How the Stranger Things Season 5 finale was ruined by this one major mistake, details explored in-depth

The ending of Stranger Things Season 5 has been in the works for an entire decade, and it finally came to life on the last day of the year, making it one of the biggest farewells. The two-hour-long episode picks up all of the unfinished threads of the story, bringing together the finale episode, a final fight for the Hawkins gang against Vecna and the Upside Down.

However, if you go into the two-hour-long finale hoping to find an action-packed episode and a satisfying ending to wrap the story up, you might just be disappointed to find out that after the actual action-packed fight against Vecna, the Mind Flayer, and the Upside Down is wrapped up with an emotional monologue from Rockin Robin, we have 40 more minutes of an epilogue, which closes the story of Hawkins.

Keep reading to find out more about this one major decision that takes away from the Stranger Things Season 5 finale.

The 40-minute epilogue from Stranger Things Season 5 might be the thorn in the way of a perfect ending

For a show like Stranger Things that has been building up to an ending for an entire decade, the audience's hopes and expectations are bound to be sky-high. Pair that with an exceptional Volume 1 and Volume 2, and the anticipation for the series finale is unlike anything that's been experienced before.

The series finale was finally released on December 31, 2025, and for fans of the show, it was everything and more. The penultimate episode found the Hawkins gang diving headfirst into Upside Down with a plan in mind to save their world and end Vecna at the same time. The final battle against Vecna was an epic blockbuster, and it unfolded on several fronts. The final battle even found the Mind Flayer revived, and it took everything and more from the Hawkins gang to bring him down.

However, the final battle, Vecna's origins, the military, and the Mind Flayer's defeat were condensed in the first hour of the two-hour finale, leaving the viewers wondering what the final hour of Stranger Things has in store for them. Was there some way the gang would come together to bring back Eleven? Was there actually going to be some time-traveling that the show seemed to be hinting at? Well, the answer to all of that is no. The final hour of the show, well, the last 40 minutes, was a multi-phase epilogue.

By themselves, all of these epilogues are heartwarming to watch. Rockin Robin's last show at WSQK, Jonathan, Nancy, Robin, and Steve's conversation, Hopper and Joyce's date at Enzo, the kids' high school graduation ceremony, and their final Dungeons and Dragons campaign all make for the perfect goodbye to these characters by themselves, but put together, it is a tedious 40-minute watch that doesn't yield much.

The Stranger Things Season 5 finale has a lot of endings that it closes out by the end of the episode, but in their attempt not to make a Game of Thrones ending and satisfy the viewers with closure by giving each character a proper ending in multiple phases, the epilogue runs a little too frustratingly long.

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