What Actually Happens to Eleven at the End of ‘Stranger Things’

Warning: This story accommodates main spoilers for the sequence finale of Stranger Issues. Tread with warning. 

The ultimate-ever season of Stranger Issues got here to an epic, emotional shut this previous Wednesday (Dec. 31) when the finale premiered on Netflix. It’s been an exhilarating near-decade-long experience for followers who’ve tuned in to look at the mysterious adventures of Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, and Lucas ever because the ‘80s-set sci-fi coming-of-age sequence first premiered in the summertime of 2016.

Now that it’s throughout, we all know how the story ends—with Vecna and the Thoughts Flayer defeated, the Upside Down destroyed for good, and Eleven seemingly left for lifeless following a heroic sacrifice to cease the federal government from utilizing her blood to restart their experimental program to develop psychic youngsters.

Does Eleven Actually Die on the Finish of Stranger Issues?

Eleven’s gut-wrenching obvious loss of life comes when she decides to remain behind within the Upside Down—revealed in an earlier episode to be a wormhole connecting Earth to a much more sinister planetary dimension referred to as the Abyss—because it collapses into the void of area. Persuaded earlier by her sister Kali, AKA 008, El seemingly decides to die within the Upside Down throughout a distant explosion in order that the evil Dr. Kay can not use her to restart their corrupt program with different children, primarily ending the cycle of abuse. Earlier than she sacrifices herself, Eleven briefly connects with Mike on the psychic airplane, the place the 2 share a passionate kiss and he pleads along with her to not go away him.

Nonetheless, throughout the finale’s epilogue, Mike suggests throughout a sport of Dungeons & Dragons with Lucas, Max, Dustin, and Will that Eleven continues to be alive. He theorizes {that a} dying Kali, who was earlier mortally wounded by the army on the lab within the Upside Down, projected an phantasm of El contained in the portal to the Upside Down simply moments previous to its destruction, main everybody to imagine El had died.

Mike believes that within the chaos of their seize, Eleven truly snuck away and escaped utilizing one of many tunnels resulting in the underground of Hawkins. He theorizes that from the lab within the Upside Down, Kali used the final of her energy to challenge a picture of El, making everybody imagine she had been destroyed together with the Upside Down.

READ MORE: A Lifeless ’80s Snack Has Been Resurrected Due to Stranger Issues

In line with sequence co-creator Ross Duffer, there was “by no means a model of the story the place Eleven was hanging out with the gang on the finish.”

“She represents magic in a number of methods and the magic of childhood. For our characters to maneuver on and for the story of Hawkins and the Upside Down to return to an in depth, Eleven needed to go away. We thought it could be stunning if our characters continued to imagine in that happier ending even when we didn’t give them a transparent reply as to if that’s true or not. The truth that they’re believing in it, we simply thought it was such a greater approach to finish the story and a greater approach to characterize the closure of this journey and their journey from youngsters to adults,” he shared in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum.

“Eleven needed to go away” is an attention-grabbing selection of phrases right here. Whereas it’s in the end left as much as the viewers to determine whether or not or not Mike’s optimistic story is true or only a coping mechanism for the heartbroken teen and his pals, I don’t assume Eleven’s destiny is kind of as ambiguous because the Duffer Brothers have introduced. In actual fact, I’d say she’s completely alive—and I feel can show it. Right here’s why.

Kali Confirmed a Change of Coronary heart After Hopper’s Speech to Eleven

For many of Season 5, Kali is adamant in her perception that the army won’t ever cease pursuing Eleven and that El should die for the “cycle” of abuse to finish. She by no means wavers from this ideology, and even throughout her scenes again in Season 2, it’s clear Kali is stalwart in her beliefs, pessimism, and distrust of others, together with Hopper.

Nonetheless, you possibly can bodily see Kali’s emotions towards the state of affairs shift throughout Hopper’s speech urging El to outlive once they’re within the lab within the Upside Down. “I’ve to finish the cycle,” Eleven explains to Hopper when he discovers her plan to sacrifice herself once they later destroy the Upside Down for good.

“You’ll, however not like this; not with extra violence, not with extra ache. There’s already been a lot ache. From the second you have been born your mom was taken from you, your childhood was taken from you. You’ve been attacked, manipulated, abused by horrible individuals. Life has been so unfair to you, so merciless. However you by no means let it break you and I would like you to struggle, child. I simply want you to struggle one final time. Battle for the pleased days on the opposite facet of this, struggle for a world past Hawkins,” Hopper tells her.

It’s a poignant second that seems to maneuver even cussed Kali, whose expression modifications dramatically as she lowers her gun, which up till then has been pointed at Hopper. It’s made clear to the viewers that Kali’s thoughts has been modified, and it’s very doubtless the second that conjures up her to later assist El escape in order that her sister can certainly “struggle for a world past Hawkins.”

Eleven Couldn’t Have Slipped Previous the Army Again Into the Upside Down

After the army intercepts the gang once they return from the Upside Down, they drive everybody out of Murray’s truck and detain the youngsters in opposition to the automobile. When you watch carefully, you possibly can see Eleven bounce down out of the truck, however that’s the final time we see her. With army personnel flanking all sides, together with close to the portal, it could have been unattainable for Eleven to make her means again into the Upside Down.

Nonetheless, within the chaos, and with Kali’s assist holding El hidden by way of an invisibility phantasm, El may have simply slipped into Radio Shack to make her escape, contemplating how shut the storefront was to the truck. Her slipping away into an space nobody was actually being attentive to makes way more sense than her one way or the other crossing to the opposite facet of the vast, busy road and making her well past dozens of army guards who have been particularly on the lookout for her.

Eleven Contacted Mike Utilizing Her Psychic Skills Regardless of the Sonic Gadgets

It’s been established that Eleven can not use her psychic powers by any means within the presence of the army’s high-frequency sonic units, AKA the “Kryptonite,” which have rendered El practically motionless a lot of instances in Season 5. It’s additionally made extremely clear throughout the scene after she and the gang flee the Upside Down after defeating Vecna that Dr. Kay and the army are actively blasting various of these units in her proximity. So, why doesn’t Eleven react in ache, panic, and discomfort like she usually does?

Like Mike suggests, if El have been bodily standing in (and even simply previous) the portal to the Upside Down, she would completely have been in vary of the high-frequency blasts, which implies she wouldn’t have been capable of contact Mike for his or her heartbreaking farewell. It stands to motive, then, that she had already gotten far sufficient away from the sonic blasts to briefly join with Mike utilizing her skills.

Eleven Didn’t Have a Nosebleed After She Tapped Into Mike’s Thoughts

Throughout the entirety of the sequence, not as soon as when Eleven has used her skills to faucet into the psychic airplane has she not had a nosebleed afterward, however one way or the other the Eleven we see standing within the portal to the Upside Down reveals no indicators of blood on her face after she contacts Mike. Both this marks one of the crucial apparent continuity errors in a significant TV sequence, like, ever, or it’s an indication that the Eleven we see standing in entrance of us is, the truth is, an phantasm.

Eleven Mainly Tells Mike He’ll Determine Out the Fact Sometime, and He Does

Throughout Mike and Eleven’s remaining goodbye when she faucets into his thoughts, Eleven tells Mike that whereas he could not perceive now, “sometime” he’ll understand why she made the selection she made. “I would like you to speak to the others. I would like you to thank them for me, for being so variety to me and instructing me what it means to be a pal … Mike, I would like you to assist them perceive my selection,” Eleven says.

“However I don’t perceive,” Mike replies.

“I do know, however you’ll. Sooner or later you’ll. You perceive me higher than anybody. You at all times have, from the day we met,” she tells him.

It’s a bittersweet bookend to their childhood romance, as Eleven is mainly telling Mike that he at all times made her really feel understood and accepted. However it’s additionally a deeper trace that pays off 18 months later throughout the epilogue, when Mike, whose reminiscence is jostled by an audio speaker throughout commencement, realizes that Eleven couldn’t have probably used her skills in her supposed remaining moments attributable to Dr. Kay’s sonic units. That is the revelation El knew Mike would finally make; the revelation that he would be capable of share with their pals on the proper time.

Kali May Have Survived Longer Than We Thought

Many have argued that Kali couldn’t have projected the phantasm of El as a result of she would have died throughout the timed explosion on the roof of the lab. Nonetheless, when you pay shut consideration to the explosion, it doesn’t destroy the lab, however merely destroys the unique matter sphere floating above the power, with the brilliant blue blast capturing outward within the sky. The partitions of the wormhole then start to interrupt down, now not held secure by the unique matter.

If the lab is the epicenter of the wormhole, then theoretically, Kali would have been capable of survive till the very finish of its destruction as a result of the partitions of the wormhole would have damaged down first, sucking all matter contained in the Upside Down into the void of area outward transferring in. As such, Kali would have been essentially the most protected and lasted the longest at its epicenter, permitting her phantasm of El to linger for so long as it did.

Eleven Doesn’t Get Sucked Into the Void — She Merely Vanishes

With buildings and vehicles and large buildings being pulled violently into the void of area throughout her, Eleven stands suspiciously nonetheless and stays untouched by the 1000’s of particles of grime and particles flying within the air for an uncommon period of time because the Upside Down collapses round her.

If she have been bodily standing there, she would have doubtless been pulled away into the void lengthy earlier than the second we lastly see her abruptly vanish. If something, she would have on the very least swayed or confirmed some bodily response to the storm-like setting round her. As a substitute, it stands to motive that the second we see El disappear, seemingly behind a wash of gray particles, is definitely the second Kali lastly dies, releasing her phantasm of El.

You Can Hear Eleven’s Breath and Heartbeat After She ‘Dies’

Seconds earlier than Eleven disappears within the collapsing Upside Down, she closes her eyes and you’ll hear a deep exhale. Then, she’s gone. What ought to have been her remaining breath, although, isn’t so remaining, as instantly after the wormhole vanishes and every little thing goes quiet, we hear one other breath. My principle is that the primary breath is Kali taking her remaining breath, whereas the second breath we hear is El inhaling as she takes the primary breath of her new, free life, indicating she is alive and properly someplace off display screen.

What’s extra, when you hear very carefully on excessive quantity, it’s also possible to hear a faint heartbeat instantly earlier than the epilogue begins, when the display screen continues to be utterly black. You possibly can simply miss it because it’s very delicate and is instantly adopted by the sound of a development employee laying bricks as Hawkins will get rebuilt. Nonetheless, it’s very a lot there, and the one rationalization for it’s that it’s a touch that Eleven is alive.

Mike’s Basement Bookshelf Presents a Delicate Trace

On the finish of the sequence finale, we get a fleeting have a look at the bookshelf on which Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, and Max retailer their D&D sport books. When you look carefully, you’ll discover a title by John D. MacDonald referred to as The Empty Copper Sea. (It’s particularly seen within the behind-the-scenes picture on the finish of this Instagram gallery.)

Written in 1978, the thriller novel is a couple of man who fakes his loss of life and flees to a different nation after seemingly drowning throughout a storm at sea. Certain, it may very well be a coincidence, however as we’ve seen traditionally throughout the sequence, there’s often a great motive for these types of period-accurate references and Easter eggs. As for me, it’s greater than sufficient to persuade me that Eleven survived and resides her well-deserved greatest life. I imagine.