second part doesn’t apply here, El still wouldn’t have been able to use her powers with Kryptonite around, but in this scene, she was unaffected by it, which further implies that the El we saw near the gate was nothing but an illusion. And it was created by Kali to convince everyone, especially Dr. Kay and the military, that El jumped into the Upside Down before it was destroyed.
A second possibility is that Mike was never transported to the void, and he just imagined the whole thing because he didn’t want El to commit suicide. Or, El might have been able to use her powers to contact Mike in the void but wasn’t affected by Kryptonite because she was out of range. Well, there are so many plot holes in the show that it’s hard to say anything with any degree of certainty here, so I am just shooting in the dark, like you all.
Hopper’s Words Couldn’t Be For Nothing
Okay, you all heard Hopper’s monologue, through which he told El that there are more ways to end one’s pain and suffering than by killing oneself. Coincidentally, this scene happens at Hawkins lab where this all began. In the past, Dr. Martin Brenner, or El’s papa, turned her into a lab rat and scarred her for life, and now, in the Upside Down, her adoptive father was trying his best to make her hopeful for the future. Hopper knew that El had made a choice to sacrifice her life, as she believed it was the only way to break the cycle, but then every kid in the Stranger Things universe had their fair share of trauma. Be it Dustin, who was bullied in school, or Will, who was harassed by his own father for his sexuality. That’s their transformation, irrespective of the fact that they were raised in a lab or an ordered community, which we call society. As I see it, both Hawkins Lab and Hawkins as a town aren’t much different. People are attacked, abused, and discriminated against, so if Will, Dustin, and Lucas can fight back and find their happy ending, then why not El? I think that’s what Hopper wanted to tell her when he asked her to fight for a world beyond Hawkins. He wanted her to raise a kid of her own so she could give them the life she never had, because that’s how you heal trauma and finally break the cycle—by loving and giving to the world, which took so much away from you. And I truly believe that if El was moved even slightly by Hopper’s words, then she wouldn’t have just given up. She would have fought to live another day, to see another sunrise, to see those three waterfalls that she was promised. I mean, El had stopped Hopper from sacrificing his own life when he went on a suicide mission to blow himself up to stop the military, and if El would end up doing the same thing, then her character arc wouldn’t mean anything. She’s the hero of the show, and heroes don’t give up like that, not without a fight, at least.
Additionally, all through these years, El’s only fear was ending up alone. Her mother was taken away from her. The kids she grew up with were slaughtered in front of her eyes. From a very young age, El had been afraid of getting attached to people, because she feared that she would lose them eventually. This was the reason why she wanted to give up on her own life, so the military would stop hurting her friends. In a way, El didn’t want to go through the same cycle of pain and suffering, because she knew how it would all end: with the death of her friends. However, Hopper and Kali’s words made her realize that there’s always more than one way to break the circle. Either she can erase her own existence and be done with it, or she can face her fears and come out a stronger being. The easier choice in El’s journey was to kill herself, and the difficult one was to overcome her fears of being alone. To leave her friends behind and lead a life all by herself. And that’s what the Duffer brothers gave us in the end, enough open-endedness to choose between these two options for our protagonist. And while many of you might be comfortable accepting El’s death, I think I’ll still cling to the hope that she ultimately broke the cycle and made it alive. Just like Will conquered his fears and came out of the closet, while Dustin took pride in his nerdy self and started cherishing the way he was. Or be it Holly, who finally overcame her fears and faced Vecna in the end to stop him from hurting her friends or family, even though she was not powerful enough to stop him, she didn’t hesitate, because that’s what true courage looks like. And when we have a show where each and every character ultimately faced their fears and came out stronger, then why can’t El, who had always been the most powerful of them all? Well, that’s up to you, how you want to see El in the end: as a hero or a coward.
