By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 45 seconds ago
The Stranger Things closed out 2025 with more of a whimper than a bang, giving us a very divisive series finale that fans just can’t stop arguing about. While there are plenty of things wrong with this final episode, what I found most distracting was that it was filled with bizarre plot holes that threatened to turn this epic, action-packed episode into a disappointing farce.
If you don’t believe it (and don’t mind some serious spoilers), go grab a slice of Surfer Boy Pizza and keep reading to discover the worst Stranger Things series finale plotholes that will haunt us forever!
Why Did The Military Let Our Heroes Go?
After our Stranger Things heroes defeat Vecna and the Mindflayer (more on that in a bit), they escape the Upside Down only to be caught by the military. It looks like all hope is lost, and then the unthinkable happens: Eleven stays behind while the Upside Down blows up (unless you believe Mike’s theory that she survived). The young girl’s goal with this self-sacrifice was to ensure that the government would never be able to continue its creepy research without access to either the Upside Down or her superpowered blood.
That’s all well and good, but then something crazy happens. The military lets everyone go! Keep in mind that these are characters who have killed plenty of military soldiers and caused insane amounts of damage to federal buildings, plus they are the only ones whose knowledge and experience could help the government get anything useful out of their years of experiments. However, the Army (including Dr. Kay, whose origins are never really explained) is suddenly fine letting everyone go in a sloppy plothole intended to give Stranger Things a happy ending.
How Did Hopper Get His Old Job Back?
Part of the show’s aforementioned happy ending is that Hopper (who is surprisingly untroubled by the seeming death of Eleven) gets his old job back as Hawkins’ Chief of Police. He even leverages that job and influence from an old buddy to get a new, higher-paid police gig where he and Joyce can (now that they are engaged) move closer to where her kids are going to school. It’s all sweet and emotional, but this Stranger Things finale never answers a very basic question: how the heck did Hopper get his old job back?
As far as anyone in the community (including his fellow police officers) knows, Hopper has actually been dead since the end of Season 3. If they know anything about his most recent activities, they know that he has been spending his time breaking laws, killing soldiers, and raising a government fugitive. Throw in the fact that he was a drunk who barely did his job back in Season 1, and it makes absolutely no sense that he would ever be able to work in law enforcement ever again, much less land two different Police Chief jobs in no time flat!
Where Were All The Demogorgons?
Part of what made the Stranger Things series finale so exciting (at least, on paper) is that our heroes took the fight to Vecna and the Mindflayer by entering the Abyss armed to the teeth. There, they faced a surprisingly easy fight. Despite Vecna being stronger than ever and the Mindflayer being a godlike being from the cosmos, they are both defeated by an oversized Scooby gang. Of course, the fight is made even easier by the absence of Demogorgons, and the fact that they are nowhere to be found makes no sense whatsoever.
In case you haven’t been keeping track of the show’s tangled lore, the Demogorgons live in the Abyss (as seen in the play Stranger Things: The First Shadow) and enter the real world through gateways in the Upside Down. In theory, the Abyss should absolutely be crawling with these guys (who have been the most iconic series baddies since the beginning), but they are completely absent. Some fans theorized that Vecna absorbed all of them to further his own powers, but there are two problems with that theory: 1) it makes no sense to destroy your army when your foes are closing in, and 2) this, like so much else, is never explained onscreen!
Sorry, Duffer Brothers: if fans have to come up with their own answers, that’s a sure sign that your writing sucked a big fat one.
Why Are Vecna And The Mind Flayer So Weak?
Perhaps the most confusing thing about the Stranger Things series finale is that our two Big Bads were just astoundingly weak. Vecna is supposed to be stronger than ever now, but he can’t even successfully tug Holly away from a foul-mouthed fat kid. Later, Eleven proves he is an absolute pushover in their final battle, even though he put up a much, much stronger fight during their showdown in the Season 4 finale (keep in mind he was supposed to be far less powerful at the time).
Meanwhile, the Mindflayer was defeated by a combination of a flamethrower, guns, and (sigh) flares and slingshots. That wouldn’t have been so insulting if earlier Stranger Things scenes hadn’t proven that minor flunkies like Demogorgons were more or less bulletproof. Suddenly, the Mind Flayer is far weaker than his minions, just like Vecna (also a bulletproof guy) is suddenly vulnerable to a middle-aged woman swinging an axe.
Hopefully, someone at Netflix is taking notes here: when you make your main villains insanely weak in the final fight, it’s tough for us to take the bad guys or the heroes very seriously.
