“Stranger Things” has been one of the most successful Netflix shows for over nine years, captivating an audience of millions worldwide. In the final season, the children of Hawkins engage in yet another conquest against the freak of nature that is Vecna. Few shows attract over 40% of the American population during New Year’s to watch the final episode. Over this time, millions around the world have fostered a special connection with the show as it has come to a close. This is the concluding article of a two-part series covering the second half of “Stranger Things” season five. In the first part, we focused on the Buzz staff’s opinions regarding the first half of the series, but now in the second half we will focus on the opinions of students at Damascus High School. With this show coming to its fairy tale ending, the fan base continues to reel as they say goodbye to their favorite characters.
With the final season drawing to a close, fans of the show have not hesitated to voice their opinions about it, and the students at Damascus were no exception.
Lyla Heath is a Junior at Damascus High School and an avid “Stranger Things” viewer. She took part in the journey of watching this horror-filled show at the peak of the pandemic. She was “okay with the ending” and really thought when “Hopper shot eleven, it was gonna be real.” The “Stranger Things finale” left Heath with a mix of emotions. Heath expressed how she loved that the “boys…were playing D&D in the basement last time,” making it almost poetic like it was in the pilot episode of season one. However, just because the story has come to an end, the Duffer Brothers leave a lot to interpretation and questioning. Heath believes that when Steve falls off the Squawk Tower, there was a gap in time where Vecna is controlling their minds, and nothing after that was real. Heath also chose to believe, like all of Eleven’s friends believed, that she was, in fact, alive and living in peace in a faraway land with three waterfalls. When Heath was asked to rate all of the seasons from least to greatest, she responded with “1,3,4,5,2” because she believed that the “character development wasn’t great.” Heath closed by stating that she is a fan of the Byler ship because they look cute together.
Charlotte Evans and Kiera Brand, seniors at Damascus High School, had very strong feelings about the season, to say the least. When asked if the pair felt like the final season lived up to their expectations after three years, there was a noticeable voice of disappointment as Evans commented, “three years is more than enough time to make a good plot, and I do not think they used their time wisely with this new season.” Promptly after this, Brand followed up, expressing: “Yeah, especially because the finale wasn’t written before they started [recording] the finale, I just think they felt rushed, and that’s kind of how the season was.” Overall, despite the intense scrutiny “Stranger Things” has been put under, something the duo unanimously agreed on is how the show was given a picture perfect storybook ending.
Needless to say, opinions on the final season couldn’t be more different across the nation. With the passionate aficionados of “Stranger Things” ultimately left with an all-time classic ending to the series, the Duffer Brothers have left everyone wondering one question: Will there be a continuation on the saga of Hawkins?
