STRANGER THINGS Season 3 Finale: 'The Battle of Starcourt' Review and Future Predictions

[SPOILER ALERT! Watch out for spoilers from the entire season!]

Could a series finale be any sadder? So much loss, so much death, so much change. El's powers. Billy. Hopper. And the move! For the first time, I'm not sure I want a new season of Stranger Things. Not that Season 3 wasn't good. Quite the opposite. Season 3 was so good, I'm not sure my poor heart could take any more of this. With that mid-credits cliffhanger and with the previous announcements we've had though, I'm pretty sure we're getting one.

But that cliffhanger!!! Guess amidst all the clamor of stopping the Russians and closing the Gate, no one stopped to ask why the commies were so interested in opening it anyway. Opening the gate had to be a means to an end. Now what is that end? But I'm getting ahead of myself. Perhaps we should talk about what happened during the episode first.

El is badly injured. The Mindflayer's 'killing machine' left a bit of itself in her after the bite and they need to get it out, fast! Jonathan tears her leg open with a hot knife but can't get a hold of the squirming, swiggling thing, until El uses the very last of her strength to drag it out with her telekinesis... and Hopper squashes it underfoot, having just arrived with Joyce and Bauman. Finally, the entire team is together, for the first time since the beginning of the season. Who-hoo! But there's no time to celebrate. The teams quickly fill each other in and decide closing the gate is the only way to stop the Mindflayer from getting to El, whose batteries are totally run down. Hop, of course, makes the plan and decides he's going in with Bauman using Alexei's maps and Dustin's and Erica's knowledge while the rest all drive off to safety. And of course, this plan is challenged immediately. Dustin and Erica can't help out unless they are with them physically since normal radios can't penetrate the underground facility, and no way is Joyce letting Hopper and Bauman go without her. In the end, it's agreed that Dustin and Erica are taken to his super radio by Steve and Robin, Nancy and Jonathan take the rest of the kids to a safe location, and the adults go down to do the dirty work.

The parties split. Adults go down, radio team set off, but before the safe team can leave, a problem arises in the form of Billy. And if he knows where they are, so does the Mindflayer, who arrives swiftly. From then on, it's a hail of tension and activities. El's powers are totally drained so they can't fight back and while they keep trying to draw the Mindflayer's attention away from her, he keeps going back. Billy gets her and presents her to be flayed and they have to use Lucas's fireworks package to distract the monster. But even that can't last forever. El, however, manages to reach Billy by reminding him of his memory, surfing with his mother in California, and the callous wicked boy--the face of the villain all through this season--is finally touched, making one final play by sacrificing himself to save El for a few more minutes. Meanwhile, down in the Russian facility, Hopper and Joyce hit a big snag when the big Russian hitman attacks them just when they are about to turn the key that stops the machine. Hopper fights him into the machine room and takes him out by throwing him into one of the exposed rotating sections of the thing, causing a huge electrical barrier that blocks him from getting out of the danger room and returning to Joyce... and forcing her to turn the keys with him still in it, vaporizing him immediately. Right at that moment, the US Army arrives, but they don't find any Russians. Somehow, the facility has been evacuated.

El is devastated, as is Joyce who had only just agreed to go on a date with the chief. The event seals it: there's no more reason for her to be in Hawkings, and so, 3 months later, she takes her kids and El, and leaves. El's powers still haven't returned despite the months, and though Mike expresses confident they will, I'm not so sure time is what she needs. This seems more like a psychological block. I mean, her dad did just die.

But is Jim Hopper really dead? Let's get back to that cliffhanger. Back in Russia, there is another facility. Not a gate opening one, but a holding one, with Iron doors and windowless cells. Just as a Russian guard is about to open one however, another comes up and tells him something, and though my Russian is a bit rusty (which means it's actually non-existent), it sounded a whole lot like 'Not the American'. Now, which other American could be in their custody?? And no, do not tell me I'm reaching too far. Unlike Stranger Things, we were not actually shown Hopper's vaporization. Isn't that strange? Anyways, I guess we'll find out next season, along with the Russians' true reason for wanting the Gate open. We already know a bit of it--they have a Demogorgon in custody, possibly the exact same one from season 1. The big question is, how is it functioning with the Gate closed off? And also, where are Eleven's other brothers and sisters, especially Kali 'Eight' who we glimpsed last season?? Oh, the possibilities!

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What did you think of this season of Stranger Things? Better than the previous ones or merely passable? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments!

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