Finally, fan theorists can relax. All the speculation and frame-by-frame analysis can end. Stranger Things is over, riding into pop culture history with a feature-length finale that vanquished the bad guys and found ways forward for most of its main characters.

But it wasn’t all thrilling triumphs. There were some clumsy moments that felt like the Duffer Brothers knew they were doing too much—but went ahead and did it anyway. And while a lot got mopped up, some questions remained unanswered, a side effect of having to tend to an abundance of lore, with inevitable inconsistencies cropping up across nine years of television.

“The Rightside Up” begins immediately where “The Bridge” ended. Most of our heroes are now in the Upside Down. Dustin, Steve, Nancy, Mike, Jonathan, Joyce, Lucas, Robin, and Will climb the WSQK tower as the Abyss begins its descent. They claw their way into its wasteland, adding “interdimensional space travelers” to their list of accomplishments.

Like much of Stranger Things season five, there are too many characters crammed into this sequence, but we do get a couple of standout moments: Jonathan and Steve bury the hatchet at last, Joyce and Will do some follow-up bonding, and a very well-armed Nancy volunteers to be the bait when the group faces the Mind Flayer. The Mind Flayer battle scenes are fantastic; who knew Vecna’s kid-exploitation lair could also transform into a fully mobile and alarmingly huge spider-like creature? Not every choice in this episode was the right one, but whoever gave the Duffers a blank check for “giant monster special effects” should be commended.

© Netflix

Meanwhile, Eleven, Kali, Hopper, and a very glib Murray head to the Upside Down version of the Hawkins Lab, which has a perfectly operational version of Dr. Brenner’s psychic journey-enabling water tank. Eleven’s plan: enter Vecna’s mind in the Abyss and prevent him from crashing the planet into Earth, aiming to end him while Nancy and company free Holly and the other kids he’s imprisoned. Hopper’s there to remind her to come back alive; Kali, meanwhile, believes both she and Eleven must die to end the cycle of violence they’ve unwittingly become a part of and that Dr. Kay is dead-set on continuing.

Speaking of Dr. Kay, her military goons—who are focused only on capturing Eleven, despite the apocalyptic event literally closing in on them—manage to wreck aspects of this carefully plotted scheme, menacing everyone still in Hawkins (Max, Vickie, Erika, Mr. Clarke) while they’re at it.