Finale day is upon us but my brain won’t stop theorising so here’s why there is a possibility of an Armageddon (1998) style ending - spoilers below the cut.
Anyone who’s watched movies/tv shows knows that whenever the audience is allowed to see the characters set out their full plan in detail, nothing goes according to the plan. There is almost always a hitch. The only time a plan goes as it should in cinema is when the audience doesn’t get told what it is beforehand.
We saw this trope play out with both Nancy’s plan in The Crawl and Mike’s plan in The Turnbow Trap. Each time the audience was told all the details of the plan and lo and behold, there was a hitch which meant the characters had to make last minute decisions, changing their trajectory.
So far in season 5, Stranger Things hasn’t subverted this trope and I don’t think they plan to in the finale either. Which is why, given we know how Operation Beanstalk is supposed to go, it will not go according to plan.
The thing about this plan that specifically worries me (and others) is the hyperfocus on the bomb. When Dustin is explaining his idea, the camera zooms in on the timer which is supposed to represent the bomb:
As if that wasn’t enough, we then get a whole scene with Mike explaining the mechanics of the bomb and how it’s supposed to work. This knowledge is important because it means that when one of the main components inevitably fails, the audience will realise this at the exact same time as the characters, creating dramatic tension.
It’s the equivalent of Doctor Strange holding up a single pointer finger in the middle of the final Avengers: Endgame battle. He didn’t say a single word and yet those who had watched Infinity War knew exactly what this meant and the implications of it, at the same time that Tony Stark realised it.
Robin notes that this design is genius and Dustin echoes this a couple of scenes later when he tells Steve that only a genius could have come up with the Beanstalk plan.
The repeated emphasis on this word is interesting. It’s a word that is meant to represent an ego boost. The writers even draw our attention to this in the scene between Mike and Nancy at the hospital:
Mike: After all, you’re the genius reporter
Nancy: That’s not fair. Appealing to my ego
With this knowledge, the repeated use of this word to describe Operation Beanstalk and specifically the bomb makes me think the writers are trying to allude to Daedalus’ story - just like he thought his wax wings idea was a really clever way of getting him and his son out of Crete once and for all, the Party think that exploding a bomb in the Upside Down is a genius way of getting rid of Vecna and the Abyss once and for all.
And just like Daedalus warned Icarus that flying too close to the sun is dangerous because it could melt his wings, the warning is there in Mike’s explanation of the bomb - that the bomb will be remotely triggered.
Presumably when the record stops spinning, this would cause the bike bell to be pressed, which would in turn cause the wire to touch the warrior on the record and the bomb will detonate.
This is where the ego (or more specifically, a complete faith in the science and intelligence of their designs) comes in.
Ego has been a big theme so far in season 5 - Steve repeatedly tells Dustin that he can't admit when he’s wrong because of his ego and we find out later from Dustin's own mouth just how wrong he has been about his Upside Down theories...and his wrongness nearly costs Nancy and Jonathan their lives.
Nancy is also all ‘shoot first, ask questions later' and this backfires on her because when she shoots the exotic matter instead of heeding Jonathan's hesitation, she puts herself and Jonathan in danger.
So going back to the planning, when Will came up with the plan in the Turnbow Trap, multiple characters pointed out the holes in his strategy until Mike eventually filled in the holes and came up with a seemingly foolproof plan. Yet despite there being a glaringly obvious hole with the bomb plan, no one asks the pertinent question: what happens if the remote trigger fails?
That is, no one has questioned this explicitly onscreen. But I suspect someone - two someone’s actually - have thought about it.
When Dustin presents his bomb idea, a very interesting blink-and-you’ll-miss-it exchange takes place:
Steve looks at the bomb, then looks up at Hopper
Hopper looks at the bomb, then looks back up at Steve
Here it is again - them exchanging looks:
Season 5 established that for the 37 Crawls that took place, Hopper had THE most important role of actually going into the Upside Down and potentially facing off the military and/or Demo-somethings.
The second most important role was played by Steve and Dustin, because they had the responsibility of not losing Hopper, of making sure he got home after every Crawl and as the driver of the van, this would put Steve in the direct path of above ground MPs.
And for 36 Crawls, Steve had successfully fulfilled his responsibility and Hopper has successfully fulfilled his.
It’s fascinating that the look exchange after the bomb is discussed happens between these two men.
In season 4 we saw that both Hopper and Steve are the male action heroes of this story, just like Nancy and El are the female action heroines.
This was blatant in the scene where Steve throws the Molotov cocktail at Vecna which hits him square in the chest and pulls him out of his trance at the same time that Hopper cuts off the Demo’s arm with his sword.
Season 5 gives us even more parallels between the two:
Hopper is sacrificial and always puts himself directly in the path of danger, risking his own safety to protect and keep safe those he loves. El calls him out on this:
Steve is sacrificial and always puts himself directly in the path of danger (a job for good 'ol Steve Harrington), risking his own safety to protect and save those he loves. Dustin calls him out on this:
El cries because she can't lose Hopper, not again, and Dustin cries because he can't lose his 'brother', not again.
The Hopper-El and Steve-Dustin scenes even parallel the desperation with which Hop and Steve’s respective "children" grab their shirts to stop them from heading into a situation that will kill them:
These parallels were done on purpose. The exchange of looks between them in the Beanstalk scene is also deliberate.
My theory is that as soon as Dustin mentioned the bomb, Steve I-will-hold-the-door-against-the-Russians-so-the-kids-can-escape Harrington clocked that there is a small chance someone would need to go on a suicide mission to manually trigger the bomb if remote detonation fails. Jim I-like-to-have-a-plan-B-the-suicide-vest-is-a-fail-safe Hopper clocked the same thing at the same time.
This bring me to the Armageddon ending. In that film, the plan is to remotely trigger the nuclear bomb from a safe distance using a time delay switch. This plan goes awry when a rock storm kills a crew member and the remote trigger is damaged - the father of the female lead chooses to sacrifice himself and stays behind to manually trigger it, saving everyone else.
Currently, according to the mission whiteboard at WSQK, the person who is supposed to set up the bomb at Hawkins lab is Murray. However, Murray sacrificing himself for everyone wouldn’t be as devastatingly beautiful and impactful to the story as one of the more central heroes making that choice, like Hopper, one of the OG-Party, El, Nancy, Jonathan or Steve.
So what if Murray is killed at the lab and in drawing the worlds together, Vecna causes some storm-like thing which causes the remote trigger to fail. The show is leading us to believe that El is the one who would sacrifice herself to save everyone and in doing so, fulfil what Kali has said to her about ending Dr Kay's plans with them.
But this directly conflicts with what Hopper wants - which is to make damn sure El lives, even if that means he has to die in the process. There is no way this Daedalus will let his Icarus die. If El were to die and he failed in saving her, Hopper's arc would be incomplete - which has always been about saving his daughter, something he couldn't do the first time around.
So if an Armageddon scenario arose - which seems likely - and the bomb fails, Hopper will be the one to manually trigger it. David Harbour said the ending is ‘devastating', and losing his character at the 11th hour would be devastating for all of us Hopper, HopEl and Jopper fans.
However, the Duffers have also said to expect twists. Nothing would be a bigger twist than if they led us to believe that Steve wouldn't die because of how it would impact Dustin but then Steve does.
On some level, we have all been fearfully expecting him to die since the very beginning and the Funkopop interview baiting still has me stressed. Steve dying would also be a 'devastating' ending, not just for the audience but also for the characters.
Particularly when you think about the camera lingering on Steve's expression right after Dustin echoes his 'You die, I die':
There is a slight pause before he moves to follow Dustin. I read that as him thinking 'You die, I die' but if I am the one dying, my last act will be to make sure you don't.
I guess in a few hours we'll find out if the bomb plan fails and if so, who eventually ends up pulling the trigger and if they die in the process.
As far as heroic sacrifices go, the show- especially season 5 - has explicitly set up two.
Steve and Hopper have been ready to die to protect others since season 1, and I cannot imagine either of them would be ok with letting any of the kids die if they are around and have even the tiniest chance to save them.
When you add all this to these scenes from the trailer, my worry ramps up tenfold:
I’m not saying the show has to or will end with the main characters dying. I would actually be happy if they don’t.
But nothing is guaranteed and Steve, Hopper and El’s fate is quite literally…a ticking time bomb.
