Warning! This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Stranger Things season 5.
Stranger Things season 5 ended on an oddly confusing note with Eleven’s fate being somewhat unknown, but the show proves that Eleven couldn’t have survived. After 10 years, Stranger Things finally wrapped up the story, and while the discourse online has seen fans upset by an overall lack of answers, there are some things that appear certain.
Now, I am fully aware that The Duffer Brothers, the creators behind Stranger Things, intended to leave Eleven’s fate as an open-ended question, but whether they unconsciously had an answer in mind or they simply failed to pay enough attention to detail, it seems very clear that Eleven couldn’t have escaped and survived.
Stranger Things Season 5 Tries To Leave Eleven’s Fate Ambiguous
Stranger Things season 5, episode 8 saw Eleven and Kali enter the Upside Down and prepare to fight Vecna. Of course, this mission was highly dangerous, and with the military and all of Vecna’s minions targeting The Party, the odds were stacked against them, and there were bound to be casualties.
So, when Kali is killed in the first half of the episode, before reaching Vecna, it wasn’t a big surprise. However, by the end of the episode, the narrative shifts slightly when Mike tells his friends his theory about how Eleven secretly survived and avoided being destroyed in the Upside Down.
Mike explains that Eleven and Kali hatched a plan to cast an illusion of Eleven at the Gate, and convince the military that she sacrificed herself destroying the Upside Down. It’s a nice story, and for a moment, it all clicks into place and makes sense as a way that Eleven could have legitimately escaped unnoticed, but with some slight scrutiny, this theory falls to pieces.
Eleven Using Her Powers To Speak To Mike Proves She Was In The Gate
The main dispute comes down to how Eleven was able to use her powers and speak to Mike in the Void. After all, the power-suppressing machines were on, and that usually caused Eleven to struggle in complete agony. However, when we see Eleven, she is already inside the Upside Down, just beyond the Gate.
The Upside Down is an entirely different dimension, and while vehicles and creatures have been able to break the boundaries between worlds and travel across, not much else can. Take, for instance, the explosion of the lab, where Kali’s body remained. The lab explodes in the Upside Down, and the fallout from that explosion seems to flow out across the entire of the Upside Down, creating a huge storm.
Despite the storm whirling behind the Gate, none of this managed to penetrate the real world. So, it makes sense that the effect of the suppressors also couldn’t extend beyond the Gate. Add to that the fact that the lab was already destroyed, and Kali could not have survived, but Eleven was still standing in the Gate for some time after the storm began.
With all of that in mind, it makes sense that Eleven was able to use her powers to bring Mike into the Void, where she pleaded with him to understand her sacrifice and explain it to her friends. Of course, if she knew that she would make it out, she wouldn’t need him to explain, because she wasn’t actually sacrificing herself in the same way.
The Idea That Eleven Managed To Escape Before Linking With Mike Is Flawed
Beyond that, it doesn’t make sense that Eleven would have reasonably been able to get away while under the influence of the suppressors. Throughout season 5, when Eleven was in range of these machines, she was in crippling pain, unable to move.
If the suppressors were switched on after the kids were captured, and she was expected to run away while being hidden by Kali, she would have had to go some distance in terrible agony before being able to draw Mike into the Void. And if that was the case, it would be a much less painful goodbye, because Eleven wasn’t going to die, and she would be free from the tyranny of the military.
Of course, she would still be heartbroken, leaving Mike and the rest of her friends and family, but the tone should have been considerably more hopeful, rather than a painful goodbye.
Mike Wheeler Only Came Up With The Mage Story After Speaking To Hopper
Finally, one of the biggest indicators that even Mike doesn’t believe this story is the fact that he spent 18 months brooding over the loss of the love of his life. Mike said goodbye in the Void, and he understood that this was the end of his beloved Eleven.
However, when Mike goes missing ahead of graduation, due to still being grief-stricken at the loss of Elle, Hopper is able to get through to him and help him see that Eleven would have wanted him to find peace and happiness after her death. It’s in this moment that Mike decides to create a hopeful ending.
Then, that very night, as he and his friends celebrate their graduation and resolve their D&D campaign, Mike tells a story about how Eleven survived, and he leaves it ambiguous whether the story is true or if it’s just a hopeful tale to help them cope.
Mike knew that Eleven had died. Kali died before Eleven disappeared. Eleven was beyond the influence of the suppressors inside the Gate. These are facts that the final episode provides. Ultimately, while Stranger Things tries to leave the story open, the facts establish something very different.
