Courtesy of Netflix

‘Stranger Things’ Finale Breakdown: How Does it End, Who Dies and What Happens to Hawkins?

01 Jan 2026, 03:00 by William Earl · Variety

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the series finale of “Stranger Things,” now streaming on Netflix.

“Stranger Things” has come to an end.

The horror-fantasy sensation, which started as a modest ’80s pastiche in 2016 and quickly became a Netflix juggernaut, wrapped with a plus-sized series finale written and directed by show creators The Duffer Brothers. Below, find a breakdown of the most important events of the last episode.

It looked like Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) sacrificed herself when the bomb detonated, destroying the Upside Down and effectively closing the bridge for evil to appear. She even had one last kiss with Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and all of her friends and loved ones mourned their loss. But surprise! Her sister Kali (Linnea Berthelsen) actually cast one last spell to create a fake Eleven, so it only looked like she died. In the end, per Mike’s estimation, Eleven is safe and sound on a beautiful hike, far away from anyone looking to harvest her blood.

Both Vecna and the Mind Flayer appear to be dead.

As Eleven and Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) battled inside the enormous Mind Flayer, the rest of the Hawkins crew shot at and fought the big beast. Once Will (Noah Schnapp) jumped into Vecna’s mind to assist Eleven, both baddies — who, according to Henry (also Jamie Campbell Bower), are one and the same — received too many blows and were taken down. Joyce (Winona Ryder) delivered the final strike, beheading Vecna with an axe. Bonus: The little kids were saved, too!

Kali is killed.

Lt. Robert Akers (Alex Breaux) got off a shot at Kali right before Murray (Brett Gelman) caused a distraction by blowing up a helicopter. After this, Eleven killed all of the military men and then took over Akers’ mind to make him shoot himself in the head.

Henry Creel’s traumatizing cave memory is revealed.

It turns out that after killing the mystery man, Henry watched his younger self open the briefcase as a piece inside leaps out and burrows itself into his hand. Turns out the Mind Flayer didn’t want Henry to remember that he used him as a vessel to get to Hawkins — just as Will was a vessel for Henry. Henry disputed this, though, saying that he and the Mind Flayer were one and the same.

18 months post-Vecna, things in Hawkins are pretty much back to normal.

The catastrophic events of the Upside Down may have been swept under the rug as an earthquake, but at least there’s a memorial! We catch up with our crew after a time jump on high school graduation day. Max (Sadie Sink) is skateboarding and making out with Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin). Hopper (David Harbour) is playing stepfather to Joyce and her kids, taking time to comfort Mike, who’s still grieving El. Plus, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) is valedictorian, and, of course, his speech is all about “Dungeons & Dragons.”

Steve (Joe Keery) is now a high school sex-ed teacher and baseball coach — and Derek (Jake Connell) is a catcher on the team. In other news, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) dropped out of Emerson for a journalism job, Robin (Maya Hawke) is studying at Smith and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) is working on a movie at NYU film school.

After graduation day, Hopper proposes to Joyce and suggests they move to Montauk, where he got a new job offer, so they could have a fresh start. Meanwhile, Mike, Max, Dustin, Lucas and Will skip an invite to a graduation party in order to play a D&D campaign that has a bittersweet ending which mirrors their own futures: Will heads to the big city and starts dating; Max and Lucas stay together; Dustin goes to college but still hangs out with Steve; and Mike becomes an author.

The last scene finds Mike watching as Holly (Nell Fisher), Derek and their friends start up their own D&D campaign.

Mike apologizes for not saying something earlier about Will coming out.

It was sweet to see Mike comforting Will at the top of the episode. Nothing will get between these two buds!

Steve and Jonathan make nice.

Steve and Jonathan let bygones be bygones, and both agree that neither is the right man for Nancy.

Holly finally had her heroic moment by leading the kids to the cave.

Holly felt so guilty about not helping her mother, Karen (Cara Buono), and not being brave at other times, but she made up for it in this episode.

Unlike most blockbusters these days, there is no mid- or post-credits scene.

Things are quiet in Hawkins…for now!