How I Would Change the Ending of Stranger Things, Season 5

(This is all my opinion, based on my personal preferences. Spoiler Warning!)

2025 ended with the finale of "Stranger Things" after a nearly 10-year long run. While overall I enjoyed Season 5 and the finale, it's not without its flaws and I think it's one of the weakest seasons of the show. I won't spend time picking apart everything I didn't like in Season 5, but I will mention a few things I would've changed in the finale to help it stick the landing better.

1) More action, less epilogue

We got a 2-hour finale, which had a lot of fans excited for an intense final battle with Vecna and the Mind Flayer. In reality, it was an hour of "action" (really setup for a 10-min battle) with the second hour being conclusions to everyone's stories. While not every show needs to be nonstop action, and it's important to properly wrap up all the characters' stories, the balance could've been executed better.

I would've personally trimmed 30 min off the epilogue (keep the same/similar endings for everyone, but make the scenes more streamlined) and add that 30 min to the final battle. With that extra 30 min, you could add what everyone probably agrees was missing: Demo fights.

When the Party rolled up to Dimension X, they should've been greeted with much more than an empty desert. There was too much time spent casually strolling and have conversations about things not related to the final battle, which diffused a lot of the tension. What did we just spend 7 episodes doing? As soon as they arrived, there should've been an immediate swarm of Demogorgons (maybe Demodogs at first if you want to build up to the tougher opponents). The Party should've been fighting for their lives, having several near-death moments if not for Eleven using her powers and Will tapping into the Hivemind.

Then once they've defeated all these enemies, they're exhausted, and they think they're in the clear, THAT'S when Vecna presents himself. The Mind Flayer comes to life and now uses the corpses of all the dead Demos to build itself up to this monstrous entity that they fight. Eleven does her thing and starts going toe-to-toe with Vecna, but he's too strong now with the Mind Flayer and him being connected. Which is when Will could jump in to neutralize Vecna one last time, just enough for Eleven to unleash all her power to destroy the Mind Flayer and leave Vecna clinging to life. Joyce does her thing with the axe, and it's not until Vecna is truly dead that we realize the impact it had on Will, since he was plugged into the Hivemind.

Rather than Eleven sacrifice herself to get away from the military, she could use her powers to save Will's life... in exchange for giving up her own. She knows Will's death would destroy Mike, even more so if he knew she could've prevented it but chose not to.

I think this change works a lot better if Will and Eleven got more screen time together in Season 5 to bond with each other and their collective trauma.

2) A proper conclusion to the military subplot

The military subplot of this season felt like one of the most pointless, unnecessary parts of the whole show. Not only did I not care about any of these people, but they added nothing interesting to the more prominent supernatural plot. And I think it was a bad decision to have them show up and capture everyone AFTER the final battle, undermining everything they just did to escape Vecna and go home in peace.

Instead, I think this is the role Kali could serve (assuming she didn't get shot by that one Lieutenant). She was already determined to die in the Upside Down to stop the military from using her powers, so it would only make sense if on their way out (after they set up the explosives), Kali stays back to keep the military distracted until the explosives go off, taking her and all the military out in one go. Specifically, I would've loved to see the look on Dr. Kay's face realizing she lost right before she is wiped from existence.

3) Character deaths that matter

I already touched on a few changes to character deaths that I would make. Instead of sacrificing herself for dramatic effect, Eleven would sacrifice herself to save one of her close friends, Will. Then in her place, Kali would be the one staying back in the Upside Down as it implodes to make sure the military can't mess with anyone ever again.

Additionally, I think Murray would've worked for an impactful side character death. He really had nothing else to contribute to the plot at this point, and that scene of him throwing a grenade at the helicopter was set up to feel like a sacrifice, only for nothing to happen. So rather than the helicopter going down without a fight, I could see him being shot at the same time he throws the grenade, going down at the same time as the helicopter to allow Eleven and Kali to use their powers again.

I'm fine with the Steve fakeout death because he's such a great character and it gave him and Jonathan a moment, but I would've taken out the cut to black and just had a short pause before Jonathan grabs his arm.

So the final deaths would be Eleven and Kali (as normal), but then adding Murray to the mix. Will would've almost died, before El revives him at the cost of her own life.

The big change there, obviously, would be removing the ambiguous ending of Eleven being alive or not. I think that could be replaced with Mike now traveling and finding those three waterfalls on behalf of Eleven, with Hopper's brilliant monologue playing over it about how it's not Mike's fault and he needs to accept her decision and live the best life he can. I could see him making a little D&D character of Eleven that he carries around with him.