‘Stranger Things’ Ending Explained: Is Eleven Dead or Alive?

After nine years, five seasons, and countless Eggo-centric scenes, Netflix‘s Stranger Things has finally come to an end. The final super-sized episode follows Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Hopper (David Harbour), Will (Noah Schnapp), and their friends as they venture into the Upside Down one last time to stop Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), save Holly (Nell Fisher), and finally destroy the Upside Down.

**Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 8 “The Rightside Up,” now streaming on Netflix**

Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 8 “The Rightside Up” picks up right where the last episode ended, with our heroes successfully sneaking into the Upside Down. While the bulk of the group heads to the Upside Down’s version of the WSQK radio tower, Hopper and Eleven have their own mission. She’s going to face down Vecna on her own, using one of the Hawkins Research Lab tank in the Upside Down.

So do our heroes save the day? Does Holly finally escape Vecna? Do Eleven and Kali (Linnea Berthelsen) die? Does anyone live happily ever after in a place with at least one waterfall?

Here’s everything you need to know about how the Stranger Things finale ends…

What Happens in the Stranger Things Finale?

Stranger Things ends with our heroes working together to defeat both Vecna and the Mind-Flayer, an inter-dimensional being who was the big bad all along. While it initially seems that Eleven dies, sacrificing herself per her plan with Kali, Stranger Things ends with Mike offering a tantalizing theory that gives his love — and the audience — a happy ending.

So how does this all go down?

Once in the Upside Down, the gang splits up, with Hopper, Eleven, Kali, and Murray taking point at the Hawkins Lab, and the rest of the team — Lucas, Nancy, Jonathan, Dustin, Steve, Mike, Robin, Will, and Joyce heading to the Upside Down’s version of the WSQK tower. Vickie is watching over Max in the real world radio station, while Dr. Kay tracks Mr. Clakre and Erica to their position at the local Presbyterian church. Unfortunately for the Upside Down lab team, Akers and his men are laying in wait and follow them in.

Before Eleven goes into the tank, she asks Hopper to promise her not to pull her out if something goes wrong, but Hopper wants Eleven to agree to worry about Kay and her cronies for another day.

When Vickie leaves Max alone to grab a snack, Max is able to psychically leave her body and enter the void with Eleven and Kali. Eleven uses Max’s knowledge of Vecna’s memories to find a way to the Creel House. (Meaning we get to briefly revisit the 1960s/Stranger Things: The First Shadow era Hawkins high.) While this happens, the radio tower team realizes, to their horror, that although their plan was correct, the tower’s needle is not lined up with the rift. With Max’s help, El is able to get into the Creel house in time to hurl Victor out of the psychic circle. However, before the Abyss stops, Steve falls from the tower. It briefly seems like he may die, but Jonathan saves him just in time.

Eleven faces Vecna down in the Creel House, taunting him that he’ll never find the kids. The twist is they are right there in the room, hidden with Kali’s powers. Vecna reveals himself as the real monster to the kids as he hacks into Eleven’s mind to discover the truth about her and Kali’s plan. Kali attempts to stab Henry, but he disappears, suggesting he has her powers of illusion, too. Eleven and Kali catch up to Max and the kids when they’re almost to the caves.

Back at the lab, Hopper sees a vision of his daughter Sarah dying before witnessing Kali’s secret plan with Eleven. It turns out that Vecna is now toying with him, taunting him about his daughters’ deaths. Venca tries to shoot Vecna, but winds up shooting Eleven in the tank. Panicked, he smashes the tank open, ripping El, Kali, and Max out of Vecna’s mind. Again, this was an illusion. Eleven is fine, but her connection is broken. Max gasps back to life in her physical form, revealing the secret base — and the plan — to Kay and her agents.

Hopper confronts Eleven about her secret plan. He tells her that he won’t detonate the explosives and destroy the Upside Down until Eleven is safe back in the real world. Kali holds Hopper at gunpoint, claiming Henry’s gotten to him. Hopper makes a final, emotional appeal to El, which is punctuated by Murray warning them that they’ve got “company” in the form of soldiers.

While this is happening, Holly manages to lead all of the kids to the cave, including Derek, despite Vecna’s best efforts. Meanwhile, Nancy has already led the charge through the rifts into the Abyss and the radio tower group eventually makes it to Vecna’s lair. As they get closer, Will warns the group that Henry is alive. Henry battles through his own traumatic memories to enter the cave and Will can feel each stab of pain. He can also see that Henry has made it into the cave and the kids are in trouble. Robin asks if Will can do anything.

Hopper attempts to evade Kay’s forces at the lab, but they have the device that immobilizes Eleven and Kali. Hopper gets El to safety, but when he goes back to rescue Kali, Akers clocks him with the butt of a gun. Akers is about to kill Kali when Murray uses the gang’s explosives to the device. Eleven then uses her powers to kill Akers and his men. Nevertheless, Kali is shot in the madness and she dies. When the dust settles, Eleven realizes that she can use her powers to jump through the rift to the Abyss, where she can kill Henry. Now it’s her turn to have an emotional heart-to-heart with Hopper, explaining that she’s not a kid anymore and she’s not Sarah. She has the choice to do this and she needs him to trust her to make the right choice.

Holly leads the kids to Henry’s cave, but he follows her and nearly kills her, too. Only his painful memory stops this — a memory that, again, Will can see. Vecna watches on as his child self commits murder and then opens a case, clutching a mysterious glowing stone that will change him forever. A cloud in the Abyss implores the child to find him, thus proving the theory that the Mind-Flayer is an alien creature from another dimension who first consumed young Henry before turning his sights on the likes of Will.

Will reaches out to Henry, tenderly telling him it was never him. The Mind-Flayer used him just like he used young Will. Will implores Henry to fight it with them. Crying, Henry says the Mind-Flayer showed him the truth about the world being broken. He tells Will that the Mind-Flayer never controlled him and he never controlled it. Instead, Henry chose to join it. Vecna’s “lair” comes to life, revealing the Mind-Flayer in its true, massive, spider form. “We are one,” Henry says, controlling the monster.

The Vecna/Mind-Flayer hybrid attacks and corners the gang. Suddenly, huge bolders strike its head. Eleven has arrived to join the fight. She leaps in the air and rips an opening into the monster’s body, cutting Vecna down in the process. “So you truly do want to die,” Vecna says.

Mike suggests that they help Eleven by attacking the monster, thereby hurting the hive mind. The gang comes up with a plan to lure the Mind-Flayer towards the canyons using Nancy as bait. Nancy runs from the monster while El fights Vecna. Nancy finds herself cornered without ammo just in time for Jonathan and Robin to torch it up while Dustin and Steve attack the monster from below.

Eleven uses this opening to push Vecna’s back onto a spike, but Vecna viciously lunges at her. Just in time, though, he stops. Will is controlling him, breaking off his arm. Working together, the group takes down the Mind-Flayer. Nancy runs in to the corpse and tears Holly out of her gory cocoon. Soon, all of the kids are rescued, while the impaled Vecna gasps for breath.

At this point, Will and Joyce enter. She remembers all the pain they’ve all endured and tells Vecna, “You’ve fucked with the wrong family.” Then, she swings her axe again and again until Vecna’s head rolls off.

Dustin lets Hopper and Murray know that the whole party succeeded, including El, and suggests to Hop that he destroys the Upside Down once and for all. Murray types in the code to set off the explosives and uses Prince’s “When Doves Cry” as their countdown.

Everyone seems really happy, but there’s still like a half hour to go in the episode. When everyone returns home, Dr. Kay is waiting for them with tire spikes, the psychic deafeners, and full military force. For a moment, Eleven appears to be missing. But then, Mike and Dustin realize that she hung back in the Upside Down.

Mike is pulled into Eleven’s mind. She tells him that none of this will stop as long as she’s around. Tearfully, she begs Mike to help their friends understand her choice. We get a montage of all their past moments while Prince’s “Purple Rain” plays. Weeping, they kiss and say goodbye. When Mike is whisked back to the real world, everyone realizes what is happening. They scream and cry for their friend, but as the Prince album ends, the lab and then all of the Upside Down blow. It seems that Eleven has indeed died.

We jump ahead 18 months and Hawkins is rebuilding, attributing everything to an earthquake. Robin is back on the radio mic wearing a Smith College tee, reflecting on what’s changed. Steve is now coaching (Delightful Derek) in Little League (and teaching Sex Ed!). The main group are finally graduating high school. Lucas and Max are still in love. Dustin is class Valedictorian. While Will seems to be thriving with Joyce and Hopper, Mike is still ruminating on the love he lost. Hopper sits with Mike and tells him that it’s better to find a way to accept El’s choice than to let grief calcify you for good.

Mike goes to graduation, where Dustin starts off by giving a heartfelt Valedictorian speech, only to eventually stick it to Principal Higgins and the man. He rips off his cap and gown to reveal the Hellfire Club tee, to the delight of the crowd (and his mom!). While Higgins takes the mic, Mike hears something in the feedback of the speaker that reminds him of El.

We then learn that Jonathan is a film major at NYU and Nancy later reveals she dropped out of Emerson to work at a paper. Steve, Robin, Jonathan, and Nancy agree to meet once a month at Robin’s uncle’s place in Philly to keep their friend group alive. At long last, we see Joyce and Hopper on a date at Enzo’s, where he pitches her on a move to Montauk* before proposing. Joyce happily accepts.

Stranger Things returns to the Wheelers’ basement, where Max is finally playing Dungeons & Dragons with the boy. Just when it seems that the game has ended in failure, Dustin remembers they can call upon the “Mage,” aka Eleven’s role in the “party.” When Max complains about the “trite” ending, Mike commits to their group’s happily ever afters… including one for Eleven.

*Montauk is a huge Stranger Things Easter egg as the Duffer brothers’ original pitch set the show in the coastal Long Island town.

Stranger Things Ending Explained: Is Eleven Alive?

After Mike previews all of his friends’ futures, they turn the tables on him. What comes of the Storyteller? Mike will go on to become a professional writer, crafting tales inspired by his friends. With bittersweetness, he then says there is one story he can never share. What really happened to the Mage.

Mike suggests that a dying Kali used her powers to hide Eleven so she could escape into the tunnels while Kay captured everyone. The El we watched die was not the real El, but Kali’s final projection.

Mike says no one knows where El went, but he likes to imagine she’s in a beautiful land far away. We then see Eleven looking out at a gorgeous landscape with waterfalls, with a small town in the distance. Max, crying, asks how they know this is true. Mike says it’s simply what he chooses to believe and everyone concurs it’s what they believe.

So, it’s up to you if you want to believe if Eleven lived or died.

Who Dies in Stranger Things?

Wondering what the official body count is for the Stranger Things series finale? Not counting the mindless grunts who rightfully got theirs, here’s who died in Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 8 “The Rightside Up”:

• Kali is shot by Akers at Hawkins Lab.
• The Mind-Flayer is attacked by all of our heroes working together.
• Vecna is decapitated by Joyce.
• Eleven, maybe. It all depends on whether you want to believe Mike’s tale that Kali survived her wound long enough to concoct a new plan to save El.