FIRST TIME WATCHING: Stranger Things S5E8 (Series Finale!)

If you're looking for a movie that has serious Stranger Things vibes check out Super 8. Its basically Stranger Things before Stranger Things.

Watch Wednesday Season 2. Its better, just a fun whacky season as opposed to this slog.

Hey Natalie, hope your surgery went well and you have a speedy recovery. I would like to recommend you watch The Pitt. It's such a good show, and with season 2 starting up and Stranger Things ending it seems like the perfect time.

Because you my favorite. I'm saying take care.

Okay I made my first comment before actually watching the reaction bc I could not be bothered watching that episode again so soon 😅 BUT I am now, and you’re opening criticisms, I love I literally commented on how EVERYBODY was getting a monologue this season and it wasn’t hitting the right notes, and Sadie Sink agreed that watching the episode her character took WAY too long 😭 Not you calling out the no-deaths early on too lmao

I get that everyone reacts differently, but this reaction really didn’t land for me. It felt like the entire episode was approached from a place of frustration rather than letting the finale just breathe and be experienced. I understand critiquing pacing or story choices, but when every moment is nitpicked, it kind of drains the fun, especially for a final episode of a show a lot of us just wanted to enjoy and say goodbye to on a positive note after a decade of being involved with these characters. Your reactions are hit and miss lately for me, and this one felt like you were already checked out going in. I still respect your insight, but sometimes loosening up and letting the moment exist would make these reactions a lot more enjoyable. jc Nat 🤦🏽‍♂️ wishing you well and hope you’re recovering okay.

The pacing of the season seems slow at moments but the whole final season was a span of 3 days until the last 45 minutes of the finale in the time jump making that an extra day.

Sadie Sink acting is great as usual....needing a character death is mind numbingly dumb... Max could have run for her access point but only by leaving Holly in a lurch without any discussion which would have been against her character...and she did not know what was happening in the real world...so ur just being a bit dense tbh.

I think El surviving is just wishful thinking and a coping mechanism for Mike.

Good luck with the surgery, Nat! Fallout season 2 when you’re back from your break? 👀

Was this the best season of the show? No. But I knew it wouldn’t be because I knew, for me, they would never be able to top the masterpiece that was season 4. I went in thinking that as long as I enjoyed it as much as (or more than) season 3 (the worst season imo, but I still wouldn’t say it’s bad) I’d be happy, and for me those hopes did come true. I understand the criticism about Max’s speech to Holly, but the way I see it is that Max wanted to make sure Holly had the knowledge on how to get out of there and the strength to do it so Max was willing to risk being stuck there herself to make sure Holly didn’t have to be. I loved all the heartfelt moments between the characters this season. It made me feel like they all thought they could very well die during the final battle and they wanted to make sure nothing was left unsaid to anyone. Like you, I had been hoping for a character death, which is why I choose to believe that El did in fact die. What Mike told the gang at the end was never and will never be confirmed as true. It was a theory he chose to believe in because he couldn’t cope with the other possibility. And just like the characters we get to decide what we believe in. Maybe El’s desire to make sure no one else was going to be put through what she had been put through made her channel more of her powers than she’s ever done before and that’s why she was able to bring Mike to the void to say goodbye despite the device weakening her (we’ve seen her powers be enhanced by strong emotions before). Or maybe the device couldn’t affect her through the gate. Maybe the glimpse we got of her at the end was from some afterlife, or it was just what Mike wished happened to her. We’ll never know and we get to decide what we want the truth to be. Dustin’s graduation speech was one of my favourite moments of the entire show. The fact that he flipped the principal off and yelled “this is our year” as a tribute to what Eddie had planned to do at his graduation went straight through my heart!

This is the perfect ending for the show, it makes the whole thing an analogy for DND. That's what DND is, collaborative storytelling where everyone gets to talk and decide together what the end of the story is going to be. You decide what you choose to believe. There was nothing clear about what Mike said. He noticed she managed to get in his head while there was the noise thingy, maybe she was out of reach on the other side of the portal. Who knows how this works with an inter dimensional portal. It's the whole point, to have everyone talk about it and decide how they think it truly ends. For the rest I do agree that there was a lot of pacing issues, but I was going in knowing perfectly there would an absolutely perfect plot armor for almost everyone. It's never been Game of Thrones. They've made it clear every other seasons that no main characters would die but they managed to hit us in the feels every seasons anyway. They did it again this season. But this time there's one main character who has beeb affected, she had to go away for everyone to manage to go back to some normalcy. But WE get to decide if she's dead or not. One of my favorite part of this final is Dustin's speech, made in honor of Eddie!

I'm a bit sad that a lot of people assume that what Mike said is factual.

I did also want to add that I totally agree on your criticism of the pacing. Not so much in this episode, because it's a finale and I expected some emotional conversations during the action. But for the season, yes lots of pacing issues. I think it has a lot to do with this being a binge-type show. So it suffers when you separate it into different volumes. I thought season 4 did too. Either do weekly episodes or release it all at once. I'm not a fan of it being released in chunks. I think that's the main reason episode 7 landed so soft. Because it's main purpose was setting up the finale, but it was also at the end of a volume. I really think they should have ended volume 2 with Max waking up with Lucas. Then released 7 and 8 together starting with Holly waking up in the Abyss.

Look, she took eleven swing to cut Vecna head, that so poetic. SMH I putting " Freaks and Geeks" 1 season, short and sweet.

I feel like the past 20 years or so, we've been conditioned to expect major character deaths. I don't subscribe to the notion that no deaths = lower stakes or bad writing. This is a more Spielberg-esque 80's style show. Was this season or this finale perfect? No. There were plot holes and retcons with character ages, but I still enjoyed it. But they absolutely nailed all the character moments and emotions. Maybe it's just me being a Gen X 80's kid, but these guys remind me so much of me and my friends growing up. I'm going to miss them.

PLEASE add It: welcome to derry to your next poll — holy shit, it does not disappoint.

How many battles has Henry had before? Or the mind flayer? I really hate the way you people over analyze something they couldn't create themselves

Its crazy how people just choose to complain about the story like it hasn't been consistently the same from the first ep to the last. Im done with nat

I’m glad you enjoyed the finale while finding it also wanting. Same here. Some nice moments, but honestly too many nice moments, and some that seemed repetitive. Will stop being scared in episode 4. And showed his power again in episode 5. Then he had to stop being scared again in episode 7 when there was no time left, or shouldn’t have been. They should all have expected to be dead the next day. And where did all the demogorgons go? Mrs. Wheeler didn’t get them on an unseen side mission. Or is that the spin-off. And the bats that killed Eddie? And the mind flayer seemed to have no mind flaying skills at the end. Did it have no such skills in its world? I guess Superman had to go to Earth to get his powers, maybe the mind flayer was only powerful in the right side up. But there were good moments. I especially liked the D&D session at the end. The writing stepped up, and the acting did too. All in all, glad I watched it, but if I rewatch any of it, it would probably be seasons 1 and 4.

Final seasons are hard these days huh There were some cool moments - the Hopper shooting Eleven fake out got me GOOD - but otherwise it feels sooo half-baked for a series finale, especially for a show of this magnitude Where were all the Demo creatures in the Abyss? How would Kali know to start the illusion at that time? Did the military really just up and leave town after Eleven died despite the fact that Nancy and Hopper combined have killed more American soldiers than the Vietcong? Like they really thought they were doing the end of Return of the King with that long ass epilogue just to kinda ruin all their characters except Max and Lucas Sucks cos I was all in on S1-4! Season 3 might even be my favourite and I recently discovered people apparently hate it? Idk man, but it was all better than this Smile cos it happened, or something

With Hopper in the Lab, many reactors missed the Herbicide and later orange fog reference. That's Agent Orange, the Herbicide the U.S. spread over Vietnam that killed plant life and cause tons of mutations in humans. In season 1 Hopper says he filled helicopters with it and many friends died from it but not him. He thought he was safe until his daughter got cancer and died. He blamed agent orange for it.

The Stranger Things ride has been fun and I pretty much felt the same way you did about the finale lol. If you're open to some series that have multiple seasons, I'd highly recommend The Expanse, which is a great sci-fi series. Also The Last Kingdom, which has Vikings and Game of Thrones vibes. Wishing you a successful surgery and a healthy, speedy recovery. See you in a few weeks!

For me the finale felt very bias-confirming. I already watched and loved season five for the character moments rather than the plot and the fights, so every time we slowed down and took momentum out of the show, I was happy to get to spend as much time as possible with these characters and naturally I loooovvveeedd the 45 min epilogue. If it wasn't the last season then sure, a death or two would have been interesting, but it being the very end I don't get how someone wishes for messiness rather than resolve. The 'El survived' explanation was kept as a theory of Mike so that people who preferred her death could also be happy, but sadly Natalie still didn't like it. In general I was slightly disappointed that Natalie while still getting emotional several times in the finale, managed to nitpick (sometimes deserved), roll her eyes and be negative every chance she could get. Every time she was confused or the show left room for interpretation, she used it to confirm her bias, because she was already tired of season five. Maybe that's the show's fault for not doing her justice, but personally I enjoyed this final season because I WANTED to leave this nine year experience on a positive note instead of a sour memory, which, from what I got from Natalie's outro, seems to be what happened to her. Anyways, Natalie, I wish you the best for your surgery and I'll see you next month.

Hope you're feeling better soon, Nat! This show was ready to end years ago. I had a lot of issues with this season but all in all I enjoyed the ending. I’m very glad it’s finally over so I can come back to the first season in a few years and rewatch. I assume the next show you're going to react to is Fallout season 2, but my 2026 New Year's Goal is to start recommending The Wire more often because it was a criminally underrated and under-watched show that not enough reactors poll these days. So yeah. The Wire rocks!

I know its not Natmare season. but please poll Welcome to Derry 📍

its ok to say this season sucked nat lol

Highly recommended "Orphan black" for the next series to watch

I believe......... W Finale

Hi Nat, its been such a wild ride from you smashing your knee on your desk when we first saw the Demogorgon, to seeing all these kids become adults (in real life), i cant wait to find the next blockbuster show to watch with you and all the other Golden Nuggets.. Good luck with your op, I hope it all goes well, and your back running as soon as possible..

Feel better!!

Happy Monday Nat. Hope your weekend travel went well. Had a lot of fun on the livestream 😅 Here we go. Farewell to Hawkins. I've managed to avoid any spoilers, although it was quite a task haha. Post Watch - The Duffer Bros and this show have clearly been influenced by Spielberg and his movies, and he has often been criticized for his over-sentimentality. I think that has been paralleled in a lot of this series. I certainly enjoyed it, and as a finale it gave me what I wanted. I'd say my only criticism was the pacing as well, especially the middle 3 episodes. I felt what happened there could easily have been condensed down into a 2hr episode. Everybody had their moment, and then it was back to the action. Overall, I think it's like most tv shows today. They aren't tv shows, they are stretched movies, sometimes stretched well beyond the story they have written. I've certainly enjoyed going on the Stranger Things journey with you Nat. Seems ages ago since Ep.1. Wishing you all the best for today, and for your recovery Nat. We'll see you when you're good and ready, and running around the block again 🤗💛