In the Stranger Things Season 5/series finale, Eleven appears to make a heroic sacrifice to save her friends. With that, she finally brings an end to the military's continued experiments with the Upside Down and the pregnant women they hope will give birth to a new Eleven.
While it appeared that she died, Mike posits during one final Dungeons & Dragons game that Kali might have created an illusion of El, allowing her to escape and start a new life (finally reaching the waterfalls she'd once dreamed about). Ultimately, it's left up to the viewer to decide whether that happy ending really happened.
Not everyone likes this type of ambiguity—especially with the final episode of a TV series as beloved as this one—and in an interview with Variety (via SFFGazette.com), co-creator Ross Duffer confirmed that he and Matt always had a bittersweet send-off in mind for the teenager.
"Eleven represents, in a lot of ways, the magic of childhood. And we knew for our kids to be able to grow up, the magic had leave Hawkins," he shared. "There was never a version that we had written where it was Eleven down in that basement. It was never going to be that simple and that easy."
Matt added, "The question was, which of those choices is Eleven going to choose? And if you, like Mike and the others, choose to believe that she is alive somewhere, then she picked something in the middle. But either way, it’s a completely selfless and heroic act on Eleven’s part."
"I mean, you’ve seen all those pregnant women, and how many children are going to be born, potentially, using her blood, how the cycle will exist, and how many other kids will go through what she went through," he continued. "And she’s making damn sure that that never happens again."
He went on to confirm that Eleven, dead or alive, isn't communicating with Mike during graduation. According to Ross, there's also no scenario where she one day comes back to Hawkins and reunites with her friends and family.
"If she were alive, the way I would see it is no. Any contact would risk bringing her back out in the open and starting the cycle again," he confirmed. "So, in the story that Mike’s telling, I don’t think he sees a version where they reconnect."
Elsewhere in the Stranger Things finale, we see a young Henry open a briefcase containing a pulsing red and black stone. Seemingly a piece of The Abyss or Dimension X, it's what gives him his powers and ultimately leads to his transformation into Vecna.
While that's been touched on in the Stranger Things: The First Shadow stage show, the Duffer Brothers confirmed that the stone is tied to their upcoming spin-off, despite it having a "completely different mythology" that's not "a deep exploration of the Mind Flayer or anything like that." However, as Matt put it, "it will answer some of the loose threads that are remaining."
"We’re actually really excited, and it’s very exciting to work with a clean slate: completely new characters, new town, new world, new mythology," he added, confirming that there will be "no common characters" between Stranger Things and this spin-off.
The penultimate episode of the series, "The Bridge," featured Will's divisive coming-out scene. On platforms like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, it's received overwhelmingly negative ratings, with some signs of potential review-bombing.
Asked if they were prepared for a "homophobic campaign," Matt said, "No. I mean, no is the honest truth. Because it is, as Ross said, something we’ve been building for a really long time. I always say, Ross and I are many things, but subtle is not one of those things!"
Ross noted, "We’re proud of the episode, and we’re proud of the scene, and proud of Noah, who gave a really brave, very vulnerable performance." Matt later said, "I’ve been texting with [Noah] a lot, but texting with him specifically after that scene and after that episode aired. And he’s in a really good place. He’s very proud of the scene, and we’re proud of the scene."
Stranger Things Season 5 is now streaming on Netflix in its entirety.