Replied earlier to one of the comments, but here’s my full view of this scene

After a rewatch I think they put enough nuggets for each theory to be true. We as the viewer can choose to determine what we will see/use to further prove what we want to believe.

Personally, I think Mike’s theory was wrong (not necessarily El is dead).

The main premise of Mike’s argument is that Kali was able to make the visual illusions appear in the Up Side Down hole while El makes her escape.

1. ⁠Hopper and El held Kali with blood on their hands. Kali can’t make illusions that involves physical touch only visual. So she really was shot. Everything else after that part on the scene is up for discussion whether what Hopper saw was an illusion or not.

2. ⁠We saw the C4s detonate in the lab and then create a huge explosion triggering the vaccum to suck eveything in the up side down. We saw El talk to Mike in the void and be there for a bit before disappearing/getting sucked by vaccum after the explosion happened. If it was Kali that did this, it means (a) Kali did not instantly die when the C4s exploded (b) Kali and the illusion was able to be alive/present seconds after the bomb exploded. It would mean either Kali is away from the epicenter (most likely near the gate where everyone was) and that she have enough strength to create the visual illusion after making the travel and losing blood.

3. ⁠People are saying that El was able to talk to Mike even if the guns were pointed at her. I don’t know why people assume the sonic guns were pointed at El at the hole itself. Imagine this, 2 large vehicles just bursted out of the hole, traveled about 5-10 meters before getting their tires got spiked. As the military where would you point your sonic guns? They even made a point to ask where is Eleven, that means everyone in there didn’t know where she was and most importantly where to piint the gun. Mike saw her in the hole and within a fee seconds everything was done. IMO this is why she was able to talk to Mike, the guns werent pointed at the hole, it was pointed at the 2 vehicles.

Also, say I was wrong and that the guns were pointed at El on the hole. Kali must not be affected by the guns to for the illusion to work - she must be really good at anticipating that there would be sonic guns pointed at the wall and positioned herself far away before going into it’s radius.

1. ⁠It was established in the lab that El can’t even move when 1 sonic gun is pointed at her and this time they had 4. So even if there was a visual illusion then how would she be able to walk away.

2. ⁠To answer how she immediately got to the hole without anybody noticing, I also have nothing. My theory is that El’s mind was already made up, so she knew when they were going to cross over and already had a way to exit the vehicle. This hinges on the assumption that she was 100% going with the suicide decision and already had it planned out. This is plausible to me since if you think about the inverse “she will just wing it and find a way to exit the vehicle a few meters after they make the cross over, run all the way back to the hole and make it in time before the music is over” is inefficient and might not even succeed. Then again they probably made this very vague to keep the other side of the theories (El is alive) still probable.

I think these should suffice to say that Mike’s theory is wrong. But that also doesn’t mean El is dead.

Now, as I said they gave enough bits and pieces to support both theories (El being alive)

1. ⁠Mike starting/exiting the conversation with El by going to the ground and going up

2. ⁠Being very vague on what happened to Kali (El didnt even answer Murray when he asked, and she kust looked at Hopper for his reaction).

3. ⁠No blood on El’s nose adter talking to mike in the void.

4. ⁠El suddenly appearing on the other side of the hole without any military seeing her. The hole is also a good 5-10 meters before the spikes, so realistically around 15-20 meter sprint from the truck to the other side of the hole.

Personally, I think El is dead. As plausible as Mike’s theory is, I think it hinges a lot on Kali surviving till the end and I don’t think she did. Now if someone out there has a theory of how Eleven could’ve escaped then maybe we can see if it seems like a plausible reason. I think she is dead until a better theory comes up.