The Stranger Things finale is a television event made for a large screen. In this modern world of iPhone bingeing, this episode must be watched on a television at least, if not in theaters.

Be warned: spoilers ahead.

This episode picks up right where the last one left off, at the gate to the Upside Down in the MAC-Z. Dr. Kay interrogates various soldiers about this security breach, but realizes that the gang was able to sneak into the Upside Down without the help of anyone on the inside. Instead, they were able to sneak in using radio waves.

For those who forgot, the plan is for El to go to the lab in the Upside Down and tap into Vecna’s mind and rescue the kids and stop the Abyss from crashing into Hawkins. Meanwhile, the rest of the group makes their way into the Abyss to fight Vecna in the physical world. Once Vecna’s dead, Hopper is going to blow up the Upside Down by agitating the exotic matter, effectively destroying the bridge between dimensions. Before El can even reach the lab, some soldiers spot the gang in their truck and begin tailing them.

Hopper, El, and Kali make their way through the lab, eventually arriving at the water tank where she first made contact with a Demogorgon. Murray goes to the lab’s roof and sets up the C4 explosives while El and 008 meet in El’s mind. They tap into Max’s conscience so that Max can help guide the siblings through Vecna’s mind prison- confusing, yes, but ultimately leading to 008, El, and Max back in Vecna’s memories, looking for the children. As the Abyss grows closer to Hawkins, Hopper signals to El that they need to hurry up.

El races through memory after Memory as the Abyss crashes into Hawkins, drawing nearer and nearer to the gang in the Upside Down. Just in time, El finds the children, wakes them up, and sends Vecna out the window. El stops the Abyss from crashing but not soon enough. It knocks Steve off the radio tower. In a heart-wrenching slow-motion sequence, Steve slips off the tower, and Dustin screams. Before Steve can fully fall to the ground, Jonathan reaches out his arm and catches him. Now Lucas, Dustin, Mike, Will, Jonathan, Nancy, Steve, Robin, and Joyce can go into the Abyss and fight Vecna.

In the physical world, Vickie is watching over Max while she’s helping El and 008. They’re hiding out in the Squawk when Dr. Kay arrives to search for any clues. Quickly, Vickie takes Max into the hidden room at the Squawk. At the same time, Max is reuniting with Holly in the mind prison. Max convinces the rest of the children that Henry is actually evil when they see him attack El and slowly turn into Vecna. Max and the children escape from Henry’s house and run for the cave as El and 008 try to kill Vecna. Just before 008 can stab Vecna, he disappears, retreating into the physical world. El, and 008 meet up with Max and the rest of the kids.

Hopper waits by El’s tank in the physical world when he gets a vision from Vecna. He sees the room start to fill up with Agent Orange, giving him PTSD from his days in the Vietnam War. Vecna also shows Hopper the conversation where 008 told El that the only way to end this is to kill themselves when the Upside Down explodes. Hopper readies his pistol, demanding Vecna show himself. He shoots where he thinks Vecna appears, only to realize he’s shot El in the tank. The hallucination drives Hopper to smash the tank, freeing El. When the tub is broken, El, 008, and Max disappear from the mind prison, leaving the kids to fight for themselves.

At the Squawk, Max awakens with a jolt of energy, sharply inhaling and attracting Dr. Kay’s attention. The soldiers find the gang’s hideout and plan to stop Vecna, and they depart for the MAC-Z to capture El once and for all. El and 008 decide that as long as the kids make it to the cave, Vecna cannot complete his plan, and El could have enough time to get to the Abyss and fight Vecna physically. Hopper confronts El about her plan to kill herself in a tear-jerking monologue. El promises Hopper that she won’t kill herself with the Upside Down, but is interrupted as Murray informs them that soldiers from the MAC-Z have found El and are invading the lab.

In the Abyss, Will envisions Vecna slowly approaching the kids in the cave. Will senses his fear, but sees Vecna step into the cave, reliving the traumatic memory for the first time. Holly realizes that Vecna has overcome his fear of the cave and pushes the kids towards escaping the memory. Will tells the others to move forward with their plan as he tries to stop Vecna with the hive mind. As Vecna draws nearer to Holly and the rest of the kids, Holly grabs a metal baton to defend herself with. The kids make it out of the memory, but Holly stays back to attack Henry. Despite a valiant effort, Vecna shoves Holly aside and watches his traumatic memory play out for the first time. He sees his younger self kill a man with a briefcase, then open the briefcase and hold a glowing red rock. This is the moment when Henry became Vecna, combining with the Mind Flayer.

In the lab, the soldiers use radio waves to stunt 008 and El’s powers, paralyzing them. Hopper picks up El, bringing her to safety but leaves 008 to fend for herself. Just before the soldiers capture 008, Hopper returns, takes out some of the soldiers, but is overpowered by Lt. Akers. Murray devises a plan to throw a bomb from the roof onto the helicopter that is paralyzing El and 008. The plan works, but it’s too late. Akers shoots 008 right before getting blown up by Murray’s bomb. After mourning the loss of her sister, El tells Hopper that she has to go to the Abyss to fight Vecna physically. Though he’s scared for her, Hopper agrees.

In the Abyss, the group prepares to fight Vecna as they approach his spider-like lair. Slowly, the giant spider comes to life. The gang retreats and decides that one of them will need to distract the spider while the rest of them attack it from the sides. Just then, El appears and dives into the belly of the beast, literally, tearing Vecna from his lair. Nancy volunteers to distract the spider while the others attack it. Almost succumbing to the spider’s talons, Nancy draws the spider away from the rest of the group, giving them a chance to seperate and attack the Spider from all sides. Jonathan and Robin use flamethrowers and burn the monster, Steve and Dustin attack the monster from beneath, and Lucas and Mike use molotov cocktails. This hurts Vecna enough for El to get the upper hand. In one last attempt to stop El, Vecna throws his arm out at her, but Will is able to tap into the hive mind and stop him just in time. Finally, El pushes Vecna into a post, driving a spike into his heart. The giant spider collapses.

The group reunites with El in the spider’s stomach and saves the children from Vecna’s mind trap. Joyce approaches the dying Vecna and heroically declares that he messed with the wrong town, chopping off his head using her signature axe. Hopper sets the timer for the bomb to the Upside Down, and the team makes their way back to Hawkins. Right when they get to the MAC-Z, Dr. Kay and her soldiers are waiting for them. The military uses the radio waves to stop El’s powers but El is nowhere to be found. Dustin reassures Mike, saying she probably found a way to escape but Mike realizes that El didn’t escape. She’s sacrificing herself, breaking her promise to Hopper. El uses her powers to tap into Mike’s mind, and the two have an emotional goodbye set to the tune of “Purple Rain” by Prince. Mike begs El not to go, but El tells Mike that she has to in order to stop the cycle of torture that the government would put her through. The gang begs El not to sacrifice herself, but she doesn’t listen. When the Upside-Down blows up, El is swept away.

We then cut to 18 months later. Robin narrates through her radio broadcast, filling us in on what we’ve missed. We see Steve now coaching a Little League baseball team, with Derek as a catcher. We learn that it’s Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, and Max’s graduation day. We see Max, now fully recovered from her injuries, Dustin’s mom is crying over Dustin’s graduation picture, Jonathan records Will, Joyce, and Hopper on his camera, and Mike sits in the town square, thinking about El. Hopper joins him, telling Mike that they have to accept her choice and move on because that’s what El would have wanted.

Everyone is there for the graduation, watching Dustin deliver his valedictorian speech. Dustin gives an out-of-character anti-conformity speech, tearing off his graduation gown to reveal a “Hellfire Lives” shirt. The crowd cheers and the gang rushes up to Dustin, hugging and high-fiving him. Stacey, the girl that Dustin was going after in season 2, invites Dustin to her party.

Jonathan, Robin, Nancy, and Steve reunite on the roof of the Squawk and reminisce over old times. Now all in different cities with different jobs, the gang agrees to meet up once a month to stay in touch. Joyce and Hopper finally have their date at Enzo’s. During dinner, Hopper proposes to Joyce, and Joyce says yes. Lastly, Finn, Lucas, Mike, Dustin, Will, and Max all sit around a table and play D&D. In this last campaign, we see glimpses into each kid’s future. Lucas and Max stay together. Dustin enjoys his time at school and stays in touch with Steve, going on road trips over breaks. Will travels to a new city and eventually meets a guy to date, and Mike becomes a writer, a la Stand By Me, recounting his time as a youth. Mike also proposes a theory that El is still alive, traveling the world in secret to hide from the government. Tearfully, the kids all agree that they believe El is still alive, and put their books away one by one. Then, the series ends.

This was a heartfelt and emotionally powerful conclusion to a series ten years in the making. While most fans are happy with this ending, seeing it as a sad but essential moment for the series, some are upset over a few loose ends that didn’t get quite tied up. First of all, in the massive fight against the spider and Vecna, no demogorgons came to fight off the gang. Secondly,  Hopper and Joyce both went to school with Henry but seemed have no recollection of this. Finally, the storyline with Dr. Kay seemed to be wholly unresolved, just cutting to 18 months in the future. While these are valid points to make about the finale, the emotional beats still hold weight, making this just about as perfect a series finale as you could hope for.

Rating: 10/10