The 5 most convincing theories about how Stranger Things will end

The fifth and final season of Stranger Things is here. What will become of characters like Eleven, Mike, Will, and Hopper? Can they defeat Vecna, the dark entity trying to invade our reality? After nearly 10 years, how will this generational TV show end?

As of this writing, Netflix has released four episodes from the final season, with more to come. In the meantime, fans are trading theories about how the series might end. Some of those theories are nuts, like the idea that the whole story was one long Dungeons & Dragons campaign. I’ll try to focus on the most plausible.

No main characters will die

They can’t kill anyone and still call it a happy ending

Stranger Things is a show with high stakes — our reality might be subsumed by a dark mirror dimension, for heaven’s sake — but it’s reluctant to kill off main characters. When prominent characters die, they’re usually people introduced that season (Barb, Bob Newby, Eddie Munson) or antagonists (Billy, Dr. Brenner).

In season 3, the show seemed to kill off Jim Hopper (David Harbour), the likable, grumpy dad of the group. But then we learned that he’d somehow survived. He’s fine now. At the end of season 4, the plucky Max (Sadie Sink) was briefly killed by Vecna but ended up in a coma, and in season 5 we learn she’s still around in his mind, trying to find a way back to reality. Odds are she will.

As dark as Stranger Things can get, it loves its lead characters too much to kill them. I think the whole of the main cast will come out the other end of this story battered but alive.

No main characters will die, BUT…

A few are in more danger than others

Credit: Netflix

That said, if they’re going to kill off someone, the most obvious candidates are Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton). These two are older teenagers, so losing them wouldn’t be as horrifying as losing one of the kids. Plus, they’re both budding heroes I can see sacrificing themselves for their friends. Finally, they’re both involved in a love triangle with Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), and the show may want to let one of them go so the other can ride off into the sunset with Nancy. Still, I’d put money on both of them surviving.

The other person who should watch out is Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). If the group is to have any hope of destroying Vecna and the Upside Down, Eleven and her psychokinetic powers will be needed. As the unofficial main character of Stranger Things, she’s gone on a hero’s journey that may well end in a noble sacrifice… although I doubt it.

What I can see is a fake-out where it looks like Eleven sacrifices herself to stop Vecna once and for all, only for it to be revealed later that she actually survived, or is at least still out there somewhere. Something similar could happen with Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), who has now developed powers of his own. We don’t get to the end of the show without these two being put in mortal (but survivable) danger.

We’ll finally understand what the Upside Down is

Beware SPOILERS for Stranger Things: The First Shadow below

Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer have promised that the final season will reveal details about the creepy sideways dimension known as the Upside Down. In season 4, we saw a flashback where a young Eleven sends Vecna to the Upside Down, which at that point was a haunted wasteland. Later, the Upside Down transformed into a perverted mirror of Hawkins, IN, with everything frozen in time as it was on the day Eleven opened a large gate to the Upside Down in the series premiere.

The Stranger Things stage play The First Shadow fills in some more details. We learn that the government first made contact with the Upside Down in the 1940s. The Mind Flayer, a looming Lovecraftian entity that’s harried Will for years, was presumably already there. It reached out to a young Henry Creel, the boy who would become Vecna, and gave him his powers. It also changed Henry’s blood type. Henry’s blood was later transfused into pregnant women, including Eleven’s mother. This is how Eleven and the other children in Dr. Brenner’s program got their powers.

This expanded lore seems to back up the idea that the Mind Flayer is the real danger in the Upside Down, with Vecna as its general. We’ll wait for the show to fill in the rest.

Romance!

Who gets hitched, who goes steady, and who flies solo?

Joyce and Hopper talk in Stranger Things season 5

Jim Hopper and Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) have been in an on-again, off-again flirtation for most of the series, and it’s all but guaranteed they’ll get married; in the first episodes of season 5, it’s implied that Hopper has already proposed and that Joyce hasn’t given him an answer yet. A wedding in the series finale could be a nice way for the characters to unwind. They’ll have earned it.

Then there’s Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Max, who were broken up for much of season 4 but who clearly seemed on the path to reconciliation. I’d put the odds of Max coming out of her coma and going steady with Lucas by the end of the series at around 100%.

Circling back to the Nancy-Steve-Jonathan love triangle, since both Steve and Jonathan will live, I predict that Nancy won’t end up with either of them. As the characters all start growing into their adult lives, I think Nancy will go solo for a while, Steve and Jonathan move on to other things, perhaps to reunite later in life.

As for Eleven and Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), the fate of their relationship depends on how the show plays things with Eleven.

The show will end with everyone playing Dungeons & Dragons

Back to the beginning

The Duffers have said that they’ve had the final scene of Stranger Things in mind for a long time. Noah Schnapp told Forbes that “the story started with Will, and it’ll end with Will.” Speaking to Variety, Matt Duffer said that the second-ever scene of the show, where the kids play Dungeons & Dragons, remains his favorite.

Putting all this together, I predict that the final scene of the show will be a bunch of the characters, now older and wiser, sitting down to play D&D. Various cast members have described the ending as “bittersweet” or “melancholy,” and I think this would fits the bill; it will be fun to remember simpler times, but a little sad as we think about how much has changed.

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Anything COULD happen, but these things probably WILL happen

I think these predictions are safe bets. And if I’m completely off the mark, you can always come back here and mock me in the comments.

Another three episodes of Stranger Things will drop on December 25. And the full, two-hour finale will drop on December 31. And if that somehow isn’t enough dark and spooky entertainment for you, there are yet more great supernatural shows out there for you to enjoy.