It’s kind of insane to me the stark difference between two possible interpretations of El’s ending, and how choosing to leave it ambiguous feels like them finding a way to deflect any complaints and/or make sure there is continued discussion about it.
To me, El is alive, and I am absolutely pissed about the ambiguity of that. Her leaving Hawkins is NOT an ideal ending, but it is one that I could be satisfied with, because of its meaning for her character arc. (And based on things in the documentary, it seems to be the true ending) BUT the oh so generous Duffers also gave us a second option… let’s see real quick, the implications of both options for her ending.
Conflict:
El is struggling to imagine a life in which she can be happy. She has known nothing but being under the control of her abusers, as well as the people who love her. She’s been trapped in the cycle of her trauma repeating, and that’s left her doubting the reality that she can find hapiness. She’s been fighting for her whole life, but she is gifted with a support system that will do to great lengths to help her find that freedom and joy.
Two opposing perspectives are pushed on her: “There is no hope, and the most meaning she can find is in preventing the possibility of repeating this cycle.”
Or
“There is always a path out, even if it’s hard. She has people who love her, and if the cycle continues, they will continue to fight alongside her.”
Resolution 1: El is alive
Character arc: El finds within herself, the desire to put in work to give herself the joy she deserves. It’s harder to get away with, but she realizes that she is worth that struggle. She will love and care for herself, even if that means her loved ones will have to grieve her.
Relational conflicts: The people who love her eventually accept that El’s absence from their life is the unfortunate price they had to pay for her to find freedom. The grief they feel is painful, but they did not fail her. She did not follow the path laid out by her father and Mike, but their love inspired her to find her own way.
Kali’s purpose: Kali had everything taken from her. Every last person she cared for and who cared about her, was destroyed. After being tortured in new and horrific ways, she found herself reunited with the last person she loves. She had no life to return to, but she realized that El had so much potential for a peaceful life. She had the opportunity to give El the future she deserved. She left this world, knowing she allowed El to be free the way they both deserved to be.
Other: There is room for possibilities for El to reunite with her loved ones in the future.
Resolution 2: El sacrificed herself
Character arc: El realizes that happiness and peace is too hard to achieve. Or, she believes it’s impossible. She accepts that she existed to be tortured, and serve as a solution to problems.
Relational conflicts: Loving someone is never enough. El’s friends were saved by her, but they failed to repay the favor.
More importantly, in the case of Mike and Hopper: You have to experience the most traumatic experience of your life all over again. The person you loved, didn’t value how much you love her, because you didn’t prove it to her enough. Maybe you are the reason she couldn’t stay.
Kali’s purpose: Kali died after a life of being tortured, knowing that despite it all, pain was going to continue after her. She didn’t save the world, and she will be the reason El took her own life.
Other: Mike is experiencing psychosis that will probably just worsen for the rest of his life. Everyone else is coping, and none of them can process this grief properly due to the nature of the upside down.
I really don’t like HOW they went about the resolution of El’s freedom (and based on stuff in the documentary, they had a plan that I would’ve preferred, that they decided to scrap) but, It is an ending that makes sense, and is ultimately her following through with Hoppers speech “We will find a way to make it real. Because you have to. Because you deserve it.”
It would be easier for her to die in the upside down. But with the help of her sister, she chose to do the harder thing, because she realized just how much deserves to live freely.
As a victim of abuse throughout childhood and into adulthood, the dilemma El faced in the finale, is one I had faced personally. The cycle of abuse repeats for people like us, due to the foundation of our lives being victimhood. It feels impossible to imagine a world past the pain, because we never existed without it. This is a dilemma that is painfully real. It isn’t fictional. So many people face it, and if they are anything like me, they were drawn to stranger things because they saw themselves in El.
They wrote the ending that showed us that fighting for your own happiness is always possible. They filmed a scene showing the hope in El’s eyes when she finally was able to visualize a future. It was right there. But they decided to leave it ambiguous. They decided to leave the resolution up to the interpretation of the audience.
As someone who is finally on the other side of the cycle of suffering, I saw El choosing her freedom. But people who aren’t free, who still believe that there is no future for themselves, are going to see that in the show. Believe that El dying is what freed her.
One of these options is a resolution to a story, the other is torture porn.
