Here’s how the Netflix hit wrapped up 10 years of storytelling.

How Stranger Things ends: The fates of the Hawkins gang revealed

Here's how the Netflix hit wrapped up 10 years of storytelling.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in *Vanity Fair*, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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December 31, 2025 11:24 p.m. ET

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Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) in 'Stranger Things 5'. Credit:

**Warning: This article contains spoilers from the *Stranger Things* series finale, "The Rightside Up."**

*Stranger Things* wraps up a 10-year-long story with series finale "The Rightside Up." The 2-hour, 8-minute-long episode reveals some of what creators Matt and Ross Duffer planned since the beginning, as well as the final scene they said they concocted "about six or seven years ago."

Who lives? Who dies? What happens to each of the Hawkins gang? Spoilers, obviously, ensue.

The final battle against Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) is designed like the climax to one of the Hellfire Club's *Dungeons & Dragons* campaigns. Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) dons a makeshift spiked shield, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) carries an automatic rifle, Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) comes packed with a corrosive slingshot, Mike (Finn Wolfhard) gets...well, a flare gun, but that too comes in handy.

Most of the core crew make their way into the Abyss where they prepare to rescue the kidnapped kids and stop the big bad's plan to merge worlds. There's the long foreseen Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown)-versus-Vecna face-off, coupled with a dramatic Godzilla-sized ensemble fight. And people die...or do they? It's not so cut and dry.

The final battle

David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown in 'Stranger Things 5'.

In the Upside Down, Eleven submerges herself in the tank and enters the Void with Kali (Linnea Berthelsen) and Max (Sadie Sink) telepathically piggybacking off of her. They hack into Vecna's psyche and, thanks to Max, navigate his memories to locate the children in the mindscape.

The others break into the Abyss to find the physical bodies of the missing kids. They soon face a much bigger problem (literally) when Vecna's "Pain Tree" fortress reveals itself to be the Mind Flayer. The tendrils fold out, transforming into the spindly legs of the sharp-toothed leviathan, this time in its flesh-and-bone kaiju form and not the misty monolith we've seen in previous seasons.

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While Eleven's troupe finds the children, who take refuge in the mindscape cave, her plan hits a major snag. Vecna psychically finds Hopper (David Harbour) and manipulates him to break the tank, cutting off the psychic link for her, Kali, and Max. Eleven is forced to enter the Abyss in person, initiating a fight between her and Vecna, while her friends fight the Mind Flayer.

Will (Noah Schnapp) connects with Vecna's mind and tries to reason with him. Told through memories, we learn that a young Henry Creel was exposed to particles from the Mind Flayer in that Nevada cave from his childhood. The pep talk doesn't hit, and Eleven is forced to impale Vecna on a spike, thereby destroying the Mind Flayer as a result of their connection. However, it's Joyce (Winona Ryder) who delivers the final death blow, taking an axe to Vecna's head.**

Who dies on Stranger Things?

Linnea Berthelsen as Kali in 'Stranger Things 5'.

Courtesy of Netflix

Here comes the question everyone wants to know about, and there's no definitive answer.

Kali definitely dies no matter which way you swing it. The military seemingly guns her down during a confrontation with Hopper and Eleven. (We'll get to the "seemingly" shortly.) Eleven then kills Lieutenant Akers (Alex Breaux) as a reaction to that event, so he, too, is dead.

It also appears on the surface that Eleven dies. When the gang emerges from the Upside Down into Hawkins, Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton) and her military promptly capture them, but Eleven stays inside the wormhole, allowing herself to be destroyed with it as the detonator takes out the exotic matter and collapses the bridge.

It gets complicated because an ending time jump that takes place 18 months later sees Mike (Finn Wolfhard) weaving a tale about how Kali didn't really die when she was shot by the military. Instead, according to him, she survived and used her powers to create the illusion of Eleven getting wiped out with the collapsing Upside Down. In this scenario, Eleven got away and traveled somewhere safe — someplace with multiple waterfalls, just like the ones Mike fantasized about for them.

Mike and his friends ultimately believe to choose this as the story they believe, but it's not clear.

What happens to the main characters?

The cast of 'Stranger Things' in the series finale.

Courtesy of Netflix

The 18-month time jump reveals Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max preparing for their Hawkins High graduation. After playing one final *D&D* game, Mike shares the stories of what happens to their main players.

Max and Lucas are together. They finally get that movie date they dreamed about and settle down in the future. Dustin, who becomes the valedictorian of his graduating class, goes off to college, but he takes regular breaks to have adventures with Steve (Joe Keery). Will, who came out in the penultimate episode, moves to a metropolis and is shown having a conversation with a guy at a bar.

And Mike becomes a professional writer, sharing the stories of his friends to the masses for years to come.

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As for the older teens, they've moved on from high school, too. Steve stays in Hawkins to serve as a little-league baseball coach and sex ed teacher. Robin (Maya Hawke) goes to Smith College but comes back for another installment of "Rockin' Robin" radio. Nancy (Natalia Dyer) attended Emerson for a spell but dropped out to join the staff at *The Boston Herald*. Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) attends New York University to become a filmmaker. His current project is an anti-capitalist cannibal movie called *The Consumer*.

They make a deal to meet once a month in Philadelphia at the home of Robin's "weird uncle" to maintain the friendship.

Hopper, meanwhile, finally proposes to Joyce. He also mentions that there's a police chief gig open in Montauk — a nod to the originally planned setting for *Stranger Things*, which was inspired by the real-world Montauk Project conspiracy theories.

“We wanted each of the characters to find happiness but in their own specific ways,” Matt Duffer told Tudum. As for Eleven, Ross added, "She lives on in their hearts, whether that’s real or not,"**

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