Ending of season 1 of Stranger Things explained: Eleven's disappearance, Will's return, and the slug
Season 1 · The ending · Explanations
Season 1 ends on a victory that costs dearly: Eleven vanishes while pulverizing the Demogorgon, Will comes back from the Upside Down, and a month later, at Christmas, he coughs up a slug in a sink. Nothing is over. Here is the ending explained, scene by scene, and what it prepares.
The essentials
- The fight: the middle-school classroom, Eleven against the Demogorgon
- Eleven: vanishes with the monster; Hopper leaves waffles in the woods
- Will: saved by Joyce and Hopper in the upside-down version of his cabin
- The last scene: Christmas 1983: the slug, and the Upside Down in a flash
Contents
The classroom fight
While Joyce and Hopper enter the Upside Down through the lab gate, the group hides at middle school with Eleven, exhausted. Brenner's men arrive; Eleven kills them with her mind, until the blood she spills draws the Demogorgon. It kills Brenner, or leaves him for dead, and corners the children in a classroom. Eleven stands up, pins it to the blackboard, and pulverizes it into ash. She dissolves with it. Mike screams her name; there is nobody left.
The Eleven T-shirt, the classroom one.
In the shopMen's long-sleeve Demogorgon Christmas gift T-shirt47,90 €See the product
Will, in the Upside Down
On the other side, Joyce and Hopper follow the thread of the lights to the Upside Down version of Will's fort: he is there, a tentacle in his throat, nearly dead, in the Upside Down version of his fort. Hopper pulls it out, Joyce revives him, and they take him back to the hospital, where the group finds him. Will only survived because he hid for a week, and because he sang to give himself courage.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Is Eleven dead? | No: she projected herself into the Upside Down. Hopper knows it, or hopes it |
| Why the waffles? | Hopper leaves some in a box in the woods, for her |
| Is Brenner dead? | Presumed; season 4 shows him alive |
| Is Will cured? | No: he coughs up a slug and sees the Upside Down |
| Is the gate closed? | No: it stays open under the lab, until 1984 |
Hopper's waffles
A month later, Hopper leaves the station, gets into a government car, then, at night, leaves in a box, in the woods, waffles and Christmas leftovers. The show says nothing more. Season 2 explains it: Eleven projected herself into the Upside Down, came out through a gate in the woods, and Hopper took her into his cabin, where he has been hiding her since. The waffles were the sign.
The government carHopper getting into a black car worried fans: did he make a deal? Season 2 answers that he negotiated with Brenner's successor, Dr. Owens, so Eleven would stay hidden and the town would be left in peace.
Christmas 1983: the slug
The last scene is a Christmas dinner at the Byers'. Will goes to wash his hands, coughs, and spits a black slug into the sink that goes down the pipe. He looks up: for a second, the bathroom is upside down, covered in spores. Then everything is normal again, and he goes back to the table without saying anything. The show ends on Joyce's smile, who does not know.
What it sets up
Everything season 2 tells comes out of that sink: Will was contaminated in the Upside Down, he goes back there in flashes, and in the fall of 1984 the Mind Flayer takes possession of him. Eleven, for her part, spends the year in Hopper's cabin, waiting to see Mike again. And the lab gate, never closed, grows.
The Demogorgon figure, pulverized.
In the shopLego Demogorgon figure 350 pieces37,90 €See the product
What each one knows at the end of the season
| Character | What he knows | What he does not know |
|---|---|---|
| Joyce and Hopper | The existence of the Upside Down, the lab gate | That Will brought something back from it |
| Mike, Dustin, Lucas | That Eleven destroyed the monster by vanishing | That she is alive, hidden in the woods |
| Nancy and Jonathan | That Barb died on the other side | What the lab promised to buy their silence |
| Hopper | That Eleven is alive: he leaves her waffles | The pact he made, offscreen, with the lab |
| Will | That he is not quite back | What the slug announces |
That distribution of knowledge is the material of season 2: Hopper will hide Eleven, Will will be followed by the lab, Nancy will want to break the truth about Barb.
The government car, and Hopper's pact
A detail of the last episode often goes unnoticed: leaving the hospital, Hopper gets into a black government sedan. The show does not show the conversation. A month later, you understand what it contained: Hopper obtained Joyce's freedom and his own, the dropping of charges, in exchange for silence, and no doubt information on Eleven.
The waffles he leaves in a box, in the woods, say the rest: he knows she is alive, and he feeds her without turning her in. It is the first act of the father he will become in Season 2, and the first time Hopper cheats the lab while still negotiating with it, a balance he will hold until Season 3.
The slug, and what it will become
The slug Will coughs into the sink is the first clue of a two-season plot. In Season 2, you understand that Will brought back from the Upside Down a link with the giant shadow, which possesses him in the fall of 1984. In Season 4, Vecna explains that the creatures of the other world obey him; and the last chapter of the show reveals, in its prologue, what happened during Will's week in captivity: the creature carried him to Henry, in the library, and Henry infected him.
In other words, the last scene of season 1 already contained the ending of the show. The flash of the Upside Down in the bathroom was not a vague threat but the sign of a connection that will last until 1987, when Will will use it, this time, against his creator.
The three questions the season leaves, and their answers
-
Is Eleven dead?
No. Hopper's waffles suggest it; season 2 shows her from its first episode, hidden in Hopper's cabin.
-
Will Barb be avenged?
Yes, in her way: season 2 concludes on the closing of the lab and the recognition of her death, obtained by Nancy and Jonathan.
-
Is the monster really destroyed?
That one, yes. But the gate stays open, and season 2 shows that it has grown.
The Season 1 poster.
In the shopiPhone Demogorgon alphabet wall case19,90 €See the product
TakeawayEleven blasts the Demogorgon and vanishes. Will is saved in the upside-down version of his cabin. Hopper's waffles: Eleven is alive. The Christmas slug: Will stays tied to the Upside Down.
Frequently asked questions
How does season 1 end?
Eleven blasts the Demogorgon apart in a classroom and vanishes with him; Joyce and Hopper bring Will back from the Upside Down; a month later, at Christmas, Will coughs up a slug and sees the Upside Down in a flash.
Does Eleven die at the end of season 1?
No. She projects herself into the Upside Down, comes back out through a gate in the woods and is taken in by Hopper, who leaves her waffles.
What does Will's slug mean?
That he was contaminated in the Upside Down: he stays tied to the other world, which leads to his possession in season 2.
Why Hopper gets into a government car
He negotiates with the lab: Eleven stays hidden at his place, and the town is left in peace. Season 2 explains it.
What did Hopper promise the lab?
The show does not show the conversation in the government car. You understand he traded his silence, and maybe information, for the end of the pursuit of Joyce and him.
Does the last scene announce the end of the show?
Yes, with hindsight: the prologue of the last chapter shows what happened to Will during his week in the Upside Down, and the slug is the trace of that connection with Henry.