Sadie Sink, who plays Max in Stranger Things, shared her view that Eleven perishes at the end of the show's fifth season during an appearance on The Tonight Show. The Netflix series deliberately left her fate open to interpretation, sparking debate among fans and cast members. Sink's take contrasts with a narrative twist suggesting survival.
Sadie Sink appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon shortly after the Stranger Things season 5 finale aired on Netflix. She expressed her conviction that Millie Bobby Brown's character, Eleven, meets her end in the episode. "What do I think? I think she’s dead," Sink said. "Is that a hot take or something? Mike’s story is just one last story, and then they say goodbye to childhood. That’s one final tale, and that’s it. It’s just a coping thing. It’s stronger [that way], right?"
The finale features Eleven sacrificing herself amid the destruction of the Upside Down. This act aims to prevent the military from exploiting her blood to engineer super-powered infants, potentially spawning another threat like Henry Creel, also known as Vecna. However, Finn Wolfhard's character, Mike, counters this in the closing scenes by recounting a story of Eleven's survival, accompanied by visuals of her in a distant refuge.
Cast member Gaten Matarazzo, who portrays Dustin, offered a nuanced perspective to Variety. He chose not to reveal his personal interpretation publicly, stating, "I want to keep that private." Matarazzo emphasized the ambiguity's appeal: "I think that whatever works for you and makes the show wrap up better for you is correct. You have the right to debate it, but whatever you want it to be for you is great. I think they teeter that line very well, because I’ve already noticed a kind of 50/50 split amongst fans about whether they believe."
He added a poignant note on Eleven's arc: "What’s so tragic about the end of Eleven’s story is normalcy would never be guaranteed for the people that she loves if she was there. She didn’t see it as fair, and I think it was a beautiful choice to end her story the way that they did."
The show's co-creator explained the deliberate design of the ending. There was no scenario excluding Eleven from the finale with her friends. Early in the writing for season 5, the team settled on the 'I believe' moment, where characters embrace Mike's tale. "It was very early on in the writing process of this season that we figured out exactly how to tell that story and landed on the ‘I believe’ moment," the co-creator said. This choice shaped the entire season, building from the basement scene to ensure a fitting conclusion.
