Stranger Things star Sadie Sink has offered her interpretation of Eleven’s ending in the wake of the finale of Season 5.
The biggest talking point coming out of the Stranger Things finale relates to the fate of its central character, Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown. Stranger Things ends with a definitive wave goodbye to all the central characters except Eleven, who appears to sacrifice herself to ensure she cannot be used to create super weapons, another Vecna / Henry, or another bridge between our world and The Abyss.
18 months after that traumatic event, we see the central characters meet up for graduation and say their goodbyes. It’s at this point that Mike Wheeler, played by Finn Wolfhard, has a thought: what if Kali Prasad, also known as Eight (Linnea Berthelsen), used her dying breath to create the illusion of Eleven’s death, leaving her free to escape unseen?
Mike teases this revelation to the Dungeons & Dragons group as their final campaign comes to an end, suggesting Eleven cooked up a plan with Kali to fake her own death, then traveled to a far away small village — bordered by three waterfalls — to live out her days in peace. But this ending is unconfirmed. Mike and the others choose to believe it, and it’s left up to the audience to decide what they choose to believe as Stranger Things finally comes to an end.
In an interview with Josh Horowitz, the Duffer Brothers confirmed they wrote the story knowing the truth of Eleven's fate, which they’ve told to only one cast member: Millie Bobby Brown herself. So that means Sadie Sink, who played Maxine "Max" Mayfield, does not know the Duffer Brothers’ truth, leaving her to interpret the events of the ending just as fans are.
Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Sink was asked for her take. Replying, she said she does indeed think Eleven is dead, and Mike’s story and the Dungeons & Dragons crew choosing to believe in it is part of coping with her death.
“I think she's dead,” she said. “Is that like a hot take or something? I think Mike's story is like just one last story, and that's like — then they say goodbye to childhood. But that's just one final tale, and that's it.
“I think it's just like a coping thing. I think it's stronger, right? That's my interpretation.”
So there you have it: Sadie Sink thinks Eleven is dead, even if her character believes she’s alive.
In the Josh Horowitz interview, the Duffers revealed that they did explore the possibility of Eleven having a “full happy ending” where she ends up married to Mike, living a happy life with the government off their backs and the lab experiments ended for good, “and we just couldn't figure out a way for that to work.”
In a Netflix Q&A published as the finale aired, Ross Duffer went into more detail on the thinking behind the Stranger Things ending: “there was never a version of the story where Eleven was hanging out with the gang at the end. For us and our writers, we didn’t want to take her powers away. She represents magic in a lot of ways and the magic of childhood. For our characters to move on and for the story of Hawkins and the Upside Down to come to a close, Eleven had to go away. We thought it would be beautiful if our characters continued to believe in that happier ending even if we didn’t give them a clear answer to whether that’s true or not. The fact that they’re believing in it, we just thought it was such a better way to end the story and a better way to represent the closure of this journey and their journey from children to adults.”
“And the reality is, if Eleven is out there, the most that they could hope for is a belief that it’s true because they can’t be in contact with her,” Matt concluded. “Everything falls apart if that were the case. So if that’s the narrative, this is really the best way to keep her alive. And it’s about Mike and everyone finding a way to move past what’s happened.”
We've got plenty more on Stranger Things, including the Duffer Brothers explaining why the demogorgons didn’t help Vecna out in the final battle, and first details on the live-action spinoff. We've also got an explainer on the Stranger Things 'Conformity Gate' theory, which is currently doing the rounds on social media.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/stranger-things-star-sadie-sink-gives-her-interpretation-of-elevens-ending