Stranger Things ending explained: Vecna, the Mindflayer, and a cathartic series finale
In Stranger Things, evil has finally been vanquished. If only our own reality was so simple.
Published 2 hours ago
In Stranger Things, evil has finally been vanquished. If only our own reality was so simple.
The incredible catharsis of Stranger Things’ final episode
Image: Netflix
[Ed. note: This article contains full spoilers for the series finale of Stranger Things.]
Something has seemed wrong since, let’s say, some time in 2016. Whatever your political, economic, or religious affiliations, there’s no denying our world has veered down a polarized path in the last decade, one that most people never saw coming in the optimistic, post-recession era of the early 2010s. To quote a much-memed sentiment, we’re all living in the “wrong timeline” — but there’s no easy, dimension-hopping way to fix it.
That’s not the case in Stranger Things, which offers exactly that solution to a decade of trauma and horror in its movie-length final episode. After launching on Netflix in the summer of 2016 as a taught, science-fiction thriller best-described as E.T. meets The X-Files, the show culminates a decade later with an epic battle between psychic warriors, molotov-cocktail-chucking humans, and a giant CGI monster called The Mindflayer — all set against the backdrop of an evil alternate reality known as The Abyss.
Image: Netflix
It’s an absurd ending to what was once a tightly constructed horror show with a moody synth soundtrack, but it also feels weirdly appropriate. Like finally taking down an impossible Dark Souls boss, the experience of watching these kids somehow defeat a Godzilla-sized enemy that represents all their fears and self-doubts was incredibly cathartic, yet it was only an appetizer for what came next.
With the Mindflayer dead and its partner-in-crime Vecna impaled on a giant rock, our heroes celebrate their victory, but it’s not quite over yet. Vecna is still breathing, and for a second, it looks like the character (a human corrupted by evil) might get redemption. Instead, Joyce Byers (Wynona Rider) picks up an axe and chops his head off. As she hacks at Vecna’s tree-trunk-esque neck, we see flashbacks of all the ways he’s tortured the show’s sprawling cast of characters; a decade of death, violence, pain, and anguish summed up in a few short moments. Then, Joyce cuts clean through and the nightmare finally ends.