STRANGER THINGS SEASON 5 FINALE Ending Explained & WTF Easter Eggs!

This will be my video for the Stranger Things Season 5 finale episode 8.

There's so much to talk about, so many WTF moments, so many easter eggs, so many callbacks

to the very first episode.

It is probably going to take a couple of rewatches to fully unpack this.

There were so many plot threads, so many cliffhanger, so many storylines that they had

to pay off.

They really need like six hours to do it in a completely satisfying way.

On top of that, there were just hard drives and hard drives full of deleted scenes, footage

that they shot for the episodes that never actually made it to screen.

We will probably learn more about those in the next couple of days, so I will do a deleted

scenes video alternate storylines alternate ending in addition to like my full longer

breakdown videos in the next couple of days.

The episode title was the right side up, which is a reference to the normal dimension Earth,

which ironically, when you look at the configuration of how they're visualized in space,

the way the diver's visualized them, technically sits on the bottom here in his upside-down

and frame, so the regular world is more likely upside-down, technically, although upside-down

and right-side upper relative terms, depending on your perspective, which also plays into

Vecta and the kids' perspectives, the mind-flairs perspective, because of all the reveals

about the mind-flair.

Depending on whose perspective you're taking, which dimension is the right dimension or the

better dimension.

But getting to the real real big stuff like biggest questions that were answered, what

was really going on with the mind-flair this whole time, I feel like they confirmed most

of our biggest theories.

I talked about this in my previous videos too, how the mind-flair was really pulling the

strings on this the whole time, and how we've been manipulating Vecta ever since young

Henry Creel got trapped in the caves when he was a little boy.

Basically confirming that you did have to watch the stranger things for Shadow Stage

Play in order to get critical backstory, probably going to go down to one of the biggest

criticisms of season 5 is that you did have to watch a stage play that was only available

in a couple parts of the world.

Me neither did most people did not see that stage play, but at least they did give us the

cliff notes version of the reveals why he moved to Hawkins in the first place like what

happened, what was in the briefcase, all the troubles he had during the events of the stage

play, all the terrible things that he does over the years when he was a little boy.

All now confirmed to be because he was under the influence of the mind-flair, and also

because of what Dr. Brenner did abusing him at the same time, so he was being attacked

from both sides, so no wonder why he turned out so crazy.

Also confirmed that it was the mind-flair that gave him powers when it entered his body,

like the black smoke of the mind-flair, its organic material entered his body, which is also

why you see it leaving the kids when they're detached from the tubes, so even though

we saw a physical body, like to make a Star Wars reference, a Death Star that was the

mind-flair, like the mind-flair, is the Death Star of this series.

Is actual natural state, is just that cloud-like structure you see, and that's how it

takes over people, it just enters their body, like this cloud-like substance.

Basically, mind-flair particles inside everything.

They confirmed that mind-flair had been gaslighting him this whole time, making him even

more afraid to re-enter the caves in his memories so that he would never remember the truth

of what really happened.

Will doesn't exactly give him a mind-space therapy session, but he does talk to him inside

his mind, and Henry Creel does overcome his fears to actually step inside the cave.

If I love the way they reveal the tube, basically through his perspective, because he's

finally remembering things.

Even though you could make a lot of Star Wars return to the Jedi Comps here, he doesn't

go full Darth Vader to Anakin Skywalker.

There is no actual redemption here.

He's done too many awful things, killed too many people, mess with too many people abuse

too many people.

But it really is a Darth Vader Emperor situation in the mind-flair is the Emperor this

whole time.

Also, though the confirmation that the flesh castle is the real physical body of the

mind-flair, we all thought I think we assumed that when we saw for the first time like

oh, it's the dark crystal castle that is probably the body of the mind-flair because it

looks like an upside-down version of the mind-flair, which basically just climbs out of the

earth in turns into a giant spider, which is also meant to be a callback to all the drawings.

This is why young Henry Creel started drawing all the spiders and became obsessed with spiders.

So the idea is that the young Henry Creel is still fundamentally a good boy inside the

vekna character here, but he's being perverted, manipulated by the mind-flair this whole

time to do all these terrible things.

Now when you go back and you rewatch season four flashbacks with him inside Brenner's

program and Brenner doing all these things, all the added context sort of changes things

and makes it way more dynamic.

The whole idea here is that the mind-flairs true goal this whole time was to absorb the

normal dimension, take it over, and consume everything the same way they imply that it did

with the Abyss dimension, which is what the scientists were trying to tell young Henry

Creel, don't let it in otherwise it will consume everything like it consumed everything

inside the Abyss, which is why it looks like a dead dimension basically.

This is kind of its thing, like it's a multi-verse type of villain, we're just slowly

absorbs other dimensions, one dimension at a time, consumes everything then moves on to the

next dimension.

Her dig, the only real main death that we wind up getting in the episode if it wasn't

clear is Colley, killed by the military trying to save 11, so she did die a good noble

death, the bigger surprise though if she did not betray the group and she also wants to

help 11 by casting that one final illusion to allow 11 to live a normal life inside the

normal dimension without having to die herself.

There are probably a lot of you watching this that also predicted this that she would cast

an illusion just to make the group think that 11 sacrificed herself so that nobody would

be looking for her after this.

Like everybody even the military thinks that she's dead, meaning that she can now just

live her life in this Nordic attack.

It seems like she's in the far and north at the end of the series.

Probably the bigger question with that is will she ever try to ever contact the rest of

the group?

Will she ever try to contact Mike again at some point?

You remember the diver said that they were doing a live action spin-off series with a different

group of characters at some point, so we will see how they try to invoke what happened

during the main series like how they tie it because even though they tell you what happened

to all the different characters and what they're doing going forward in their lives,

a lot of those didn't feel like direct teasers for spin-offs because the differ said

that the characters will be completely different in a decent outside Hawkins.

11 does get her Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader battle inside their version of a Death

Star, the body of the mind-flair itself.

It will also does help her fight him, but it doesn't light up the full 20 dice roll

Dungeons & Dragons comp that people thought it was going to be because they all three will

11 and Kali together at up to 20.

Even though at different points they use their powers so you could say they do add up to

a 20 dice roll during the episode.

They did all three at the same time on screen, fight, vex not together.

Probably one of the bigger surprises with how they actually kill vex not is that they let

joys be the one to actually deliver the killing blows as in multiple because it took

her a lot, a lot of wax to actually get through that head.

That was not quick, it definitely hurt.

To be fair, he deserved it.

But they implied that as Vecna actually dies like he permadized the mind-flair also starts

to die because it needed him to survive.

Like I think part of the idea is that it was parasitic in that fact and that's why it entered

young Henry Kril because it did need him to continue surviving.

Here's the thing that will screw with your mind though.

If you think that all the powers on the show came from the mind-flair because Henry Kril

only got powers when the mind-flair entered his body and then 11 got powers because she

got Henry Kril's blood so she got a little piece of the mind-flair inside of her too.

Does that mean that the mind-flair is technically still alive inside 11 because we never

saw black smoke come out of 11's mouth.

Are there still some mind-flair particles inside 11 because she still alive?

You can let me know what you think in the comments because they leave that pretty open-ended.

All the 12 kids survived predictably.

They rescued everyone and made it back to the regular dimension.

When the Defears said that they got to use a song that had never been licensed to other

movies or TV shows before, I think they were referring to the Prince songs that they

used in the episode.

They used when Dev's cry and purple ring, it could have been one of those songs.

I don't know if those have appeared in movies or TV shows before I can't remember off

the top of my head.

This was famous for not licensing his music to TV shows or movies or commercials for a

long, long time until after he died, his family then started allowing TV shows and movies

to use it.

So the reason why the Defears can use Prince songs is because Prince's family is like,

yes, please give us your money.

When everybody makes it back through the portal to the normal dimension and the military

tries to capture them, Collie helps 11 with her illusion to make it seem like she stayed

behind in the upside down when the exotic matter detonates, collapsing the bridge, makes

it seem like she dies, but even if he didn't skip ahead to the ending to see that she

did survive, when the frame goes to black, you hear a heartbeat briefly.

I don't think they would have shown that heartbeat if they didn't want to telecast that

they were going to reveal she was still alive, like there wouldn't be a heartbeat if she

were still out there somewhere.

Then they used the rest of the finale for a big, big epilogue extended scene to show

you what happens to all the characters.

There's an 18 month time jump to the year 1989 and all the kids are graduating from school.

A lot of people predicted this too, that's why they're watching Indiana Jones in the

last crusade because it came out in 1989.

They remind you that the only real big characters who actually die are Vekna and Callie,

although they think that 11 died until Mike reveals the truth at the end of the episode,

like, oh, by the way, she didn't die.

Robert has not been the DJ since Fast Hands Jimmy came back all the trouble went away,

so Fast Hands came back.

Nancy is no longer the station manager, the older group of kids basically went off to college

with the exception of Steve, who stayed in town because he wants all the little chicks

the little nuggets, six little nuggets, he's become the coach, the local baseball team,

Derek is on his team and he's also the sex-ed teacher at Hawkins High School.

Basically putting down his roots, getting ready to get married and they have a bunch of jokes

about him dating a whole bunch of different girls, like, oh, who's going to be the right

one?

I thought you said the last one was going to be the right one.

The station max are back in their relationship, going strong seems like Erica builds the

confetti device for Dustin's big health-york club flourish, is the valetorian he is the

valetorian now, Mr. Clark is probably extremely proud, he's like his star student.

Hopper helps Mike deal with the trauma of losing 11, although you remember Mike now knows

the 11 survived, so he's probably just upset that he can't be with her even though he knows

that she's still alive.

But the way they played this scene, it seems like he thinks that she's dead.

I think the way they filmed this is they just wanted to keep up the life for a couple more

minutes until they make the full reveal, so the audience like us watching it still thinks

that 11 might be dead.

When Hopper and Mike talk about the someplace far away with the three waterfalls that Mike

talked to 11 about in the previous block of episodes, 11 basically goes to that place.

At the end of the episode, like the imply that she's found a place that looks like that

in the far north, it seems like a Nordic town.

Derek and Holly seem like their best friends now.

Derek is also part of Holly's Dungeons & Dragons group.

We'll get there in a second.

Karen also displaying her scars from the Devagon with pride.

She's not hiding that like she's made peace with herself.

Probably not as much of a whino now anymore.

Ted is totally fine.

People were wondering about him like what happened to him, the show just forgot about him

during volume two.

But you know, he was fine.

They just didn't have time to deal with what was happening to him at the hospital when

the result going down.

Jonathan video tapes their graduation because he's in college studying to become a filmmaker.

Justin's graduation speech is validatory in heavily references, Dungeons & Dragons

tropes calling back to Eddie, and a big flourish with the health our club to give Eddie

another big shout out to, wearing a new health our club style t-shirt, which I'm sure Netflix

will sell as merch in real life that you can buy.

His whole speech like his adventures and friends and enemies like Beckna to Kiyata good, Kiyata

bad alignments, the speech they're all about trying to put a positive spin on the chaos

of the series and how it forced everyone to evolve as people made them stronger and through

the changes they're all better people because of what they went through.

Basically saying, weren't the real stranger things all the friends we made along the way.

Whenever somebody starts cheering, and Mike seems like he detects the same kind of feedback

through the speakers that remind him of the sound of the military's devices that blocked

11s powers.

It seems like it's a sign of 11, also being there in spirit.

And because now we know she's still alive in the normal dimension, she might actually

secretly be using her powers to sort of be there in spirit and in mind, so to speak, like

she's in a tub somewhere, like she's on the other side of the world inside a tub, visiting

them in her mind space, so that she can be there with them while this is happening without

her body actually being there.

There's a real quick moment where it seems like Dustin might finally find himself a potential

girlfriend, but Mike convinces them instead of going to her party to all play Dungeons and

Dragons again is a callback to the very first scene of episode one of season one, like

all the way back to the beginning.

Steve Nancy, Jonathan and Robin talk about

their lives now and all the different colleges that they're going to and how they're all

going to get back to get like the group is still together this group because they're

going to work on Jonathan's film together now, so like the group is staying together

going forward, they're actually still working together in the so-good friends.

It's kind of the same vibe with the younger kids too, like even though they're all going

to different places now and their lives different colleges, the group is still kind of

together.

Nancy also surprisingly maybe not surprisingly reveal she dropped out of her college, Emerson

where she was going and got a job at the Harold newspaper is trying to be a real reporter.

Hopper enjoys finally get engaged, he proposes to her, they've been going out since the

beginning of season five, the only difference now has they've been living together for a while

in now that officially getting married, Hopper also has a bunch of easter eggs that he references

to.

When he implies they should move somewhere nicer outside of Hawkins like near a beach and

talks about going to Mon Talk, Mon Talk is actually the name of the original pitch that

the Duffer's gave to Netflix when they made the Stranger Things series like it is the original

idea for Stranger Things.

Then we see Mike as the Dungeon Master, this final game that they play, it's a call back to

during episode one of the series he was the Dungeon Master, the only difference now in present

date is that Max is here with them.

The whole twist with the Mage of St. Marcovia stepping out of the portal miraculously

to save their Dungeons and Dragons game is also a comp to 11 still being alive and maybe coming

back at some point in the future like just stepping out of a portal.

Hey everybody, Misscha.

There's another montage of the characters.

I'm assuming the movie that Max and Lucas are watching here is Indiana Jones and last Crusade

because that's been playing at the theater recently.

Dustin still hang out with Steve on the regular.

It seems like they go on camping trips because of that trailer behind his truck.

Will seems like he's going to gay bars find himself a boyfriend.

Mike then decides to become a writer and its implied he turns their adventures into a book

series.

Since the Duffers said they were heavily inspired by Stephen King, it would be like saying

Mike turns into Stephen King and his books are based on all the things that happened to

them.

With the exception being that he leaves out some of the details like the actual truth about

what really happened to the Mage who is 11.

All because they're still trying to uphold the secret of what really happened to her,

although the group thought that she was dead until Mike tells him the truth and reveals

what Cali did casting that final illusion.

We get the full reveal of 11 up and whatever Nordic country this is, seeing that small

town just implies she's going to live her life here, maybe she will contact them again

at some point, but it's implied that she still does actually have powers.

Like I said earlier in the video, there was a big theory about how this would all work.

Like if you kill the mineflayer you kill Veknet, if everybody's powers come from them,

does that mean that their powers get turned off to apparently not?

Then the actual final scene of the episode is revealing Holly Wheeler and her younger

friends, some of the 12 that got captured by Veknet, becoming the new Dungeons and Dragons

group, kind of taking over for Mike's group, like the legacy is being passed on, Mike

is passing on the legacy to his little sister and they're having their own adventures

now.

Derek is also part of the group telling everyone to suck his fat D.

Then the end credits are a post-derise version of all the characters depicting moments

from all the previous episodes in the entire series since season 1 as if their pages

in the Dungeons and Dragons players manual, which they reveal at the end of the credits,

Netflix will also probably try and sell a real light version of this as merch at some

point.

They've already done integrations and crossovers with Dungeons and Dragons products in real life,

and it's set to David Bowies, we can be heroes.

So there's a whole lot to unpack here, and what is that light action spin off going to

be, and will have something to do with the mineflayer?

It will be a completely different problem.

Like the series does touch on a couple mysteries like the whole idea of the military trying

to create exotic matter, Brenner created the exotic matter, starring the program, slowly

trying to contact dimension X, the Abyss dimension.

Will we see any of the main characters crossover onto the spin-off like the 11 to still

alive all the other characters are still alive, if it's set outside of Hawkins, or will

it be more like an X files type of scenario where you see all kinds of weird supernatural

in science fiction based things technology based things happening that a brand new group of

characters that we've never seen before start running into week to week.

Ready post all your reactions in the comments below, and let me know if you think that

they did pay off the finale in a satisfying way, or do you want them to do another

episode like another six hours to finish paying everything off?

What I'll do is my next video will be my full breakdown of all the easter eggs and references

from the entire episode, much more detailed than this video, be sure to enable alerts

for my channels so you don't miss that, and maybe if we find out about enough of them

in time in the next couple of days I'll also do a deleted scenes, alternate ending type

of video, if we learn about some of the stuff that did hit the cutting room floor.

Let me click here and here for all of those videos and all my other stranger things season

5 videos.

Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you guys in the next one.