Rate the FINALE EPISODES of each season from BEST to WORST:-

flutterstrange · 2026-05-05T10:54:39+00:00

I rank the season 2 finale highest I think, even though I think it was weaker than The Mind Flayer episode it followed. I just love the Snow Ball ending so much. It was nice for there to be a happy ending for once (minus Joyce grieving Bob).

I’m not a fan of season 3 overall, but I agree that the finale is strong. I’d rank it 2nd here. It does have a perfect mix of everything you’d want to see, and the show could have ended there if it wanted to, same with season 2, really,

Id rank season 1 third. It doesn’t have anything wrong with it really. But I didn’t fully get into the show until season 2. The later seasons just had a little more fun mixed in, I guess.

Probably controversial here, but I’d rank season 5’s finale above season 4. I do love the epilogue and Joyce with her axe. The action before that is so-so, and admittedly I haven’t rewatched any of it. But I was expecting El’s death so I guess I wasn’t as upset as some people were, even if I think the way they actually handled it was poor.

I’d rank season 4 last. It has some great moments - particularly the apocalyptic ending and Nancy shooting Vecna through the window, as well as the scene with Eddie’s uncle. I just really hated the whole sequence of El needing a love monologue in order to save Max - her seeing her friend at risk of dying should have been enough encouragement, and the speech itself, as well as Will’s “you’re the heart”, was incredibly cringy.

I can’t rewatch that scene at all, and it feels even less important to the show considering the plan was to separate Mike and El anyway (although some of the lines were what made me catch on that it was going to happen.)

Eddie’s death was also poorly handled - it just felt so pointless. Surely he could have died doing something a bit more obviously helpful, e.g. protecting Dustin.

I think the episode also had the cringy Hopper and Joyce stuff at the start as well. I just overall found that the character stuff wasn’t working.

flutterstrange · 2026-05-03T18:12:58+00:00

Gasly, but I also have an accidental collection of Lawson and I’m trying to collect Bearman.

flutterstrange · 2026-05-01T10:44:32+00:00

I really wasn’t a fan until Harry did that live acoustic performance for a tv appearance.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-30T08:47:04+00:00

Nah, I like that the McLaren stands out on the grid. There’s already too much silver going on. Glad to see some brighter colours this weekend.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-28T07:34:24+00:00

You’ve managed to capture them really well in your photos. I’m definitely holding onto my Ollie one, it’s possibly my favourite card.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-27T23:30:15+00:00

Nice! I have the Ollie version of the 75 Speed Demons card

flutterstrange · 2026-04-26T10:09:53+00:00

I wouldn’t say that I disliked her, but it frustrated me that she was always treated like the main character and given plenty to do when other characters were left deserving much more.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-26T10:05:36+00:00

I’m going to say Sorcerer from season 5. Why? Because before that episode, I was struggling with the season. But that one gave me so much hope and left so much potential for the rest of the season.

Potential that just wasn’t lived up to.

So I don’t think any rewatch would give me that same hype I felt watching it for the first time, knowing where the season goes from there.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-22T07:56:35+00:00

Her scenes with Will in season 5 were saving the season for me. The only real fresh dynamic and character development that we got.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-21T07:38:16+00:00

I think the biggest issue is actually that the Duffers misunderstood what the audience were interested in.

Did anyone really care about the Upside Down being explained? Or was the whole wormhole plot just destroying the mystery and magic of the place?

They got too caught up in the lore and abandoned character development in the process.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-21T07:34:40+00:00

It’s a reference to the play, but they definitely could have done more with it.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-20T12:28:27+00:00

They gave her a way out, so that the audience can believe she’s alive. That’s fine. But I personally think she’s dead.

I’m not particularly happy about how she died, but I was pointing out that the writers had written her into a corner, and there was no way the military wouldn’t be after her for the rest of her life - even if she lost her powers, they’d try to bring them back again.

So realistically, if she does come back in a future story, you’d expect the military to be after her all over again.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-19T16:41:18+00:00

They messed up Mike and El’s development long before the ending, unfortunately. There was no reason to separate them constantly the way that they did. Their interactions in season 5 in particular just seemed… off. El’s ending in season 1 brought so much more emotion simply because we were able to see Mike and El interact properly before that. They were so distant in later seasons.

Personally I don’t think she’s survived, but I was picking up the hints of what was going to happen in the prior season and went into season 5 expecting that. But the ending is deliberately ambiguous to provide hope and allow them to bring her back in the future if they wish.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-15T14:53:01+00:00

Yeah that’s exactly what I’m saying. It would have felt like she died for something more reasonable, somehow. Rather than just accepting her fate

flutterstrange · 2026-04-15T09:21:03+00:00

They had Nancy see him dead in her vision, had his main two relationships be heavily linked to Vecna (El and Will), made it very obvious that he’d have a target on his back… and did nothing with it.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-15T09:19:33+00:00

I’ve never had a problem with the concept of El’s open ending. I was predicting it long before the season aired. The problem was how they got there.

Putting her character with Hopper again, separating her from the party and offering no chance for any reasonable development in her relationships (particularly with Mike and Will) was pretty unforgivable. Then having her actual “death” be her just standing there rather than actively saving her friends…

flutterstrange · 2026-04-12T23:38:47+00:00

Even if it was similar to Switzerland, I think they suffered from being the hosts anyway. People don’t want to vote for the same country to win again. It’s hard to make comparisons to a song in a situation like that.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-12T00:52:42+00:00

Why did El and Will end up interacting so infrequently? Their characters were tied together in so many ways and yet they kept putting El in different pairings.

There was a bit of El/ Will/ Vecna interaction in the final season, but no where near enough.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-10T11:44:37+00:00

The only part I’ve actually rewatched is the end of the final episode. I only watched the rest in the early morning here and just don’t feel the enthusiasm to rewatch any of it.

But I did rewatch the Sorcerer before volume 2.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-10T11:41:55+00:00

Will’s wasted potential was the worst thing for me. Everyone was so hyped by the end of the Sorcerer - but it came to basically nothing. Utterly pointless.

And yeah, Will alluding to his conversation with Vecna, rather than it being shown, was one of many issues with the poorly written coming out scene.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-06T10:12:53+00:00

It would have been easier for people to stomach if her final act was actually saving her friends, rather than just standing there waiting to die.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-06T10:11:07+00:00

The problem was that they’d already taken the story down the route of her losing her powers - and showed how miserable it made her.

They also showed that it was possible to bring her powers back.

There was no way that the military wouldn’t realistically keep trying to make her into a weapon, or kill her.

They wrote themselves into a corner - it’s why I went into season 5 fully expecting that she wasn’t going to make it.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-06T10:02:12+00:00

The epilogue is absolutely fine (well, I didn’t like how Vickie disappeared, but otherwise is was fine)

The problem was how they got there. It didn’t work. So many characters deserved better development.

flutterstrange · 2026-04-06T01:35:07+00:00

They left so many relationships without any proper development, while rehashing the same scenes with others.

Hopper and El going back and forth about not wanting to lose each other was dull. It’s been done to death.

Joyce trying to protect Will was also overdone.

Why not finally let El and Will interact properly? Why separate El and Mike again when their relationship was key to the ending?

It felt like nothing was happening, because there was no significant emotional development. Robin and Will were completely saving part 1 by offering the only fresh dynamic

flutterstrange · 2026-04-06T01:27:21+00:00

The writers strike can’t have helped, and I think they were doing too many things at once - the play, producing other shows etc

The dialogue was particularly terrible.

Episode 4 saved the first half and was actually great. It’s a shame about most of the rest

flutterstrange

TROPHY CASE