Stranger Things mostly sticks the landing in emotional finale

Stranger Things Finale- Courtesy of Netflix

The fifth and final season of Stranger Things has been a mixed bag. While Volume 1 featured four action-packed episodes with some core emotional moments, especially Will (Noah Schnapp) coming into his own and unearthing powers, Volume 2 suffered from pacing issues, while sidelining major characters. Thankfully, the series' creators the Duffer Brothers largely stuck the landing. The finale features an epic boss bottle, montages sure to tug at the heart strings, and an emotional, if not prolonged goodbye, to a show that helped build the Netflix brand and has been a juggernaut for nearly a decade.

The finale picks up right where Volume 2 left off. Hawkins' good guys and gals plan to take out Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) quickly and thus, stop an end of the world scenario that would involve dimensions colliding and crashing into each other. Most of the gang plans to attack Vecna from his lair in a dimension called The Abyss, explained in Volume 2. Meanwhile, Hopper (David Harbour) leads Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and her sister, Eight/Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), into a military laboratory in the Upside Down, where the sisters plan to attack Vecna inside his mind. During that process, they enlist the help of Max (Sadie Sink) to rescue the Hawkins children Vecna kidnapped. Without the kids, he can't fulfill his world-ending plan.

Unlike the rest of Season 5, the finale handles the pacing better, especially the multi-pronged attack against Vecna and ultimately, the Mind Flayer, the main antagonist from earlier seasons. During the lead-up to the battle, several characters have moving moments with each other, mixed with montages from previous seasons. While some of the dialogue is cheesy, keep in mind that this is a finale, so, yes, it's littered with weepy-eyed sequences. There's an especially powerful scene between Hopper and Eleven just before she leaps into The Abyss to help her friends take down Vecna once and for all. The father/daughter relationship has long been one of the show's strong points, and it's given the treatment it deserves during the finale.

Hopper (David Harbour) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) in the Stranger Things finale - Courtesy of Netflix

Regarding the highly anticipated final boss battle, it transpires too quickly, and the baddies are dispelled a little too easily. One of Season 5's major issues is that the stakes never felt that dire, despite the doomsday scenario. The quick boss battle is another symptom of the season's larger problem. That said, the Mind Flayer looks really, really cool creeping and crawling across The Abyss, unleashing an onslaught against the heroes. The final throwdown is still a high point, even if it feels too rushed and a bit too easy for the protagonists.

The season isn't without its deaths and a few fake outs. The causalities won't be reported and spoiled here, but what happens does serve the broader narrative. The Duffer Brothers have said the finale won't contain a "red wedding" scenario, a reference to Game of Thrones and its willingness to kill off major characters. They stuck to their word on that. This isn't a finale with a high body count. I suppose not every battle needs a bloody ending, but again, it somewhat lessens the stake on the cusp of the world ending.

There's another storyline involving the military's endless and tiresome pursuit of Eleven. They still want to capture her and continue experimenting on her to create clones. The military has long been an antagonist in Stranger Things, but this season, they were one of the weakest points, especially in the finale. Linda Hamilton's Dr. Kay character felt like an utter waste and underdeveloped. If she was removed from the season, it wouldn't have made much of a difference. Hamilton simply wasn't given much to work with, even though the Terminator star is an action/sci-fi icon.

That said, the finale gives nearly everyone else their moment and time to shine, which is impressive, considering the fairly large cast. Despite the sometimes corny dialogue, there's a lot of great one-liners and a heck of a graduation speech by Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo). This is followed by a few sequences that make clear where the characters are headed post-Hawkins, and you get a sense the cast will generally miss each other. Now we get to see what's next for the actors and the Duffer Brothers.

After the finale's multiple endings (maybe one too many endings), Stranger Things concludes where it all began, with a bunch of friends playing Dungeons and Dragons in a basement. It's a fitting end point and a reminder that this show worked best when it focused on the power of that friendship and the love these outcasts have for each other that allowed them to beat larger-than-life odds.

Farewell, Stranger Things. What a ride it's been.