Hawkins now says goodbye to its strangest things and moves on

By Mahjabin Rahman

And if I only could
I’d make a deal with God
And I’d get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
Be running up that building

In 2022, this Kate Bush song popped up in your feed. An old song resurfacing on our social media is very normal these days but this one, it had a special place in our heart because of this Netflix series Stranger Things.

Fast forward to 2026, well it was not so fast forward. Lots of things changed but somehow we are once again singing that song. And by we, I mean the stranger things fans. The entire fandom is once again singing this because Stranger Things just released the final season. A journey of almost a decade. 

If you are new to the Stranger Things world, let’s run down memory lane to understand what this story is about. In the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, on November 6th 1983, four kids named Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will finish playing in the basement of Mike’s house. After that, the other three head home. On the way, Will Byers goes missing, and that is where the story begins. The remaining three friends, clever and determined to do anything to find Will, start their search. During this journey, they come across a strange girl in the woods, and with her, they step into an adventure they never imagined would be so dangerous and frightening.

After finding the girl, they become curious about her. They want to know where she is from, where her home is, and even her name. The only thing the frightened little girl manages to say is her name, Eleven, which already feels unusual and mysterious. As the search for Will continues, the group discovers that Hawkins is connected to a dark parallel world known as the Upside Down. With Eleven’s powers, they manage to rescue Will, but the danger does not end there. In the second season, we get a new character named Max who becomes friends with the boys and El. Will begins to suffer after-effects from the Upside Down, and a powerful force known as the Mind Flayer starts to take control, threatening both him and the entire town.

As the seasons move forward, the threats grow stronger and more personal. In season three, the Mind Flayer returns through a new gate opened beneath a shopping mall, leading to intense battles and heartbreaking sacrifices, including the loss of Hopper. By season four, a new and terrifying villain named Vecna emerges, targeting kids by using their hidden trauma and fears. The group is separated across different places, yet they work together to uncover the truth behind Vecna and his connection to the Upside Down. The season ends with Hawkins torn apart as the two worlds begin to merge, leaving the group preparing for a final battle with everything they love at risk.

Season 4 was released in 2022 in two volumes. After that we all were in a way desperate to know in which way the story will head but to add to our desperate souls, the Duffer Brothers, the writer and director of this series announced that they would release the final season in 2025 which would have been a three years gap after season 4. So now we all have to wait for them. And to our shock we did.

We all were waiting for Stranger Things to release in 2025 but who knew they would release it at the very end of the year? On November 26, the first volume of the final season with the first 4 episodes came out.

This season we see that Hawkins is now divided after the earthquake and it has high military security on the border. Max is in a coma in the hospital and the boys are trying to find a way to stop Vecna with the help of El who is training with heart and soul to upscale her power for the upcoming battle.

A lot of things changed after the last season, a lot of character development happened. Like how Dustin changed after what happened with Eddie. The entire Hawkins is now in some sort of quarantine situation. Mike’s little sister,  Holly plays a bigger role this season, becoming a key part of the story in ways I can’t reveal without spoiling it.

On Christmas evening, the 2nd volume with 3 new episodes came out, and boy! The way it left us on a cliffhanger. In these 3 episodes we see a lot of clarity for the characters. They all shared their feelings and secrets that they had bottled up in their hearts. And on new year’s eve, the last and final episode was released where we can see the absolute end of every evil plan that had been set in motion. The entire team works together to defeat Vecna and we see them go all out to rescue their world, to keep the right side up.

Since we got the entire finale season in many instalments, my expectation with the ending had skyrocketed. And was I disappointed? Oh, to answer that I would say: No, I was not.  When I had just finished watching the last episode I was frustrated. But when I sat down to actually think, I figured okay, this is possibly the best ending we can have. Some will agree with that sentiment, others may not and that is perfectly okay.

This was never about the entire correct storyline or who kills who or who dies. It was about how some young people start to fight back when evil and greedy adults try to destroy the peace of the world in the name of innovation. It was about friendship and trusting your friends with your life, fighting with mind flayer as one, and saving the world. It was also about achieving emotional maturity through all these heroic events.

The storyline of this series is brilliant but it’s not like there hasn’t been any story that is not as brilliant as this one. No, there are more possible stories, but here’s the thing with Stranger Things: it gives you nostalgia. We saw all the characters grow up from little kids to teenagers to adults. It had that 80s vibe for the millennials who can relate to the retro style, the golden era of their youth, the walkman, the unique hairstyle, everything. For the Gen Zs, we practically grew up with the characters.

In 2016, we were first introduced to the kids and now nearly after a decade, we are still growing up with them. Seeing that same bunch of kids taking down some supernatural being … that was some of our dreams while growing up playing, wasn’t it? This feeling is what makes Stranger Things different, this nostalgia and the adventures.

While we were waiting for the final season, we all were about to fight the Duffer Brothers saying if they killed Steve Harrington then we would unleash our inner Vecna. But in the end, we were all sad, but not because of Steve. We were sad because we would never see these characters again. With the finale, the Duffer Brothers showed us that our chapter in Hawkins has ended. A decade has gone by, and it’s time for fresh faces to carry the story forward. Fans who’ve journeyed with the series will know exactly what that feels like, and those discovering it now will come to understand it too. Joe Keery who played the role of Steve Harrington who is also a musician, he has a song named “End of Beginning” where he sings:

You take the man out of the city
Not the city out the man

That’s how it is for all of us. We are out of the storyline of Hawkins but Hawkins is not out of us yet. It will take us some time to settle in and finally wave goodbye to our strange and chaotic bunch of nerds and adults who would do anything to save the world and keep the right side up.