For the past four seasons, Stranger Things has always improved on the previous season, and even if they didn’t, you can tell they tried their best. When it was revealed that the final episode would be this grand finale, with it being the longest episode of the series and releasing in theatres. Many fans of the show, me included, thought the finale would be the best of the best. However, the finale was filled with some good parts but had even more bad parts.

This article contains spoilers for the “Stranger Things” finale.

Throughout the episode, the setting and the overall vibe of the episode were fit to be a grand finale. The dialogue didn’t seem out of place and fit with the characters. Additionally, every character got their fair amount of screen time, and some of the best scenes out of the entire show were in the finale.

Despite the positives, the show had its fair share of pitfalls. To begin, the pacing and plot holes were horrendous. There were many instances where a scene went on for longer than it should have. Additionally, there were parts of the episode where important parts of the story were left out for plot convenience.

During the final battle, the main cast were fighting in Dimension X. However, the first time we were brought to Dimension X,  there were Demogorgons, demodogs and weird vines all over the place, none of which were present during the battle. It felt like the authors either forgot they were there or just decided not to include them for the convenience of the main characters, since there were no real dangers they had to face until the final battle. Instead, the scene was just a barren wasteland with no real dangers.

Also, the final battle with the Mind Flayer lasted about 15 minutes, during which the cast fights the kaiju until Joyce kills Vecna. Although they built up the Mind Flayer as the big bad villain, the final battle was anticlimactic.

The ending felt like an unbaked product. The story was about Eleven and her progression from lab experiment to an actual person, but allowing Eleven to “die” feels like all of that was for nothing. Additionally, we don’t even know if Eleven died, because Mike theorised that her “death” was an illusion created by her sister Kali so she could be alone, and we are shown a scene where Eleven is alive, looking over a remote town in the middle of nowhere.

The Finale shone in small parts, but the major parts were decent at best and left us with more questions than answers.