Stranger Things and the loose ends that really bug me (but I still freaking love it)

Our family is obsessed with Stranger Things. As we watch it all the way through for the third (fourth?) time, I can’t help but now notice the little inconsistencies and loose ends that don’t add up. Here’s my running list.

WARNING!!

This post contains MAJOR spoilers, so if you haven't finished watching Stranger Things and don't want to know what happened, just skip this post.

Argyle

Perhaps the hole in the show that bugs me the most is WTF HAPPENED TO ARGYLE!?! He drove the kids all the way back from California to Hawkins and then just disappears into the forest while foraging for mushrooms by Hop’s cabin? 🍄

I like to think that Argyle saw the mess that was Hawkins and hightails it back to Salt Lake City where he reunited with Eden (Susie’s goth sister) and then lived happily ever after. Because what’s a little trauma if you find true love? 💕

The Sinclairs

Why do we see all the other parents except Lucas’s parents? The parents are a major part of the show’s nostalgia factor. Wish there had been more of the Sinclairs, because Lucas's dad in particular seemed like he could have been hilarious facing off with a Demogorgon. Way funnier than Ted.

Dr. Kay

I know I wasn’t the only Gen X/Xennial/millennial who got hella excited when Linda Hamilton appeared in Season 5.

But what happened to Dr. Kay? How in the world can they just end it without sharing her fate? I feel like her character had so much potential; I half wanted to see her go all out in some epic final battle Terminator style, or escape to possibly resurrect the program elsewhere. But we will never know.

Dr. Owens

I’m sure this was left intentionally ambiguous but I loved Dr. Owens and just wanted to know whether he lived or died. (Also, I watched the entire show twice without knowing the actor who played Dr. Owens was Paul Reiser from My Two Dads.) And did his poor wife ever get back their son’s school projects?

Vickie & Robin

This great lesbian romance was also left hanging with no clear end. I think the implication at the end was that they broke up when Robin left Hawkins, but that was never entirely clear.

Hopper resurrected from the dead?

OK this one really perplexes me. So in Season 3 Hopper disappears, presumed dead in the explosion, only to have survived and been sent to a Russian gulag in Siberia. During his absence, he is presumed dead (Joyce: "We had a funeral! We buried him!"). And Joyce and Murray find Hopper, eventually bring him back to America.

That's all great.

But like how? Hopper was presumed dead, someone else took over as Chief. And now Hopper is just...back? Back to living as an alive person after being declared dead? Back in his old job as police chief?

Logistically this just seemed so incredibly odd.

Will's Birthday (March 22)

My daughter was the one to point this out, and I think it was an intention nod to the 80s. In Season 2 it is mentioned that Will's birthday is March 22. And then in Season 4, when they are living in California, the March 22 date is shown on the camcorder at the roller rink. The Duffer Brothers claim this was a complete accident, a coincidence and oversight on their part. But I do not think that's the case. To me, it speaks to the very chaotic parenting and somewhat unscheduled life of the 80s, a time when parents were more disconnected from their children and lives were less dictated by a calendar. Didn't we all know someone whose parents or family totally forgot their birthday?

What happens to Will? He has powers now right?

In season 5, Will gets powers that rival El's. I LOVE this. But like what happens after? Do his powers remain? Does the government know?

What happened to Erica and Mr. Clarke? The military caught them and???

Last we see of them, the military captured them in the clock tower. But then what? They are never mentioned again.

Max’s mother

One of the biggest oversights was Max’s mother not being at the graduation (even the Sinclairs showed up there). Jennifer Marshall, who played Max’s mother, was also surprised by her character’s omission in the final episode. I love how she characterized it as Max’s mother being the worst ever for missing her daughter’s graduation.

(Important side note: Jennifer Marshall, a U.S. Navy veteran, was diagnosed with melanoma in 2020 and has used her platform to both spread awareness of this deadly skin cancer and the challenges actors face in maintaining health insurance, something Shannen Doherty also spoke a lot about prior to her death from breast cancer.)

The Fate of El

Major spoiler alert, but I liked the finale (although I did not like season 5 itself). I liked what they did with El. No one wanted El to die, but clearly she knew she was going to have to sacrifice herself in some capacity to help her friends in the long run. She couldn't have a normal life, so it was either death or disappearing.

While I know this ending was intended to be ambiguous, maybe a figment of Will’s imagination or his own wishful thinking, I don’t think that was the case. I think Will’s explanation is exactly what happened. I chose to believe what was on the screen - that El lived, escaped to a place with three waterfalls (Australia, New Zealand, or Thailand maybe, I think because in the 80s that would have been pretty much disappearing) and lived out her days in anonymity.

But I also like to think that she DID get to tell Hopper her plans, and that is why he is so very OK with her "death" in the final scenes. He knows somehow that she got out and is safe, his own sacrifice being that he will never see her again.

Does anyone realize they went to high school with Henry/Vecna/One?

That is never acknowledged. I’d think that Joyce and Hopper would make that connection. Also the whole timeline is off, with Henry first being a kid in 1959 when his family moved to Hawkins and then a high schooler.