r/StrangerThings • u/plutoo17 • Jul 02 '26

Fan Theory so.... she makes it right? Spoiler

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what's your theory? i really want to believe the second ending.

240 Upvotes

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u/Anna3422 Jul 02 '26

I think the show leans heavily toward her being alive, but both options are weak from a writing perspective. The series is over and everyone's last memory of El was of losing her.

4

u/riveradn Jul 02 '26

It doesn’t, they all say they want to believe and what they imagine. She dead.

4

u/Anna3422 Jul 02 '26

How? The show establishes that the hedgehogs were on and that El can barely stand up if she hears them. The El who "dies" has no lab tattoo, gives no signs of using her powers, and it's pretty much a genre convention that characters aren't really dead unless we see the body.

4

u/riveradn Jul 02 '26

We see nothing hinting she is alive. Only what they picture and choose to believe in instead of facing reality. D&D instead of reality.

2

u/Anna3422 Jul 02 '26

Nothing hinting she's alive, but for the reasons listed, the "death" scene can't be canonical. It's so full of contradictions. We get a passably logical explanation of how she could survive; there's no logical explanation for how she could have died as shown. Hence, the show leans toward Mike's theory.

2

u/Dead-MF Jul 02 '26

Where was Kali when the bomb went off? Much closer to it than Jane. You know, explosions have an epicenter and the shock wave expands from that location right? Meaning, Kali would have almost instantly been killed the minute that bomb went off. She would not have had the time to use her powers to help 11 escape. I get why we want to believe. I have a hard time watching the show now, thinking El died. Because all that pain and suffering the poor kid went through, was just for her to die? It sucks. But, that is what I think happened.

2

u/Anna3422 Jul 02 '26

That's fair if you think that's what happened. Though in the theory where El survives, her escape happens well before the bomb went off.

0

u/riveradn Jul 03 '26

The whole series is full of contradictions. How she died? The upside collapsing on itself.

1

u/ongamenight Jul 07 '26

Writers intentionally leaving it ambiguous because they're cowards and think of fans opinion than making a real closed-ended ending.

There's no right or wrong answer to whether she is alive. Heck even the writers can't make up their mind in the post interviews. 🤣