Here's Every Single Plot Hole In The Stranger Things Finale
Who else is confused?
Spoiler alert: This post discusses various details from the Stranger Things Season 5 finale.
Stranger Things came to an end doing exactly what it does best: giving fans a ton of pesky plot holes to debate. The dimension-hopping sci-fi series has always had a few cracks in its logic, which superfans were hoping the highly anticipated finale may explain away at long last. But no — while the last episode did clear a lot of things up, there are a lot of lingering questions... and more than a few story beats that simply don’t make sense.
Not only did the two-hour finale skip over key relationship updates — like, how Dustin and Suzie apparently broke up off-screen — it also neglected to provide a few lore details that audiences have been wondering about for years. Oh, and there were several moments where it felt like the finale was arbitrarily breaking Stranger Things’ previously established in-universe mythology.
There are plenty of glaring plot holes from the last-ever episode. Here’s every unanswered question the finale leaves a mystery.
1. How Did Will Survive The Mind Flayer’s Death?
It was established throughout Season 5 that Will is connected to the Mind Flayer’s hive mind, and feels the same pain as the cosmic entity. This is even re-emphasized during the final battle, as Will falls to the ground when the Mind Flayer is attacked. However, he is strangely unaffected by both Vecna and the Mind Flayer’s deaths, and the show does not explain how he avoids experiencing their deadly pain.
2. Why Did Vecna Need 12 Kids For His Plan?
Earlier in Season 5, the gang discovers that Vecna needs exactly 12 children in order to bring his world, the Abyss, crashing into Earth. Why 12? Well, that’s never expounded upon. In fact, the Duffer Brothers admitted they didn’t give the number much thought outside of “clock symbolism.”
“It's no specific reason other than he realized how much power he could exert from Will, and to do something of this scale of moving the planet, I don't know exactly how we did that math,” Ross told Collider.
3. Why Didn’t Hopper & Nancy Face Any Consequences From The Military?
In order to reach a heavily guarded gate to the Upside Down, Hopper and Nancy strapped on some heavy artillery and shot at several U.S. military troops. Yet, this is somehow all forgiven in the aftermath. Hopper is even able to get his job as police chief back, despite basically being a war criminal at this point.
4. Why Does The Military Leave Hawkins?
The military’s overall lax reaction to everything in the finale just felt off. The operation had quarantined Hawkins almost two years, but apparently just decided to pack up and leave once Eleven disappeared. Even Ross Duffer had to make a guess about this. “I suppose there's not much else to do,” Ross told Collider. “My guess is they just sort of slowly dismantled operations and left town.”
5. Why Didn’t Vecna Use Any Demogorgons In His Fight?
In past seasons, Vecna relied on his Demogorgons, Demodogs, and Demobats to lead his attacks. So, it’s pretty strange that he doesn’t summon any of his underlings at all in the final battle. Matt Duffer attempted to explain that because Vecna was surprised by the party’s appearance on his planet, he didn’t have time to rally the troops.
“Mainly it’s just that Vecna was not expecting this sneak attack on his home turf,” Matt told TheWrap. “Never in a million years could he even imagine that. They’re there somewhere.”
6. Where Did Hopper & Eleven Find Water In The Upside Down?
The show’s lore has previously established that water does not exist in the Upside Down. So, how did Hopper and Eleven track down a whole giant tank of water in the wormhole for Eleven to submerge herself in? This anomaly isn’t explained in the show.
7. Why Is The Upside Down Frozen In Time?
While the final season did explain a lot of important information about the Upside Down — namely, that it’s actually a wormhole connected Earth to the Abyss — the show never clarified the realm’s biggest mystery. Previous seasons revealed the Upside Down is frozen in time on Nov. 6, 1983, the date Vecna captured Will. But Eleven seemingly created the Upside Down years earlier when she banished Henry to the Abyss. The show ended without explaining this bizarre property of the wormhole.
8. Why Was Nov. 6 So Important?
Similar to the Upside Down’s time-stop, Stranger Things has emphasized numerous times that Nov. 6 is a hugely important date. It’s the day Will was abducted, the day of Henry’s school play, and it’s also hinted to be a key date for the Mind Flayer’s grand plan. Why Nov. 6? That’s never actually clarified.
9. Why Did Vecna Target Will Specifically?
The biggest missed opportunity in the series finale was never fully explaining Vecna specifically choosing Will to be his first vessel. You could just chalk it up to Vecna picking a random, weak-seeming child, but their connection clearly goes much deeper than that. Not only does Will share Henry’s birthday, he also begins to siphon his powers. Did Henry sense something within Will that enticed him? Or were there other prerequisites for becoming Vecna’s vessel that Will fulfilled? Fans may never know.
10. How Did Max Graduate?
Thankfully, Max got to graduate high school with her friends in the back half of the finale. While it’s great to see this, it doesn’t really add up, considering she spent nearly two years in a coma. Maybe she just took a ton of extracurriculars once she woke up?
