Let’s make one thing clear: movies and TV shows don’t need to explain every aspect of the world that they have created. Artists do sometimes purposefully leave some of their plot devices and story threads in an atmosphere of ambiguity so that people can talk about them and get a deeper understanding of the material while trying to figure out the artistic intent behind those creative choices. And then there are times when artists intentionally point at things that have been left open-ended so as to remind audiences that they’ll eventually be resolved in a satisfying fashion. Now, once you do that, you can’t really use the “we didn’t tie up all the loose ends to generate discourse” excuse, because then it sounds like you didn’t care to answer any of the questions that you had posed, not the audience, in a meaningful way.
You know that your IP is popular enough to rake in millions of views. You have received your paycheck. So, why should you care if you have left the audience hanging after stringing them along for around a decade, right? Well, the Duffer brothers, Shawn Levy, and the rest of the Stranger Things team might’ve moved on, as this was the final season of the show, but despite being a hater of Season 5 and a fan of Seasons 1 to 4, I can’t. So, I’m just going to go ahead and list the unexplained mysteries that were established by the show and then never really addressed. And since I’m exhausted after watching this unnecessarily long finale, I’m going to try and go easy by limiting my questions to Season 5, because if I start pulling up stuff from the last few seasons, we’ll be here all day.
Spoiler Alert
1. How Was The Stone From The Abyss Acquired?
Before anyone goes into the comments section to tell me to watch The First Shadow, let me just say that on IMDb, it has a sum total of 459 user ratings. Stranger Things has been watched by millions of people. Which means that even all the fans of the show from New York and London haven’t watched that goddamn play. On top of that, not a single taping of the play is available online. So, even if the play has revealed how that stone has been acquired from the Abyss and why it disintegrated and went into Henry’s gaping wound, thereby connecting him to the Mind Flayer, there’s no way for us to know about that information. From what I have gathered, the stuff that was shown in the play and what we see in Season 5 isn’t the same. Would it have hurt the Duffers to dedicate an episode and a half to the mission that connected the Abyss to Earth? I guess so, because if they provided all that information, they wouldn’t have been able to spend an hour of the finale on saying goodbye to all the characters.
2. What Was The Mind Flayer’s Endgame?
It’s baffling that Stranger Things never even cared to explain why the Mind Flayer wanted to merge the Abyss with Hawkins. I am guessing the Mind Flayer existed way before the bridge dimension, the Upside Down, was formed between the Abyss and Hawkins. So, even if I assume that it just wanted to eat humans or something, it begs the question of how the Mind Flayer had survived before the formation of the Upside Down and whatnot. Based on the Flayed, and since alien creatures ruling over galaxies by creating some kind of a hive mind system are currently in vogue, I’m going to assume that’s also something that the Mind Flayer wanted. But that’s just my assumption. Why didn’t the Duffers seek to address it? I guess we’ll never know.
3. Why Did Vecna Need 12 Kids?
Folks online have theorized that it has something to do with the grandfather clock and the method used to calculate the passage of time. Some have pointed out the ritualistic significance of the number 12 and that it has something to do with power and authority. I assumed that maybe Dr. Kay was creating 12 superpowered kids, and that’s why Vecna tried to rival her by creating 12 vessels of his own. When the physical manifestation of the Mind Flayer showed up, I thought that the 12 kids were somehow being used to control the 12 legs of the creatures, but I counted several times, and it seemingly had around 16 legs. So, yeah, I don’t know what the point was of capturing 12 kids instead of one Eleven, Kali, or Will. Why the hell would you focus on acquiring 12 kids, that too with special latent abilities that’d amplify Vecna’s powers, and then not even explain the meaning behind it? You could have just said that if there were 20 kids with special powers, Vecna would have gone for all 20 of them, but since there were 12, he had no choice but to make do with 12. That would have been enough, to be honest. But no, ambiguity is so much better!
4. Why Was The Fact That Henry Was Joyce and Hopper’s Classmate Never Addressed?
Yeah, yeah, I know the play. I also know that while Max was traveling through Henry’s memories, she saw younger versions of Joyce and Danny (Steve’s father), and she came across a flier that had Joyce, Hopper, Alan (Eddie’s father), and Henry in it for a play titled Oklahoma! And then Joyce just hacked off her former classmate’s head while a recap of the last 4 seasons played over it? Wasn’t that the perfect opportunity to underscore the fact that Joyce and Vecna used to be friends? I mean, they were close enough to be in a bloody play together. How wasn’t that brought up? Technically, Hopper should have been beside Joyce during the decapitation scene. That would have underscored how intertwined their lives had become and yet how different they were from each other. I am guessing that was the subtext of having Joyce deliver the killing blow, but I am pretty sure casual viewers will assume that she got to kill Vecna because her son was the first one to be abducted by one of his minions. I suppose the Duffers are okay with that, because replaying old scenes is cheaper and easier than filming new scenes.
5. What’s The Significance Of November 6?
The only way of making sense of November 6 being the date when all this nonsense began is that it wasn’t planned at all. But then Vecna tried to make it seem like he had chosen that date on purpose by doing the interdimensional merger on November 6 as well. I don’t know what else to say. The show didn’t. So, what the hell am I supposed to draw from?
6. Why Did Will Become Vecna’s Chosen One?
Until Season 4, it seemed like Eleven was the main hero while Will was the secondary hero. There were several scenes showing how Vecna or the Mind Flayer had these grand plans for Eleven. And then all that just went out of the window to make Will Vecna’s main guy. I mean, yeah, sure. I’d have been fine with it, but then what was the payoff to Vecna telling Will that he’d be his spy one last time? Was that just a bunch of empty threats? Wasn’t Will already tapping into Vecna’s mind before that interaction? What changed after Vecna captured Will’s mind? What would have happened if Eleven hadn’t pulled him out of that trance-like state? I simply do not know.
7. Where Were The Kids’ Mind Flayer Particles Going?
It took one whole goddamn season for the protagonists to exorcise Will after he was packed to the gills with those Mind Flayer particles. But Holly and the other kids just burped them out. Holly did it twice! And she was just fine after that. How? What? And where were those particles even going after being vomited? Did the Duffers do all this to frustrate the viewers, or are they just that bad at writing?
8. How Did Eleven Use Her Powers Without Any Sensory Deprivation System?
Eleven either needed that sensory deprivation tank or a cloth over her eyes to focus and enter the void and communicate with someone. When Kali had to use her deception skills, she needed to meditate, and the range of her powers was also limited. But for some reason, in the finale, Eleven managed to talk to Mike without a cloth over her eyes or a sensory deprivation tank. While that could be explained away by saying that Eleven was high on adrenaline and that amplified her powers or something, what about Kali, though? She had been shot, and she was almost dead. And she managed to project a near-perfect image of Eleven from the Hawkins Lab to the rift at the MAC-Z? Are you bloody kidding me? Also, are you telling me that after devising the plan to do that projection thing, Kali just stayed alive even though she was bleeding profusely, while Eleven went to the Abyss, killed Vecna and the Mind Flayer, and then went back to Hawkins? That makes total sense.
9. Where Did Kay And The Military Go?
Into thin air, I suppose. I must point out that the Squawkers had killed multiple military personnel. The army’s presence at Hawkins wasn’t some unsanctioned mission. The stuff they were doing in the Upside Down was. But the containment work they were doing in Hawkins was legit. So, why didn’t the Squawkers face the consequences of their actions against the United States Army? I have no clue. Heck, Hopper went back to being chief of police? After slaughtering all those soldiers? How’s that even possible? Kay was evil. Hence, it kind of made sense for her to go into hiding. Do you know what would have made even more sense? Kay or Hopper figuring out Kali and Eleven’s projection plan instead of Mike. I mean, how did Mike even know about Kali’s powers? We have to assume that Eleven told him? But Kay and Hopper actually saw Kali in action. Heck, even Max and the kids saw her do the projection stuff. And if the Duffers wanted to insinuate that Kay hadn’t given up and was still searching for Eleven, thereby making Kali’s sacrifice a little pointless, that would have been somewhat interesting. Instead of that, the military just disappeared (along with those pregnant mothers that they were pumping with Kali’s blood).
10. Is Mike’s Epilogue Real or Fake?
To be honest, this is the only ambiguous thing about Stranger Things Season 5 that I will accept. I have seen several movies and shows do this thing where the viewers can accept the narrative that the narrator is peddling or think that it’s some extreme form of coping mechanism that the narrator is passing on to us in case we are having a difficult time accepting the fate of some of the characters.
11. Where’s Vic?
After sticking around with the Squawkers all the way to the end, she just disappeared from the epilogue for some reason. We can assume that she broke up with Robin after everything that went down. But that’s the thing: we have to assume. We are not getting paid to assume. The Duffers are getting to make this stuff. It’s their responsibility to address this kind of stuff. If Vic was so unimportant that she didn’t need to be in the epilogue, then maybe she shouldn’t have been in the finale either. However, if she was featured so prominently in the first half of the finale, then she should have been in the epilogue as well.
12. Where’s Suzie?
Does anybody even remember Suzie, Dustin’s girlfriend, who was integral to the characters’ survival in Season 3 and even played an important role in Season 4? And now there’s no trace of her in the finale? And Dustin is supposedly about to romance Stacey, the girl who didn’t want to dance with him on prom night? This is just not okay, period.
13. What Happened to the Russians?
There’s one passing mention of the Russians when Kay was talking about her intention of using superpowered children against the Soviets, and that’s it. After taking such active interest in Hawkins in Season 3 and even in Season 4, I guess they just gave up on trying to make their own Upside Down or going to the Abyss to collect stones that they’d then inject into some kid whose blood would be used to make superpowered babies?
14. Are The Rifts, The Abyss, And The Mind Flayer Gone?
I am going to be honest with you, I thought that the show would end with the hole in the flesh wall in the Upside Down sucking everything into the void, including the Abyss and Earth. I mean, that’s what should have happened if you think about it logically. But after the destruction of exotic material, only the Upside Down got sucked into the void, and then the rifts just switched off? Huh?! Just like that? Sure. What about the Abyss and the Mind Flayer, though? Well, the Abyss is probably still out there, disconnected from Hawkins. And much like the Spider Monster from Season 3, I think the Mind Flayer that we saw in Season 5 was just another physical manifestation, and its original, gaseous form was still up there in the sky. Which was why black particles that the kids vomited kept floating upwards. Why didn’t anyone take any measures to ensure that the Mind Flayer was actually gone? I… I don’t know. In the ending of Season 2, there was that great 180-degree camera rotation shot to reveal its existence. Why not do something similar for Season 5 if it’s still alive? Well, since they didn’t, I guess we should just assume that the Mind Flayer is gone.
15. Where Did All The Upside Down’s Creatures Go?
Stranger Things Season 5 did have its fair share of Demogorgons and Demodogs. But there weren’t any Demobats. Once the characters entered the Upside Down and then went to the Abyss, which was supposedly the home planet of all these creatures, they just up and disappeared. Dustin hypothesized that maybe Vecna was down, and that’s why the creatures weren’t around to stop them from waltzing around in the Upside Down and the Abyss. However, Vecna was alive and kicking. So, that made no sense. The only reasonable explanation is that the team had spent all their money on creating the Mind Flayer. Hence, they didn’t have any left to create some Demogorgons, Demodogs, or Demobats. There’s no lore-based reason that’d make sense here.
16. What Was The Deal With The Exotic Material?
No clue at all. The show featured it in one episode, and then it exploded in the finale. It was holding that fleshy wall together, and it could melt any inorganic material in the Upside Down. Beyond that, I don’t know what the exotic material did.
17. What About The Fake Body Of Will?
Okay, I did say that I won’t bring up anything from the previous seasons, but I have to bring this up because how the hell did the government or those working at Hawkins Lab have a fake body that looked exactly like Will? For the longest time, they didn’t even know that he was the one who had been abducted. And even if they had pictures, how did they recreate it and then present it as if it’s the real thing? It’s the 1980s. 3D printing didn’t exist back then. Based on the puppet doubles used by James Gunn and Guillermo del Toro, nowadays, it’s possible to make photorealistic copies of humans. So, yeah, maybe the authorities did have access to such tech back then.
18. Why Was Will Not Affected By Vecna’s Death?
We all know that Will was connected to the hive mind, right? That’s why he was able to tap into Vecna’s head. So, why was Will unaffected by Vecna’s death and the destruction of the hive mind? Like, shouldn’t it have some kind of physical or psychological effect on him? But, no, nothing at all. Either the Duffers forgot about it, or maybe they had some logic in their minds; they just forgot to show it to the audience.
19. Why Was There Water In The Upside Down’s Hawkins Lab?
There was water in that sensory deprivation water tank in the Upside Down’s Hawkins Lab. There’s no water in the entirety of the Upside Down. But there’s water in that tank because Eleven would need it. Did they shoot a scene where they brought water from Hawkins and poured it into that tank and then forget to show it to us? What’s the logic behind the existence of the water in that tank? I genuinely have no idea. Also, that made me wonder why the characters never carry water with them if they know there won’t be any while they’re traveling through the Upside Down and then the Abyss. I mean, they do a lot of strenuous activity. I guess the Upside Down doesn’t dehydrate you or something.
20. What’s Up With The Fantasy Role-Playing Game Manual In The End Credits?
Much like Will’s narration, this is an unexplained aspect of the show that I will allow. You can treat all 5 seasons of Stranger Things as one big fantasy role playing game that someone was partaking in with their friends. Hence, all the characters that we see are figments of somebody’s imagination. There’s no Hawkins, no Upside Down, no Abyss, no Vecna, and no Mind Flayer. Everyone’s just chill and playing board games; what a life that’d be. Anyway, these are just the questions that were on my mind. If there are some things from the show that you feel have gone unaddressed, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
