Wanted to ask what you made of the end of Stranger Things in regards to Eleven and Mike. For whatever reason I turned into a tear pile and felt a little silly about it. How did you feel about that?
There's no reason to feel silly about it! Feels do what they're gonna do.
My feelings are mixed about it, honestly.
In verse, I had been prepared for them to kill her. They'd set up to kill her. Everything was pointing to them killing her. In a way, Kali was right that as long as the military knew about her, she would always be in danger and not only that, she would endanger everyone around her (NOT her fault, I mean that her presence would endanger them because the military would be after her). Eleven, who has always cared deeply about her friends and family, wouldn't want that. Her argument with Hopper about him not sacrificing himself showed that she understood why NOT to do it, too, but also showed the depth of her commitment to protecting the others- she understood why she should stay, and understood why she couldn't, and she made the choice with her head held high. I was ready for that. The narrative promised that, since early on.
I think that... it was a bit of a cop out to give Eleven an ending that was ambiguous. Even though we see her on screen alive and well in Mike's tales, it can also be taken as literally just illustrating Mike's hopes as he's explaining how the party will end up. Mike tells each of the kids what ending he HOPES they have, and we see the illustrations of that, but as none of that has happened, it can be taken as JUST his hopes. I don't choose to, but I know at least one other person who chose to believe those were just hopes and believes Eleven actually did die. So it's ambiguous enough that arguments can be made both ways. And for the main main character of the entire series, to me, that feels kind of like a cop out to avoid backlash from her dying and backlash from improbably saving her.
In the same breath, I don't think that makes it bad, it's just not my cup of tea. The writers are going to face a lot of criticism at this point and most of it won't be deserved. Avoiding killing or hand of god saving her outright was probably a good move all things considered. I wish it had been ended differently, but again.... it wasn't my story to tell. And they told the story how they wanted to tell it, and I'm good with that.
and honestly, genuinely, I'm fine with how it ended, even that it was ambiguous, for one reason:
Because they didn't show us what happened to Murray.
They didn't tell us a single thing about Murray. I mean, they didn't tell us about Vicki either but you kind of assume she's still with Robin due to the "overbearing significant others" comment. But we got zip about Murray. The conspiracy theorist. The smuggler. The guy with contacts. The guy with SUCH stubborn determination to do things that he landed smack in the middle of the conspiracy he was hounding and then didn't shy away from it even a little.
And somehow Eleven - who had literally nothing to her name but the weird swimsuit on her back - managed to disappear from someplace heavily patrolled by military and disappear effectively with NO traces the group noticed AND travel to ICELAND. With no money or supplies and likely no idea how travel across countries and continents works, with no passport, and no idea where a town with waterfalls would be or how to get there. like. Murray helped her. he had to have helped her. he's the only one who could have pulled it off with NO ONE knowing.
So I suspect that we didn't hear about Murray because that would have spoiled the ambiguity of the ending. Seeing him helping her would have made it clear it was real.
and I choose to believe he didn't make the last leg of the journey with her because he had to stay and keep track of Mike so he could eventually get Mike out, too.
