‘Stranger Things’: Will Eleven Die in the Finale? Duffer Brothers Hint at Fate
Spoiler Alert
What To Know
- Stranger Things Season 5 teased a major final battle ahead in Volume 2, hinting at who might not make it out alive.
- Is Eleven among the most in danger after making a secret pact with her sister Kali?
- Duffer Brothers, Matt and Ross, weigh in on Eleven’s potential fate.
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Stranger Things, Season 5 Volume 2.]
Stranger Things Season 5 has delivered a fairly death-free run so far. But following Volume 2’s release, we can’t help but wonder: Who is in danger heading into the finale? All signs point to Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), who has seemingly made a pact with her sister, Kali, aka Eight (Linnea Berthelsen), after learning the truth behind Dr. Kay’s (Linda Hamilton) operation.
Picking up Dr. Brenner’s (Matthew Modine) work from the past, Dr. Kay is determined to raise an army of super-powered children — and she tried using Kali as a source to do so, stealing the girl’s blood to infuse it into pregnant women. That operation didn’t exactly work, though, as Dr. Kay needed Eleven’s blood to get the job done.
As Eleven and her loved ones embarked on their final mission to sever Earth’s tie to the Abyss by infiltrating the Upside Down, she and Kali seemed to have an unspoken agreement that the only way to prevent Dr. Kay from hurting more people was to take themselves out of the equation.
Netflix
Hopper (David Harbour) was understandably suspicious of Kali’s demeanor after she was saved by him and Eleven in Dr. Kay’s Upside Down-located lab. Meanwhile, Mike (Finn Wolfhard) tried to lift Eleven’s spirits, painting a happy future for her and him, but concerns about what her presence would do to his safety also seemed to be a determining factor.
Heading into the series finale, we couldn’t help but wonder how Eleven’s secret pact with Kali might impact the rest of the story.
“A lot of the question of Eleven and what life looks like and what her ultimate fate is going to be [was] something that we found really interesting to explore in the writers’ room,” Matt Duffer shares. “And that’s really one reason we wanted to bring Kali back… She’s coming from a very sort of pragmatic, realistic point of view.”
While he adds, “Hopper, of course, is right to not completely trust her,” Ross Duffer points out that “Mike is the dreamer of the three, the optimist.”
Whose viewpoint will win out? Fans will have to tune into the finale to find out, but considering Volume 2 felt like a set-up for the sure-to-be epic conclusion of Netflix’s megahit, there’s no denying the stakes feel higher than ever before, particularly for Eleven. Share your thoughts and theories about Eleven’s potential fate in the comments below, and stay tuned for more on Stranger Things as we approach the finale.
Stranger Things, Season 5 Finale, Premiere, December 31, 2025, Netflix
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