Warning: This story contains major spoilers for the series finale of Stranger Things. Tread with caution.
The final-ever season of Stranger Things came to an epic, emotional close this past Wednesday (Dec. 31) when the finale premiered on Netflix. It’s been a thrilling near-decade-long ride for fans who have tuned in to watch the mysterious adventures of Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, and Lucas ever since the ‘80s-set sci-fi coming-of-age series first premiered in the summer of 2016.
Now that it’s all over, we know how the story ends—with Vecna and the Mind Flayer defeated, the Upside Down destroyed for good, and Eleven seemingly left for dead following a heroic sacrifice to stop the government from using her blood to restart their experimental program to develop psychic children.
Does Eleven Really Die at the End of Stranger Things?
Eleven’s gut-wrenching apparent death comes when she decides to stay behind in the Upside Down—revealed in an earlier episode to be a wormhole connecting Earth to a far more sinister planetary dimension called the Abyss—as it collapses into the void of space. Persuaded earlier by her sister Kali, AKA 008, El seemingly decides to die in the Upside Down during a remote explosion so that the evil Dr. Kay cannot use her to restart their corrupt program with other kids, essentially ending the cycle of abuse. Before she sacrifices herself, Eleven briefly connects with Mike on the psychic plane, where the two share a passionate kiss and he pleads with her not to leave him.
However, during the finale’s epilogue, Mike suggests during a game of Dungeons & Dragons with Lucas, Max, Dustin, and Will that Eleven is still alive. He theorizes that a dying Kali, who was earlier mortally wounded by the military at the lab in the Upside Down, projected an illusion of El inside the portal to the Upside Down just moments prior to its destruction, leading everyone to believe El had died.
Mike believes that in the chaos of their capture, Eleven actually snuck away and escaped using one of the tunnels leading to the underground of Hawkins. He theorizes that from the lab in the Upside Down, Kali used the last of her strength to project an image of El, making everyone believe she had been destroyed along with the Upside Down.
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According to series co-creator Ross Duffer, there was “never a version of the story where Eleven was hanging out with the gang at the end.”
“She represents magic in a lot of ways and the magic of childhood. For our characters to move on and for the story of Hawkins and the Upside Down to come to a close, Eleven had to go away. We thought it would be beautiful if our characters continued to believe in that happier ending even if we didn’t give them a clear answer to whether that’s true or not. The fact that they’re believing in it, we just thought it was such a better way to end the story and a better way to represent the closure of this journey and their journey from children to adults,” he shared in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum.
“Eleven had to go away” is an interesting choice of words here. While it’s ultimately left up to the audience to decide whether or not Mike’s optimistic story is true or just a coping mechanism for the heartbroken teen and his friends, I don’t think Eleven’s fate is quite as ambiguous as the Duffer Brothers have presented. In fact, I’d say she’s absolutely alive—and I think can prove it. Here’s why.
Kali Showed a Change of Heart After Hopper’s Speech to Eleven
For most of Season 5, Kali is adamant in her belief that the military will never stop pursuing Eleven and that El must die for the “cycle” of abuse to end. She never wavers from this ideology, and even during her scenes back in Season 2, it’s clear Kali is stalwart in her beliefs, pessimism, and mistrust of others, including Hopper.
However, you can physically see Kali’s feelings toward the situation shift during Hopper’s speech urging El to survive when they’re in the lab in the Upside Down. “I have to end the cycle,” Eleven explains to Hopper when he discovers her plan to sacrifice herself when they later destroy the Upside Down for good.
“You will, but not like this; not with more violence, not with more pain. There’s already been so much pain. From the moment you were born your mother was taken from you, your childhood was taken from you. You’ve been attacked, manipulated, abused by terrible people. Life has been so unfair to you, so cruel. But you never let it break you and I need you to fight, kid. I just need you to fight one last time. Fight for the happy days on the other side of this, fight for a world beyond Hawkins,” Hopper tells her.
It’s a poignant moment that appears to move even stubborn Kali, whose expression changes dramatically as she lowers her gun, which up until then has been pointed at Hopper. It’s made clear to the audience that Kali’s mind has been changed, and it’s very likely the moment that inspires her to later help El escape so that her sister can indeed “fight for a world beyond Hawkins.”
Eleven Couldn’t Have Slipped Past the Military Back Into the Upside Down
After the military intercepts the gang when they return from the Upside Down, they force everyone out of Murray’s truck and detain the kids against the vehicle. If you watch closely, you can see Eleven jump down out of the truck, but that’s the last time we see her. With military personnel flanking all sides, including near the portal, it would have been impossible for Eleven to make her way back into the Upside Down.
However, in the chaos, and with Kali’s help keeping El hidden via an invisibility illusion, El could have easily slipped into Radio Shack to make her escape, considering how close the storefront was to the truck. Her slipping away into an area no one was really paying attention to makes much more sense than her somehow crossing to the other side of the wide, busy street and making her way past dozens of military guards who were specifically looking for her.
Eleven Contacted Mike Using Her Psychic Abilities Despite the Sonic Devices
It’s been established that Eleven cannot use her psychic powers whatsoever in the presence of the military’s high-frequency sonic devices, AKA the “Kryptonite,” which have rendered El nearly immobile a number of times in Season 5. It’s also made incredibly clear during the scene after she and the gang flee the Upside Down after defeating Vecna that Dr. Kay and the military are actively blasting more than a few of those devices in her proximity. So, why doesn’t Eleven react in pain, panic, and discomfort like she normally does?
Like Mike suggests, if El were physically standing in (or even just past) the portal to the Upside Down, she would absolutely have been in range of the high-frequency blasts, which means she would not have been able to contact Mike for their heartbreaking farewell. It stands to reason, then, that she had already gotten far enough away from the sonic blasts to briefly connect with Mike using her abilities.
Eleven Didn’t Have a Nosebleed After She Tapped Into Mike’s Mind
During the entirety of the series, not once when Eleven has used her abilities to tap into the psychic plane has she not had a nosebleed afterward, but somehow the Eleven we see standing in the portal to the Upside Down shows no signs of blood on her face after she contacts Mike. Either this marks one of the most obvious continuity errors in a major TV series, like, ever, or it’s a sign that the Eleven we see standing in front of us is, in fact, an illusion.
Eleven Basically Tells Mike He’ll Figure Out the Truth Someday, and He Does
During Mike and Eleven’s final goodbye when she taps into his mind, Eleven tells Mike that while he may not understand now, “someday” he will realize why she made the choice she made. “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,” Eleven says.
“But I don’t understand,” Mike replies.
“I know, but you will. One day you will. You understand me better than anyone. You always have, from the day we met,” she tells him.
It’s a bittersweet bookend to their childhood romance, as Eleven is basically telling Mike that he always made her feel understood and accepted. But it’s also a deeper hint that pays off 18 months later during the epilogue, when Mike, whose memory is jostled by an audio speaker during graduation, realizes that Eleven couldn’t have possibly used her abilities in her supposed final moments due to Dr. Kay’s sonic devices. This is the revelation El knew Mike would eventually make; the revelation that he would be able to share with their friends at the right time.
Kali Could Have Survived Longer Than We Thought
Many have argued that Kali could not have projected the illusion of El because she would have died during the timed explosion on the roof of the lab. However, if you pay close attention to the explosion, it doesn’t destroy the lab, but simply destroys the exotic matter sphere floating above the facility, with the bright blue blast shooting outward in the sky. The walls of the wormhole then begin to break down, no longer held stable by the exotic matter.
If the lab is the epicenter of the wormhole, then theoretically, Kali would have been able to survive until the very end of its destruction because the walls of the wormhole would have broken down first, sucking all matter inside the Upside Down into the void of space outward moving in. As such, Kali would have been the most protected and lasted the longest at its epicenter, allowing her illusion of El to linger for as long as it did.
Eleven Doesn’t Get Sucked Into the Void — She Simply Vanishes
With buildings and cars and massive structures being pulled violently into the void of space all around her, Eleven stands suspiciously still and remains untouched by the thousands of particles of dirt and debris flying in the air for an unusual amount of time as the Upside Down collapses around her.
If she were physically standing there, she would have likely been pulled away into the void long before the moment we finally see her suddenly vanish. If anything, she would have at the very least swayed or showed some physical reaction to the storm-like environment around her. Instead, it stands to reason that the moment we see El disappear, seemingly behind a wash of grey debris, is actually the moment Kali finally dies, releasing her illusion of El.
You Can Hear Eleven’s Breath and Heartbeat After She ‘Dies’
Seconds before Eleven disappears in the collapsing Upside Down, she closes her eyes and you can hear a deep exhale. Then, she’s gone. What should have been her final breath, though, isn’t so final, as immediately after the wormhole vanishes and everything goes quiet, we hear another breath. My theory is that the first breath is Kali taking her final breath, while the second breath we hear is El inhaling as she takes the first breath of her new, free life, indicating she is alive and well somewhere off screen.
What’s more, if you listen very closely on high volume, you can also hear a faint heartbeat immediately before the epilogue begins, when the screen is still completely black. You can easily miss it as it’s very subtle and is immediately followed by the sound of a construction worker laying bricks as Hawkins gets rebuilt. Still, it’s very much there, and the only explanation for it is that it’s a hint that Eleven is alive.
Mike’s Basement Bookshelf Offers a Subtle Hint
At the end of the series finale, we get a fleeting look at the bookshelf on which Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, and Max store their D&D game books. If you look closely, you’ll find a title by John D. MacDonald called The Empty Copper Sea. (It’s especially visible in the behind-the-scenes image at the end of this Instagram gallery.)
Written in 1978, the mystery novel is about a man who fakes his death and flees to another country after seemingly drowning during a storm at sea. Sure, it could be a coincidence, but as we’ve seen historically during the series, there’s usually a good reason for these sorts of period-accurate references and Easter eggs. As for me, it’s more than enough to convince me that Eleven survived and is living her well-deserved best life. I believe.
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Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky