Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things‘ started with the arrival of Eleven, a mysterious, superpowered kid in the town of Hawkins, following the disappearance of Will Byers. Over the course of five seasons, a tragic picture of Eleven’s birth and childhood comes to light. By the second half of the show, it becomes clear that despite having found a semblance of happiness with her found family in Hawkins, her future will constantly be threatened because of her powers. Thus, she has two choices in front of her. Either she can continue living as is and be prepared for the villains that will come looking for her and will eventually, in one way or another, get their hands on her and use her to create another Upside Down and the hell that follows it. Or, she can end her story then and there, going down with the Upside Down so that no one can ever exploit her for their personal gains again. In the end, it seems she has taken the second choice. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Eleven Decides to Follow Through With Kali’s Plan
Halfway through the fifth season, Eleven is reunited with her sister, Kali, who reveals that she had been held captive by Dr. Kay, who wants to create more children like Eleven and Kali. This convinces 008 that even if they kill Vecna and destroy the Upside Down, someone will find a way to stir the trouble again as long as people like her and Eleven are alive. Even if they kill Dr. Kay, someone else will pop up, and the cycle will never end. No matter what they do and how powerful they get, Kali and Eleven will never be able to evade these evil scientists and their minions for long. The only way to stop that cycle is to die. When Vecna is killed and the Upside Down is destroyed, the sisters must stay back and die. While Eleven considers this possibility, Hopper gets a scent of it from their conversation about Kay using Kali’s blood to create more like her.
However, it is when Vecna enters his mind and shows him the dialogue between the sisters that his fears are confirmed. He tries to convince Eleven that she has too much life left and, after all that she has been through, she deserves a chance at a happy life. However, in the heat of the battle, she doesn’t have much time to explain things to him. Due to his fear, he tries to hold her back, especially when she decides to go into the Abyss to fight Vecna with the others. Before leaving, she tells him that while she is grateful for all his love and care, she is no longer a child, and he must learn to trust that she will make the right decision, whatever it may be. She hands him the bracelet that was actually Sara’s, telling him that she has a choice in whatever happens next, something that Sara didn’t have, and he must let her exercise it.
After the fight with Vecna concludes, everyone comes back to the Upside Down, which is primed to be blown up with all the explosives Murray has set up around the Exotic Matter. Everyone crosses the portal into Hawkins, where they are greeted by Kay and her soldiers, who are there for Eleven. However, when everyone is rounded up, Eleven is nowhere to be seen. At first, it seems she has escaped, but then it turns out that she got out of the truck before it crossed over. She is still inside the Upside Down and clearly has no intention of stepping out. As the Upside Down collapses in the background, her friends cry out for her. Eleven uses her mind to communicate with Mike, telling him that this is her choice, as it is the only way to end the cycle. As heartbroken he is, he must understand why she is doing it. Soon after they say their goodbyes, the Upside Down is destroyed in front of their eyes, consuming Eleven with it and killing her in front of everyone.
A Major Detail Leads Mike to a Shocking Revelation
When Eleven is swept away in the destruction of the Upside Down, everyone is forced to accept that she is gone for good, including Dr. Kay, whose whole work revolved around capturing Eleven and getting her blood. With her gone, there is no point for Kay, or the soldiers, to stay in Hawkins. Eighteen months later, the soldiers and the secret lab are gone. The town has returned to normal as everyone prepares for graduation day. While it seems that the others have moved on, Mike is the one still hung up on what happened to Eleven. Hopper tries to encourage him to accept the reality and live his life, which is what she would have wanted for him. And for a minute, Mike listens to him. During the graduation ceremony, Dustin, who is the valedictorian, gives a speech, and a minor feedback from the microphone sparks something in Mike’s memory.
He remembers that when they came out of the Upside Down and were ambushed by the soldiers, a series of devices were set up around them. The purpose of these devices was to cripple Eleven’s powers, making her easier to capture. This means that she shouldn’t have been able to communicate with Mike through her mind. Rather, the sound of the devices should have left her hunched over in pain, like it had done several times before. Curiously, no one noticed it at the time because everyone was focused on the fact that she was still in the Upside Down and had chosen to die along with it. The thought of losing her so suddenly, just when they’d won against Vecna, had blinded everyone to the fact that she shouldn’t have been able to function. This convinces Mike that Eleven actually faked her death.
Eleven’s Uncertain Fate Points Towards a Bittersweet Ending
It turns out that when Kali saw how much Hopper and the others loved her, and how much she truly had to look forward to, she realised how flawed her plan had been. Why should Eleven suffer for something that was never her fault? So, when Kali gets shot and realises that she is going to die, she presents a new plan to Eleven. Because she is still alive when Vecna is killed and the group leaves the Upside Down, she creates an illusion which allows the others to see Eleven still standing at the cusp of the portal, inside the crumbling Upside Down. Meanwhile, the real Eleven quietly makes her way out of the place, and it is when she is at a safe enough distance from the devices that she uses her powers to telepathically connect with Mike and say her goodbyes.
Due to the devices she is not able to use her powers, but because Kali is far enough inside the Upside Down, the frequency does not effect her and she is able to hold the illusion long enough for everyone to become convinced that Eleven is dead. Since all this happened in a very short window, Eleven had no time to explain her plan to anyone. Moreover, to convince the world she was dead, she needed to convince her friends of her death too. It had to be real enough for an eagle-eyed person like Kay to believe that she was gone for good. Or at least, that’s what Mike tells himself. In the end, he presents this theory to his friends.
They are all moved to tears with the possibility of Eleven having survived it all and living her life peacefully in some distant land. When Max asks if it it’s real, Mike confesses that he has no idea. They don’t know if Kali survived long enough to help Eleven fake her death, so there is no way to know if what they saw was real. Still, everyone chooses to believe it, because this hopeful ending is what they’d wanted for Eleven all along, and it feels better to believe that she is still alive and kicking rather than accepting that she was pulled into the nothingness outside the wormhole and died. In any case, they cannot share this theory with anyone because if even a hint of it reaches people like Dr. Kay, they will start hunting for Eleven all over again, rendering her sacrifice obsolete.
Read More: Stranger Things Season 5 Finale: Is Vecna Dead? Who Kills Him?
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