Stranger Things season 5 is set to kill a lot of its major characters in the series finale, but it needs to let Eleven grow up and be happy.
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While it’s no secret that the Stranger Things series finale is already set to end on a bittersweet note, the Duffer Brothers still need to give Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) her well-deserved happy ending. Stranger Things season 4’s baleful conclusion ominously prepares for an explosive fifth and final season. Now that Vecna has successfully opened a gaping gate between Hawkins and the Upside Down, the entire Team Hawkins is in danger of having their ranks diminished by the supernatural threat.
Stranger Things has always been fond of having its major characters brush with death, but is generally reluctant to kill them, as seen with Jim Hopper, Steve Harrington, and Max Mayfield among others. Although predictable, the deux ex machina plot device has worked thus far - however, Stranger Things’ season 5 appears to have no room for it anymore with its upcoming final act. Given that the internet has been swarmed with death predictions, Eleven’s demise is treated as an unfortunate guarantee. While nothing is set in stone just yet, Eleven’s Stranger Things arc warrants a positive resolution considering how much she’s been through since Stranger Things began.
Eleven Deserves To Be A Real Kid After Stranger Things
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Eleven being a lab rat at Hawkins Research Facility is reason enough for Stranger Things showrunners to write her a chance to become a real kid. Kept inside Hawkins Lab, Eleven was experimented on for the most part of her formative years until she escaped the night Will Byers disappeared. While Eleven wasn’t necessarily starved, she was isolated, punished for disobedience, and treated inhumanely by Dr. Brenner and his slew of scientists. Being viewed as a specimen rather than a human being - a child, nonetheless - Hawkins never even gave her the simple gesture of knowing her real name, Jane.
Despite Stranger Things offering Eleven a glimpse of a normal childhood and teenage-hood when she becomes integrated within Team Hawkins' inner circle, especially when Jim Hopper adopts Eleven as his daughter, it doesn’t really last long. Seeing as Hawkins Lab and the Upside Down forces are continually pursuing her, she becomes a beacon for destruction and death. Attracting enemies here and there, Eleven is guilt-ridden with being the reason that people die (Bob, Eddie, Barb, Billy, and so on) which contributes to her inability to actually enjoy growing up as a girl of her age should get to.
In Stranger Things season 2, Eleven even runs away from Hawkins due to her sense of liability towards her friends’ lives. She also does this in Stranger Things season 4 but for a different reason: to reacquire her powers to save Hawkins. Eleven has always desired to feel like she belongs, as any child would, and Team Hawkins has become that family in her supernatural orphan story. Eleven is owed an opportunity to live her life without always being on edge at another threat. She deserves to be a real kid who is able to experience happiness, sadness, and every kind of emotion normally; without fear of anyone dying in the process.
A Tragic Eleven Ending Would Make Stranger Things Too Bleakeleven and vecna
While Stranger Things is technically a supernatural horror drama, the story doesn’t fully cross over to the dark side; making sure to provide its protagonists some hope. Eleven’s character fundamentally functions as a symbol of Team Hawkins’ hope, specifically her psychokinetic powers that can go head-to-head with Vecna and his hench-monsters. Hence, if Stranger Things were to tragically kill Eleven in the final season, it renders the show too bleak to a point where its entire series run becomes for naught.
Although everyone on Team Hawkins is considerably crafty and brave for outmaneuvering forces bigger than them, it’s undeniable that Eleven’s presence evens out the playing field. Eleven’s death - if or when it happens on Stranger Things season 5 - would go against the Duffer Brothers’ Stranger Things bittersweet ending simply because they chose to murder Hawkins’ hope. Likewise, Eleven living the rest of her days peacefully and alive is the best option to compensate for any other major deaths that are sure to happen in the series finale.
How Stranger Things Can End Eleven’s Story
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Seeing as Stranger Things season 4 already teases a great war between Hawkins and the Upside Down, Eleven’s story could potentially see Eleven survive the war against Vecna and lose her powers in order to close the rift plaguing the town. Survivors will no doubt mourn major (and expected) deaths from Team Hawkins, but also thank their sacrifice - especially, if it allows Hopper, Joyce, Eleven, and which ever Byers is alive in season 5 to become a healthy family unit. Stranger Things could then close its chapter with Eleven as a regular girl, providing the happy ending for the character hoped for by audiences for years.
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