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This post contains spoilers for the Stranger Things finale.
While the response to season five of Stranger Things has been decidedly mixed, fans still clearly aren’t done with the series. So much so that when Netflix announced a follow-up, some fans convinced themselves into thinking that there was some secret follow-up episode, one in which Eleven is still alive and the adventures of the Hawkins kids continue.
For one Hawkins kid, that conspiracy (dubbed “Conformity Gate” makes no sense. “At first, I thought the ‘Conformity Gate’ theory was dumb,” said Caleb McLaughlin, who played Lucas on Stranger Things. “I get that people want to live in this optimistic place of, ‘Oh, we want more Stranger Things,’ but the show is done, guys,” he told Hollywood Reporter. “I was like, ‘Guys, it’s over. It’s been ten years. We were full-on kids and now we’re full-on adults, and we don’t need any more of us.’” When it comes to those who hope that Eleven still lives, McLaughlin is even more direct. “Yeah, she’s gone. I’m so sorry. I think she evaporated.”
Blunt as McLaughlin’s comments are, they are also well-earned. As he points out, McLaughlin and his cast mates have been working on the show since 2015, when he was just fourteen. Among the chief complaints of the series has been the difficulty of believing that he and his fellow now-young-adults were portraying high schoolers. Moreover, many of them are ready to branch out and do different types of roles, as demonstrated by McLaughlin voicing the lead character in the animated sports film GOAT, releasing this weekend.
At the same time, the conspiracy does come from a place of love for the series. Even if the fans were disappointed by how the show ended, they still weren’t ready to say goodbye. So unready were they that they’re willing to pretend that more is coming, against all realistic expectations.
For McLaughlin, that passion comes directly from the work that Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers did, especially with the finale. “We started off season one playing Dungeons & Dragons, and we ended just like that,” he pointed out. Specifically, the series ends with Mike presenting a D&D scenario that mirrors a potential fate for Eleven, in which she lives and fights on. “That’s just Mike’s imagination,” McLaughlin argues. “That’s who he’s always been, even in season one. It’s all just storytelling.”
Even though he has a very different reading of the scene than those who keep hoping for more, McLaughlin sees that hope as evidence of the Duffers’ success. They “wanted to leave everybody with this level of optimism that the show has always given everyone.” Clearly, that optimism worked, even beyond any frustrations some may have had with the finale.
All of Stranger Things is now streaming on Netflix.
The post Stranger Things Star Offers a Blunt but Sweet Take on That Ending appeared first on Den of Geek.
