[Ed. note: This article contains full spoilers for the series finale of Stranger Things.]
Something seemed wrong around, say, 2016. Whatever your political, economic or religious views, there is no denying that over the past decade our world has veered into a polarized path that most people never expected in the optimistic post-crisis era of the early 2010s. To quote a well-known opinion: we are all living on the “wrong timeline,” but there is no easy way to fix it.
This is not true in Stranger Thingswho offers just such a solution to decades of trauma and horror in his feature-length film. last episode. After launching on Netflix in summer 2016. as an educational sci-fi thriller that can best be described as EET meets X-FilesA decade later, the show culminates in an epic battle between psychic warriors, Molotov cocktail-throwing humans, and a giant CGI monster called the Mind Flayer – all set against the backdrop of an evil alternate reality known as Abyss.
It's an absurd ending to what was once an elaborate horror show with a moody synth soundtrack, but it also feels oddly appropriate. Like finally defeating an impossible Dark Souls boss, the experience of watching these kids somehow defeat a Godzilla-sized foe that represented all their fears and self-doubts was incredibly cathartic, but it was just an appetizer to what was to come.
With the Mind Flayer dead and his accomplice Vecna impaled by a giant stone, our heroes celebrate their victory, but it's not over yet. Vecna is still breathing, and for a second it looks like the character (a man corrupted by evil) might be redeemed. Instead, Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) takes an ax and chops off his head. As she slashes at Vecna's tree-trunk neck, we see flashbacks to him torturing the series' vast cast of characters; A decade of death, violence, pain and suffering is summed up in a few short moments. Then Joyce breaks through and the nightmare finally ends.
The gang detonates a bomb to destroy the “Upside Down World” (which we learned in season five is actually a wormhole connecting our world to the Abyss) and escape, with a couple of Prince songs (“When Doves Cry” followed by “Purple Rain”) setting the tone for their eventual victory. Ahead of the finale's release, Netflix promoted the episode as containing a song that had never been used before on television or film. That's not entirely true: these Prince tracks are famously featured in his 1984 film. Purple rain – but it is still an impressive achievement and points to a broader theme in Stranger Things final.
The prince died in 2016, just a few months earlier. Stranger Things the premiere took place. This was one of the many tragic deaths at the time, looking back, it seems like a foreshadowing of the dark path we were about to embark on. The artist's presence here only enhances the cathartic feeling of watching decades of trauma fade and fade away.
But Stranger Things It's not over yet. The final act reunites the main gang (minus Billy Bobby Brown's Eleven) for the final act. Dungeons and Dragons campaign. When they win evil vampireDungeon Master Mike (Finn Wolfhard) tells the story of where their lives will take them next, envisioning a happy youth for each of them. This is a touching farewell to the characters we love, albeit a little drawn out in an already satisfying ending. Of course, real life also has its problems. All children will experience their share of defeat and heartbreak as they go through their lives, but in the show's final moments we are given a brief respite from both sci-fi horror and reality to imagine that an ideal world is indeed possible.
IN Stranger Thingsevil is finally defeated. If only our own reality were so simple.
