How Stranger Things Season 5 SHOULD Have Ended

 

Let’s talk about the Stranger Things finale.

Now that the dust has finally settled on the final chapters of the saga, we need to have an honest, difficult conversation. For years, this show has been the cultural anchor of streaming television. We’ve watched these kids grow up, we’ve dissected every frame for clues, and we’ve theorized endlessly. So, when the credits rolled on the absolute end, the feeling wasn't the triumphant heartbreak we expected. It was... hollow.

Was it horrific? No. It didn't "Game of Thrones" us completely; the production value was there, and the actors gave it their all. But did it land the way the biggest show on Netflix should have? Did it pay off a decade of storytelling? In my opinion: absolutely not.

Personally, I felt deeply let down by several core narrative choices. The reveal of the Mind Flayer’s true nature felt reductive, turning a cosmic horror into a second-fiddle lackey. The defeat of Vecna—the big bad we’ve feared since Season 4—felt surprisingly easy, lacking the grit and cost of previous battles. And don't even get me started on that 45-minute epilogue that seemed to drift aimlessly, wrapping things up with a bow that felt too neat for a show built on trauma and danger.

As a massive fan, I couldn’t just let it sit. I’ve spent days replaying the scenes in my head, reimagining how the puzzle pieces could have fallen into place for a darker, more impactful, and emotionally resonant conclusion. I wanted an ending that respected the lore, honored the characters (especially the ones sidelined), and left us stunned.

So, here is my detailed version of the ending. This is how Stranger Things Season 5 should have ended.

(Warning: Spoilers ahead for the actual season and major spoilers for my rewrite!)

1. Fixing the Villain Hierarchy: Henry vs. The Mind Flayer

One of the biggest missed opportunities in the finale was the dynamic between Vecna (Henry Creel) and the Mind Flayer. The show positioned Henry as subservient to the Flayer, or at best, a partner who needed the entity to execute his will. This felt contradictory to everything we know about Henry—his god complex, his hatred of humanity, and his desire for absolute order.

The Fix: I would have flipped the script completely. Instead of Henry being a pawn who required the Mind Flayer's power, the twist should have been that Henry Creel reached a level of psychic darkness so profound that he was actually controlling the Mind Flayer.

This recontextualizes the entire series. We know Henry explored the Abyss (Dimension X) after the cave incident. In the stage play The First Shadow, it’s implied Henry always sought to dominate the natural order. By confirming he succeeded, we explain why the Mind Flayer appeared dormant or "hibernating" in the Abyss for so long—it wasn't waiting; it was being suppressed and harnessed by Vecna’s will.

This changes the stakes immediately. Vecna isn't just a wizard borrowing power; he is the Master. He becomes the ultimate channel for the Abyss's darkness, explaining his massive power boost in the final season. There is no other entity in his way. He has bent a cosmic god to his will, which makes his eventual defeat all the more necessary—and dangerous.

2. The "True Form" Boss Fight

In the version we got, the final battle felt split and slightly confused, bouncing between locations without a unified sense of dread. Here is how the pacing should have worked to maximize the horror and give us the two-stage boss fight we deserved.

Phase 1: The False Victory The group engages Vecna in the physical world (or the mental projection of it). This fight needs to be visceral. It shouldn't just be telekinetic hand-waving; it should resemble the intensity of the Season 4 finale but dialed up to eleven. The environment should warp, memories should be weaponized, and the physical toll on Eleven and the group should be immense.

Eventually, through a coordinated effort of the entire party, they manage to kill Vecna. His physical form is destroyed. Silence falls. The audience breathes a sigh of relief. The characters start to cry tears of joy. We think it's over. We think they won.

Phase 2: The Shadow Unleashed This is where the trap springs. The "victory" is actually the catalyst for doom. By killing Vecna, the group unknowingly breaks the "leash" holding the Mind Flayer back. With Henry’s consciousness extinguished, the Mind Flayer is released from his control.

It shouldn't look like a fantasy RPG monster or a spider made of meat. It should return to its terrifying roots: The Shadow Entity. A massive, swirling, chaotic darkness that dwarfs the physical threat of Vecna. The physical form we saw in the show was too "creature feature." The Shadow is eldritch horror—scarier because it's incomprehensible. It doesn't want to rule; it wants to consume.

Suddenly, the victory turns into a desperate, frantic fight for survival against a god-like entity that is no longer being held back by a human mind. The sky turns purple, the air turns to ash, and the group realizes they haven't won—they've just opened the door to something much worse.

3. The Return of the Hive Army

An element that felt strangely absent from the finale was the sheer scale of the threat. We’ve seen Demogorgons and Demodogs before, but for the end of the world, the enemy presence felt thin. Where were the legions?

In this rewrite, once the Mind Flayer is unleashed, it instantly wakes up the entire hive mind. I’m talking about a full-scale invasion force. An army of Demogorgons, thousands of Demodogs, and skies blackened by swarms of Demobats.

The stakes need to feel impossible. The group is no longer fighting to win; they are fighting to breathe. This overwhelming force chases them from the Abyss into the Upside Down. We should see the landscape of the Upside Down literally crawling with monsters, a living carpet of teeth and claws. This forces a high-speed, claustrophobic retreat where every shadow contains a threat, making the journey to the portal a suicide mission.

4. The Ultimate Sacrifice: Will Byers

We all expected a major sacrifice. It’s a staple of the genre. The show gave us one, but it felt like the wrong character—a safe choice that didn't fundamentally alter the DNA of the show. In my version, the true hero of the finale is Will Byers.

Will started this story. He was the boy who went missing, the boy with "True Sight." It is only fitting that he ends it.

The Scene: The group is cornered in the Upside Down. The swarm is closing in from all sides. The portal back to Hawkins is visible, but the Mind Flayer’s shadow is blocking the path, ready to spill into the real world. Hopper and Murray have set the bomb timer to seal the gate, just like in the original plan. The clock is ticking.

The group is screaming for Will to run, to come with them. But Will realizes something they don't. He feels the Hive Mind buzzing in his neck, louder than ever. He realizes he is the only one who can mentally interface with the entity. He is the only one who can hold the door shut.

Will stops running. He turns back toward the darkness. He connects to the Hive Mind, using every ounce of his trauma and strength to force the creatures back, clearing the path for Eleven, Mike, and the others.

The tragedy is that his connection to the Upside Down is exactly what kills him. As the dimension collapses from the bomb and the gate seals, the psychic backlash tears him apart. He doesn't die as a victim hiding in Castle Byers; he dies as a warrior, the Savior of Hawkins. The Mind Flayer isn't "killed" (can you kill a shadow?), but it is trapped in the Abyss forever, with the bridge destroyed and its only tether—Will—severed.

It’s haunting, it’s heartbreaking, but it gives Will the agency and heroism he was denied for so long. It brings his arc full circle: from the boy who was taken, to the man who stood his ground.

5. Fixing the Kali (008) Arc

Let’s address the return of Kali (Eight). In the show, her reappearance felt like a checkbox, and her death was small. For a character with illusion powers who shares a traumatic origin with Eleven, she deserved a narrative climax that mirrored El’s journey.

The Confrontation: For years, the tension between Kali’s vengeful philosophy ("kill them all") and Hopper’s protective, moral approach has been the two poles of Eleven's development. In my version, this ideological battle becomes a physical one.

Kali, sensing the end is near, tries to manipulate Eleven. She casts illusions, showing El visions of Hopper "holding her back," trying to convince her that they need to burn the world down to be safe. Hopper, being the protective father he is, intervenes. He calls out Kali’s toxicity, refusing to let her poison El’s mind.

Kali snaps. She uses her powers to torture Hopper, making him relive the death of his daughter Sara, over and over. It is a cruel, psychological violation.

The Choice: Eleven is forced to make an impossible choice. She sees that Kali is consumed by the same darkness that took Henry Creel—an inability to let go of the past. To save her father figure, the man who gave her a home, Eleven is forced to kill her "sister."

It isn't a triumphant superhero moment. It’s a tragedy. Eleven weeps as she does it. But it solidifies Hopper as El’s true family. It makes Kali’s death meaningful—she serves as a mirror of what Eleven could have become without love. It raises the emotional stakes of the finale significantly, moving it beyond just "monsters vs. humans" to a battle for Eleven's soul.

6. The Real Epilogue: Eleven vs. The Military

The 45-minute "goodbye" epilogue we got was far too soft. It felt like the ending of a different, gentler show. The reality is, the US Military and Dr. Kay (Dr. K) wouldn't just pack up their trucks and leave because the monsters were gone. They wanted Eleven. She is a biological weapon to them.

Instead of a peaceful timeskip, the immediate aftermath of Will’s death should have been a final, rage-fueled stand against the human villains.

The Battle: Grief-stricken by Will's death and forced to kill her sister, Eleven is done running. When Dr. Kay tries to take her into custody "for her own safety," Eleven turns her full power on the military forces.

This gives the character of Dr. Kay actual purpose—she becomes the final symbol of the "Lab." We see Eleven dismantling tanks, crushing weapons, and systematically wiping out the project. It’s not about murder; it’s about liberation. It symbolizes the end of the "lab rat" era of her life. The past (the military) tries to cage the present, and the present destroys it. Only then, when the helicopters are grounded and the threats are neutralized, can the survivors truly rest.

7. Clarifying the Lore (Dimension X)

Finally, the show left the backstory of the Cave and Dimension X frustratingly vague, relying heavily on viewers having seen the stage play The First Shadow. That is simply not fair to the global audience who can't fly to London or New York.

We needed a dedicated, 10-minute flashback sequence showing young Henry’s arrival in the Abyss. We needed to see him discovering the Mind Flayer, not just hearing him monologue about it. We needed to witness the moment he realized he could control it—the moment the hierarchy flipped.

This visual context would have grounded the entire final battle. It would have shown us exactly what the Abyss is, why it predates the Upside Down, and how Henry corrupted an ancient, neutral ecosystem into a weapon of war. Without this, the lore feels incomplete.

Conclusion

Stranger Things will always be a legendary show. It defined a generation of streaming TV and reignited our love for 80s nostalgia. But "good" isn't "perfect," and "safe" isn't "satisfying."

While the ending we got didn't tank the legacy like Game of Thrones, it played it safe. It lacked the grit, the high-stakes tragedy, and the narrative courage that made Season 4 so incredible. By giving Will the hero’s death, making the Mind Flayer a cosmic horror again, and letting Eleven finish the fight against the government, we could have had a finale that wasn't just "okay"—it could have been a masterpiece.

What do you think? Did you prefer the ending we got, or do you think Will should have been the one to make the sacrifice? Let me know in the comments below!