# Stranger Things - Final Season
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, netflix
**Created:** [July 16, 2025, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926 "2025-07-16T17:13:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 7
### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2026, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/121 "2026-01-02T18:14:05Z")
Helps.
Just not with where the mind flayer rock came from, who the guy with the suitcase was, how he ended up there … I’m thinking this is the same suitcase in Pulp Fiction somehow myself! (I can’t be the only one to think that after the first cut away as the suitcase began to get opened…)
Thanks though!
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### Author:  [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2026, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/122 "2026-01-02T18:19:52Z")
Yeah, the suitcase guy, the rock and all is a major part that doesn’t get explained in the show.
As for the suitcase, I’m going with the theory that Marsellus Wallace’s soul is the Mind Flayer.
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### Author:  [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2026, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/123 "2026-01-02T18:26:48Z")
From what I’ve read (I haven’t watched the stage show, either), it started with what was essentially the Stranger Things version of the “Philadelphia Experiment” in WWII, which resulted in the US learning about the Abyss when the Eldridge didn’t become invisible but was instead transported to the Abyss and back. That led to additional experiments, which led to the rock somehow making it across from the Abyss.
The suitcase guy was apparently a Soviet spy (or maybe just a conscientious sort?) who thought it would be a good idea to get it out of the hands of the US government. Enter Henry and the events that followed. It turns out exposure to the rock and/or the Mind Flayer not only gave him powers but also radically altered his blood, hence the later experiments injecting his (and later Kali’s) blood into pregnant women to reproduce the effect.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2026, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/124 "2026-01-02T18:32:14Z")
Hey, did Linda Hamilton die? I don’t remember seeing her die on screen.
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### Author:  [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2026, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/125 "2026-01-02T18:58:54Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> Kali didn’t die. She might not even have gotten shot. All of that was an illusion for Hopper’s sake.
Yes, this is the only way I see El surviving.
Mike’s story requires El convincing Kali to trick people and let El live, while Kali stays to die (shot or not). I don’t see this happening, as Kali is the one that was trying to convince El to stay inside during the collapse in the first place.
Maybe on a rewatch there will be clues or foreshadowing that Kali getting shot is an illusion. One thing I saw\[1\] says that while standing in the gate El’s fingers were twitching, just like the illusion Kali. I have not confirmed this, and don’t intend to rewatch it anytime soon.
* * *
1. apologies to the poster if it was in this thread, but I don’t think so
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2026, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/126 "2026-01-02T19:02:54Z")
> [@echoreply](#):
>
> Mike’s story requires El convincing Kali to trick people and let El live, while Kali stays to die (shot or not). I don’t see this happening, as Kali is the one that was trying to convince El to stay inside during the collapse in the first place.
I’m not too opposed to Kali’s death, from a character perspective. Keep in mind the trauma the two of them experienced:
1. El was tortured by the doctors, escaped and found a family, fought various monsters and extradimensional beasts while supported by her family, fell in love, was chased by the military, watched people die, and came up with a plan, supported by her family, to win.
2. Kali was tortured by the doctors, escaped and found a family, watched the military murder her entire family, was locked in a room where she underwent nonstop sonic torture and was vampirized by the military, briefly escaped to realize she was the tool of torture for various other people, then was recaptured and tortured for years until, like, two days ago.
As fucked up as El’s life has been, Kali’s has been unimaginably worse. I can certainly accept a story where she’s suicidal, and her big revelation at the end is that El doesn’t have to die alongside her.
But I prefer the story where she realizes she doesn’t have to die.
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### Author:  [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2026, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/127 "2026-01-02T19:10:11Z")
No, Kay’s fate was left unresolved.
As to El… I don’t think she was ever even on the truck.
In the last scene of her with the group, she stood up and meekly followed Mike. No clutching her ears in pain, no fetal position on the floor. In the next shot, she’s just gone.
What does that mean for the El-is-alive theory? Not much. She and Kali could have both died at the epicenter, El could have left Kali and died as shown, or either/both could have escaped. (Less likely for Kali, but El could have gotten to the gate first via her jumping.)
We were shown earlier that Kali has a distance limit on her illusions, but what that distance might be is murky.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2026, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/128 "2026-01-02T20:39:29Z")
By the way, can you believe that in a few months, Prince will have been dead for 10 years? An entire decade gone by.
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### Author:  [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2026, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/129 "2026-01-03T02:52:42Z")
Just finished watching. It was nice of Vecna to let the kids with glasses keep them on.
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### Author:  [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2026, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/130 "2026-01-03T05:59:38Z")
> [@echoreply](#):
>
> One thing I saw says that while standing in the gate El’s fingers were twitching, just like the illusion Kali. I have not confirmed this, and don’t intend to rewatch it anytime soon.
Her finger did glitch, but we only see that happen in Mike’s version of the flashback. When it happens in real time, the finger doesn’t glitch. Since Mike’s version of what happened is a “I choose to believe” version, I’d say a glitchy finger isn’t really evidence of much.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2026, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/131 "2026-01-03T09:08:41Z")
> [@Cumberdale](#):
>
> It was nice of Vecna to let the kids with glasses keep them on.
Henry wore glasses, maybe it was an act of solidarity.
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### Author:  [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2026, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/132 "2026-01-03T14:19:06Z")
> [@Cumberdale](#):
>
> It was nice of Vecna to let the kids with glasses keep them on.
Why would he take them off? A properly fitted pair of glasses aren’t going to fall off without significant tossing around and I don’t recall that happening.
Plus, leaving them on might make his fantasy/dreamscape for them easier to maintain.
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2026, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/133 "2026-01-03T18:51:58Z")
Well their real physical bodies were dragged around and flipped about. Kind of odd they stayed on including after being attached to the Mindflayer with those mouth hoses. But in the fantasy world he has created in his mind he rescued them and they are in wonderful place. Of course he’d create it with their glasses.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2026, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/134 "2026-01-03T18:52:53Z")
> [@zbuzz](#):
>
> Her finger did glitch, but we only see that happen in Mike’s version of the flashback. When it happens in real time, the finger doesn’t glitch. Since Mike’s version of what happened is a “I choose to believe” version, I’d say a glitchy finger isn’t really evidence of much.
She did kind of disappear in the original shot of the destruction(?) of that land. Right?
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2026, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/135 "2026-01-03T18:58:26Z")
So, I guess Barb isn’t coming back?
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2026, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/136 "2026-01-03T19:04:24Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> So, I guess Barb isn’t coming back?.
I know you are joking, but I do actually believe they showed her dead body at some point. I think a lot of people were wondering and so they do see her dead in the Upside Down. It’s been awhile, though.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2026, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/137 "2026-01-03T19:06:29Z")
You’re probably right. I can barely remember what happened in Season 4.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2026, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/138 "2026-01-03T19:20:02Z")
Very satisfying ending.
I thought the Science Teacher was doomed when he raised a big red flag talking to Erika.
> [@hogarth](#):
>
> By the way, I really loved the D&D-style art in the closing credits.
I loved that detail.
I liked the final song was heroes by Bowie. Nice touch.
I loved the passing of the torch (or DM screen) from Mike and friends to Holly and friends.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2026, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/139 "2026-01-03T19:58:15Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#):
>
> I liked the final song was heroes by Bowie. Nice touch.
They definitely had a hefty budget for song rights. (Not sure how much the Butthole Surfers charge, though.)
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2026, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranger-things-final-season/1020926/140 "2026-01-03T21:22:19Z")
> [@hogarth](#):
>
> By the way, I really loved the D&D-style art in the closing credits.
Here’s a little scrap of an article about it.
> **[The Duffer Brothers Took Inspiration From 'Lord of the Rings' for the...](https://gizmodo.com/stranger-things-season-5-finale-end-credits-dnd-lord-of-the-rings-2000704937)**
>
> 'Dungeons &Dragons' was the obvious reference, but Peter Jackson's fantasy trilogy also played a hand in how the Netflix series wrapped up its final episode.
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