Who Dies in ‘Stranger Things’ 5? Finale Spoilers on Eleven & More – Hollywood Life

If you are one of the few who couldn’t watch the Stranger Things finale on its December 31, 2025, release date and time, you’ve done a stellar job at avoiding spoilers — until now. As expected with any show’s finale, the internet explodes with debate. So, it’s nearly impossible to avoid learning something you wouldn’t have guessed, or maybe even feared, such as a character’s death. Now that Netflix’s hit five-season show is done, fans are wondering if Eleven dies in the end since her conclusion is seemingly left up to the viewers’ discretion.

If you want a breakdown of what happens at the end of Stranger Things, keep reading! (Warning: the following contains spoilers from the season 5 finale episode of Stranger Things)

Does Eleven Die in Stranger Things Season 5?

Eleven definitely looks like she dies, but is she really dead at the end of the finale? Millie Bobby Brown‘s character sacrifices herself when Hopper (David Harbour) creates a bomb to destroy the Upside Down. She tells her adoptive father, “I have to end the cycle.”

She then shares one final kiss with her boyfriend, Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and tells him, “None of this will ever end if I’m still here. … I need you to help them understand my choice.”

The bomb detonates, and Eleven certainly appears to have died. But it turns out that she’s alive. Her sister, Kali (Linnea Berthelsen), cast one last spell to produce a fake Eleven, making it look like the real one blows up with the bomb.

The Duffer brothers spoke with Netflix’s Tudum about Eleven’s fate, and for the most part, they kept their points of view as vague as possible.

“If Eleven is out there, the most that they could hope for is a belief that it’s true because they can’t be in contact with her. Everything falls apart if that were the case,” Matt Duffer noted. “So, if that’s the narrative, this is really the best way to keep her alive. And it’s about Mike and everyone finding a way to move past what’s happened.”

Although Eleven might not actually be dead, she’s not with the rest of the group playing Dungeons and Dragons when Mike ensures that her story is kept a secret.

“She had to make everyone, including her friends, believe she was dead,” Mike explains. “No one will ever know. … I like to imagine she’s in a beautiful land.” The show then cuts to Eleven walking toward a new town to live in.

Ross Duffer told Tudum that for him and the writers, the team “didn’t want to take her powers away.”

“She represents magic in a lot of ways and the magic of childhood,” he continued. “For our characters to move on and for the story of Hawkins and the Upside Down to come to a close, Eleven had to go away. … There was never a version of the story where Eleven was hanging out with the gang at the end.”

Who Dies in the Stranger Things Season 5 Finale?

In short, the characters who appear to be dead are Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), the Mind Flayer and Kali, the latter of whom was shot.

What Happens at the End of the Stranger Things Finale?

Fortunately for fans, the main characters get a happy ending! Eighteen months after the Upside Down is detonated, the whole crew moves on with their lives. Max (Sadie Sink) is with Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin); Hopper has become a stepfather to Joyce and her kids; Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) is the high school valedictorian; Steve (Joe Keery) is a high school sex-education teacher and baseball coach, and Derek (Jake Connell) is a catcher on that team.

Others like Nancy (Natalia Dyer) left Emerson to pursue a journalism job, while Robin (Maya Hawke) is studying at Smith. Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) is developing a film at NYU. And, as previously noted, Eleven appears to have found a new town to settle down in, according to Mike’s story during Dungeons and Dragons.