Stranger Things finale: Here's how the Duffers came up with Eleven's tragic ending on the show

With the final season and final episode of Stranger Things revealed, chatter around the main characters and the fates they ended up getting are everywhere. With fans dissecting every detail about the finale, the Duffer Brothers too are opening up on the ideas that led them to the futures everyone got on the show.

Among everyone on the show, Millie Bobby Brown's Eleven had the most crucial ending, although tragic. Here's how the show's creators came up with Eleven's ending, and what it means for her character as Stranger Things takes a final bow.

What happened to Eleven in the Stranger Things Season 5 finale?

The final battle in Stranger Things confirms what the group had feared all along. The Upside Down can only be destroyed if its last living anchors are erased with it. So as the Abyss collapses and the inter dimensional bridge begins to fail, Eleven stays behind, remaining inside the Upside Down as it is wiped from existence, seemingly sacrificing herself to ensure no scientist, no lab, and no government programme can ever use her blood to open another gate. It's the scene we say goodbye to El, making it a tragic and devastating end to the show.

The Duffers, while speaking to Tudum, have revealed that Eleven was always supposed to leave in the end. Ross Duffer said,

"There was never a version of the story where Eleven was hanging out with the gang at the end. For us and our writers, we didn’t want to take her powers away. She represents magic in a lot of ways and the magic of childhood. For our characters to move on and for the story of Hawkins and the Upside Down to come to a close, Eleven had to go away."

But does Eleven actually die?

In the closing scenes, Mike reframes what happened through the language that has always grounded their friendship: a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. As the group finishes their final game, Mike suggests another possibility, that Kali, moved by the love surrounding Eleven, used her powers one last time to cast an illusion to show a version of Eleven who was left behind to die, while the real Eleven slipped away unseen, and is somewhere in a safer, quieter place, looking at waterfalls.

It's a hopeful theory for sure, although the Duffers and the show don't deny or confirm it. Speaking to Tudum, Matt Duffer said,

"There are two roads that Eleven could take. There’s this darker, more pessimistic one or the optimistic, hopeful one. Mike is the optimist of the group and has chosen to believe in that story."

He then added,

"The reality is, if Eleven is out there, the most that they could hope for is a belief that it’s true because they can’t be in contact with her. Everything falls apart if that were the case. So if that’s the narrative, this is really the best way to keep her alive. And it’s about Mike and everyone finding a way to move past what’s happened."

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Stranger Things is available to stream on Netflix.

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