Twitter Is Upset About the Stranger Things Finale

Estelle Tang
Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

From ELLE

Warning: Contains major spoilers for Stranger Things 3.

Some people spent their July 4th grilling. That's fine! But others spent it bingeing the hell out of the third season of Stranger Things, which finally came out today on Netflix, almost two years after the last season.

We find Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Will (Noah Schnapp), Mike (Finn Wheeler), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), and Max (Sadie Sink)-all very grown up now-in 1984 Hawkins, complete with a brand new hangout spot, Starcourt Mall. But despite that glitzy new landmark, some things have stayed the same in town: the Mind Flayer is still very much in residence. Even worse, it has been recruiting, finding a new host in last season's bully, Billy (Dacre Montgomery).

In the action-packed final episode, the kids distract the Mind Flayer with fireworks at the mall, but Eleven is waylaid by Billy, who wants to take her to the creature. She manages to disarm him by walking him through a precious memory of his mom, and when the Mind Flayer finally reaches for Eleven, Billy flings himself in front of her and the creature kills him instead. He's saved Eleven, but also his sister, Max, and Mike.

The adults head to the Russian facility to try to shut down the high-powered laser so the gate can be closed, but the giant Russian henchman Grigori gets in Hopper's way. Hopper throws Grigori into the machine, killing him. Then, he nods to Joyce, telling her its okay for her to turn both of the machine's switches, even though he knows the fallout will be dangerous-and when she does, it kills Hopper (or does it?).

The episode closes with the Byers and Eleven leaving Hawkins, which earns all the characters several devastating goodbyes, especially after Joyce finds the written-down "heart to heart" speech Hopper was going to have with Eleven and Mike.

Fans were heartbroken over the shocking ending:

In particular, Hopper's heartbreaking "heart to heart" speech to Eleven:


The way Joyce's romances have turned out:

Billy's heroic sacrifice:

And when is that next season going to come?

Stranger Things 3 is streaming on Netflix now.

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