In Review: Stranger Things (S5 Ep8) The Rightside Up

Synopsis: In The Right Side Up, as Vecna prepares to destroy the world as we know it, the party must risk everything to stop him once and for all.

The Story

Stranger Things comes to a conclusion as the gang attempt to put the Upside Down the right side up. Picking up directly from where the last episode left off, Hopper, Murray, Eleven, and Kali venture into the Upside Down and Hawkins Lab to confront Vecna’s mind directly, while the rest of the group pushes deeper into the Abyss via an unstable wormhole, hoping to disrupt Vecna’s plan to merge dimensions and dominate humanity.

Eleven’s team encounters Holly and the other kidnapped children and attempts to guide them back to safety. However, midway through Eleven and Kali’s psychic link with Vecna via the deprivation tank, Vecna manages to reach Hopper, tricking him into believing Eleven has been seriously hurt. Acting on instinct, Hopper smashes the tank to pull her out, severing the psychic connection entirely and forcing Eleven to continue the fight without it.

With the deprivation tank destroyed, Eleven has no choice but to physically enter the Abyss and face Vecna directly. Meanwhile, the Hawkins crew comes face to face with the Mind Flayer, which is very much alive. Working together, they devise a plan to attack and hopefully destroy it.

As the battle escalates, Holly leads the children through Vecna’s old memories, guiding them to a place where their minds can reconnect with their bodies, which are trapped inside the Mind Flayer. At the same time, Eleven carves a physical path into the creature itself, cutting her way inside in order to reach Vecna, no longer able to rely on psychic distance to protect her.

With help from Will, Eleven is able to defeat Vecna in the final confrontation, while the rest of the gang destroy the Mind Flayer. Joyce delivers the killing blow, decapitating Vecna and ending his reign once and for all.

Back in Hawkins, the group is arrested by the military, who continue to hunt Eleven for her powers. Realising that her presence will only keep those around her in danger, Eleven sacrifices herself for the greater good, leaving Mike and Hopper devastated. With Vecna and the Mind Flayer destroyed, the Upside Down disintegrates and the connection between worlds is permanently severed.

An epilogue set 18 months later shows Hawkins restored to normalcy and the characters moving forward with their lives, with Mike’s hopeful suggestion that Eleven may still be alive, leaving her fate ambiguous but emotionally resonant.

The Acting

The acting highlights of this finale come from Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour. One of the episode’s most powerful moments arrives when Hopper learns of Eleven and Kali’s plan to remain in the Upside Down once Vecna is defeated. Hopper pleads with Eleven not to go through with it, reminding her that she has endured more than her fair share of suffering and was cruelly mistreated by Dr. Brenner. He tells her that she is family, not just to him but to the rest of the Hawkins crew as well.

For a brief moment, it feels as though Hopper has reached her, that his words might be enough to change her mind. However, circumstances soon take a devastating turn, and Eleven realises the futility of trying to outrun what she believes is inevitable. The scene is beautifully played by both actors, balancing restraint with raw emotion, and it delivers a genuinely affecting payoff in the final minutes of the series.

Overall

This finale was okay. It wasn’t great, nor was it brilliant, but it did enough to bring Stranger Things to a close in a way that will still be remembered down the line. That said, it often feels like The Duffer Brothers pulled their punches. Early on, we’re teased with the possibility of Steve meeting his end as he nearly falls to his death, only for him to be saved at the last moment by Jonathan. While it’s an effective piece of tension, it also feels like a deliberate sidestep, sparing Dustin the loss of yet another friend and role model.

By contrast, Eleven’s death feels inevitable almost from the outset. Even with the ambiguous ending framed through Mike’s story, I still believe Eleven is likely dead. Rani is shot in the gut earlier in the episode, and with an injury that severe there’s little chance she would have the focus or strength required to create an illusion convincing enough to cover Eleven’s escape from the Upside Down. Kali’s death could arguably have been an illusion, but given the events leading up to it, it’s difficult to see how she would have had the time or clarity to pull that off either.

My personal reading is that Mike tells the story of Eleven surviving for his own sake, a way to cope, to remember her as alive rather than gone. The 45-minute epilogue felt like overkill, but it did offer some satisfying closures: Holly leading the next generation of D&D players, Will finding acceptance and a new life, Dustin continuing his studies while still sharing adventures with Steve, Mike becoming a writer, and Lucas and Max finally getting their happy ending.

Overall, it’s a good ending, even if the journey there felt clunky in places.