- - “Stranger Things” Finale Ending Explained: Does the Crew Defeat Vecna? What Happens to Each Character

Colleen KratofilJanuary 1, 2026 at 8:00 PM

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Netflix

'Stranger Things' season 5

Warning: This story contains spoilers for Stranger Things season 5, Volume 3.

The series finale of Stranger Things premiered on Dec. 31

Find out what happened to each character and where their lives head next in this breakdown of everything that took place in the finale episode

Stranger Things first premiered on Netflix in 2016

After five seasons, Stranger Things came to an end on Dec. 31 with a two-hour finale event.

After much anticipation with drops of Volume 1 and 2 from season 5, Netflix premiered the final episode of the hit series and answered many burning questions viewers had about how the epic saga would end. One being how the crew would take on Vecna, a.k.a. Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower), stop him from merging their world with the Abyss and destroy the Upside Down once and for all.

Luckily, Volume 3 picked up right where the last started: with the crew following Steve (Joe Keery)'s plan dubbed "Operation Beanstalk," which involves climbing up the radio tower in the Upside Down and waiting until the Abyss is close enough for the tower to poke through the rift to help Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) enter Vecna's mind.

They had just broken through the military barrier into the Upside Down to begin their mission, as the guards, led by Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton), began to trace how it happened and where they might be.

Hopper (David Harbour) helps Eleven get into a water tank to channel her powers to enter Vecna's mind, where she races to stop him from merging worlds. With the help of Max (Sadie Sink) and Eight a.k.a. Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), they reach the young kids, including Derek Turnbow (Jake Connelly) and Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) who are being held by Vecna (known as Henry Creel to them).

Courtesy of Netflix

Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Noah Schnapp as Will Byers, and Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley in 'Stranger Things' season 5'

The crew, including Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will (Noah Schnapp), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) Max (Sadie Sink), Joyce (Winona Ryder), Robin (Maya Hawke), Steve (Joe Keery), Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), face challenges along the way, but eventually, all make it into the Abyss to fight Vecna and the Mind Flayer, working together to defeat them.

But before they're in the clear, the military has other plans. They stop them just as the crew was reentering Hawkins — just as time is ticking on the group's bomb to destroy the Upside Down for good. As they're being apprehended, Eleven makes the decision whether to sacrifice herself. It's a plan created by Eight to ensure the military can't create any more people with their special powers.

After an emotionally gripping fallout from Eleven's decision, the show then jumps 18 months, to graduation day for Mike Will, Dustin, Lucas and Max. It also shows how the entire crew, including Hopper, Joyce, Robin, Steve, Nancy and Jonathan are faring after the battle, and what's next for their lives.

So how exactly did everything go down and what happened to each character? We're explaining the entire ending for Stranger Things, season 5, Volume 3, below.

What happens between Mike and Will after Will comes out?

As the two climb up the radio tower to wait for the worlds to get closer. Mike tells Will he's sorry. "I should have been there for you and I wasn't," he says, referring to Will coming out as gay in Volume 2. "I guess I was just so self absorbed - I feel like an idiot. I'm sorry."

Will tells him he doesn't have to be sorry, he didn't understand it himself for the longest time. "I think it needed to happen the way it happened," Will said. "I needed to find my own way."

Mike tells him they're not just "friends" — they're "best friends."

Courtesy of Netflix

Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, and Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson in 'Stranger Things' season 5Does Steve Harrington die?

After the series creators revealed Steve was originally supposed to die at the end of season 1, many speculated about his fate. He had a near-death experience as the radio tower ruptured the Abyss when worlds started colliding.

As the tower shifted, Steve slid down the landing and was mid-fall when all of a sudden, Jonathan grabbed his hand and dragged him back up. "S--- I thought you were toast," Dustin tells Steve.

Later, as they're walking through the Abyss, Steve tells Jonathan: "I thought I was a goner back there, I owe you one."

"Just because I don't like you, doesn't mean I want you dead," Jonathan says. "And I have a feeling we'll need you up here."

Steve says he doesn't blame him for not liking him: "I can be a real prick sometimes."

Then they hash out their issues regarding Nancy. Will appreciates that Steve was there for Nancy when Jonathan was living in California, and admits his problems with Nancy had nothing to do with Steve, it just took him "time to figure that out."

Steve admits that he knew a relationship between he and Nancy isn't "in the cards" because she "needs to get out there," while he wants a life in Hawkins with "six little nuggets." Steve says he'd rather have Nancy as a friend than nothing at all. They both agree she's "special."

"I still don't like you though, Jonathan tells him. "I wouldn't want it any other way," Steve says.

Why is Henry so afraid of the cave?

Henry starts having physical pain as he enters the cave, as memories of his first killing come flooding back. He gets through and starts following the kids as Holly leads them to his next memory. When they arrive at the place where his first killing took place, Will is able to tap into his mind and learn the truth – that Henry is "so scared."

Will is watching the old memory of Henry and sees that after he killed the scientist, he opens the man's briefcase and discovers a piece of red Mind Flayer, which entered into the palm of his hand and possess him. The man warns him: "You must resist it. It will consume you. It will consume all." Henry then uses his new powers to strike the man and kill him.

"It wasn't you," it was never you," Will tells Vena. "That's why the Mind Flayer didn't want you in the cave. It didn't want you to remember. You were just a kid, a kid like me. And it used you. It used you to bring it here. You're just like me, Henry, a vessel. But you can resist it, help us fight it, don't let it win, please, Henry, won't let it win.

"No," Henry says. "It showed me the truth. It showed me that this world is broke. That man is broken."

When Will tells him he's being controlled, Vecna says, "It has never controlled me. And I never control it. Don't you see William, I could have resisted it, but I chose to join it. It needs me. And I need it. We are one."

Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna in 'Stranger Things' season 5'Does Vecna die and what happens to the Mind Flayer?

Mike realizes, if they hurt the Mind Flayer, that weakens Vecna and helps Eleven kill him. As the Mind Flayer starts attacking them, they decide to split up and fight back (and ultimately kill) the Mind Flayer while Eleven dives inside of it (which is where Vecna is keeping the bodies of the young kids).

During their fight, Vecna attempts to grab Eleven, but doesn't grasp her because Will channeled his abilities to distract him. "I'm not afraid anymore," Will says. "We're not afraid of you." Eleven then drives Vecna's back into a spire.

Vecna eventually starts coughing as he's stuck on the spire. Joyce gets flashbacks to all the pain he's caused her and her loved ones. "You f----- with the wrong family," she says, before bashing him to death with her axe and decapitating him.

Courtesy of Netflix

amie Campbell Bower as Henry Creel and Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler in 'Stranger Things' season 5Do the young kids make it out alive?

Eleven, Eight and Max make it into Vecna's memory, and get to Henry Creel's house, where he's keeping the young kids. At first, the kids think Max is the monster but she proves that she's not by letting them watch him threaten Eleven. Max leads the kids towards the cave to safety, but when Eleven loses her ability to be inside Vecna's mind, Max disappears too and Holly is left to guide her classmates.

When Derek falls behind, Holly runs back to get him. Just as Vecna was about to grab her through their chase in the woods, Derek pulls Holly to safety into the cave. "Suck my fat one," Derek tells Vecna, as he gives him the finger. Once Vecna pushes through the physical pain which has kept him out of the cave, he enters and starts tracking down the kids as Holly guides them to the next safe memory. In the cave where his first killing occurred, Holly fights back against Vecna.

Eleven then summons Vecna to the Mind Flayer right in time, and after the crew defeat him and the Mind Flayer, they retrieve the kids' bodies, which were being kept there. Each kid coughs up dark matter, and they all come to and reunite with the crew.

In the final scene, Holly and some of her classmates who were taken by Vecna all start playing Dungeons & Dragons, following in the footsteps of her brother.

What happens to the Upside Down?

After they defeat Vecna, Dustin radios Hopper to tell him "the noseless bastard's toast" and they're heading back. "So what do we say you hit the music, old man, destroy the Upside Down once and for all? Let's ditch this hellscape," says Dustin.

Hopper and Murray (Brett Gelman) start the timer on the bomb — which is set a record playing "When Doves Cry" by Prince — and drive towards the exit of the Upside Down.

Just when both groups are driving into Hawkins, the military is waiting for them and captures them all. The record eventually triggers the bomb to explode and the wormhole is eliminated.

David Harbour as Jim Hopper and Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in 'Stranger Things' season 5What happens to Eleven?

Just as her friends are being apprehended by the military, Eleven runs back to the Upside Down entrance and Mike runs after her. She pulls Mike into her mind to tell him, "None of this will ever end, not if I'm still here."

She continues, "I need you to talk to the others. I need you to thank them for me, for being so kind to me, and teaching me what it means to be a friend. Mike, I need you to help them understand my choice."

He argues, saying he doesn't understand. "I know, but you will," she tells him. "One day you will. You understand me. You always have, from the day we met. You've seen me. The real me. I will always be with you. I love you."

They share a final kiss before he is back in his mind, held back by the military and screaming for her to come back. She disappears as the Upside Down is destroyed.

After the show jumps ahead 18 months, Mike's in his basement playing Dungeons & Dragons with Will, Lucas, Max and Dustin, like old times. At the end, Mike tells a tale where Eight actually saved Eleven, and she escaped to live a tranquil life.

He explains that Eleven and Eight devised a plan to make everyone believe Eleven was dead, to trick the military. Eight "cast a spell from far away, a spell of invisibility" and the person they saw die was an "illusion." Mike says he wants to imagine Eleven disappeared to a "land somewhere far away."

The show cuts to Eleven walking up a mountain overlooking three waterfalls, where she found "peace and happiness" in a small village where no one knows she's alive, Mike says. When Max and Lucas ask if it's true, Mike said we don't know, but "I chose to believe that it is." They all agree with him that they believe too.

According to Netflix's Tudum, the creators, brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, "have left it up to viewers to decide what they think happens to Eleven."

Are Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler out of the hospital?

By the end, they are both healthy and back to their old selves. Karen Wheeler shares a sweet moment with Mike before his graduation, while Ted Wheeler is making making comments that are out of touch, including while Dustin is making his valedictorian speech.

What happens to Steve, Robin, Nancy and Jonathan?

Steve reunites with Robin, Nancy and Jonathan, who moved out of town, on the radio tower roof to reminisce after their friends' graduation. Steve is a baseball coach and sex ed teacher. "I love teaching these kids. I get to teach them about the miracle of life and how to not start it accidentally," he says.

Jonathan is at New York University in New York City making an anti-capitalist cannibal movie.

Robin is at Smith College in Massachusetts, while Nancy dropped out of Emerson College and took trainee position at the Boston Herald. "I was just sick of school and thought I'd maybe get out there and try the real world," she said.

As they all break down in tears talking about how they won't ever be the same after the experience they shared, they decide to meet at Robin's "weird uncle's house" in Philadelphia as a half-way point. They toast to "nothing ever keeping us apart."

Courtesy of Netflix

Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour in a scene from 'Stranger Things'What happens to Hopper and Joyce?

Joyce and Hopper get engaged, while Hopper treats her to a fancy meal. "Joyce Beyers, will you spend the ret of your life with a tried, grumpy, stubborn old man who loves you very much?" She says yes, as they dance together to a live band.

Beforehand, he proposes the idea of them moving somewhere by the water. "There's nothing tying us down here anymore," he says. He also just got word that the "up and coming" city of Montauk, on Long Island, New York, is looking for a chief of police, which would come with a 20 percent raise.

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What happens to Mike, Dustin, Will, Lucas and Max?

At the end of their D&D game, Mike narrates an update about where they all end up later in life. He says Lucas and Max's love gets stronger every day.

Dustin spends days in the library while at college but has adventures with Steve, who is seen picking him up from campus for a hangout.

Will moves to New York City and eventually finds his place there as well as "deep happiness and acceptance."

As for Mike, he becomes a writer and "keeps telling stories, stories inspired by his friends."

All three volumes of Stranger Things season 5 are streaming now on Netflix.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”