"Oh, I was planning on carelessness...!"
I saw this finale last night, and I'm glad I've let it sink in a little before articulating my thoughts. There is, of course, one rather large plot hole- the gang, having destroyed the Upside Down and saved the world, end up in the custody of Sarah Connor and her toy soldiers. Why aren't they all arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to those absurdly harsh prison sentences of which America, with its extraordinarily huge prison population, is so fond? Regardless of morality, they've all surely broken several important laws. But I think we can safely forgive and handwave this. Because the episode is a masterpiece,
The way the threat is resolved is superb. We have two hours of run time, plenty of time for each character to breathe, with lots of nice little scenes between pairs of characters- especially the reconciliation between Jonathan and Steve. It's fitting that Vecna, whatever he may think, is ultimately just another vessel and the real Big Bad is a freaking massive CGI monster. And the whole gang work together to destroy it before Sarah Connor ruins everything... and yes, there's no hope for Eleven after all. There never could have been. Those waterfalls always were a pipe dream.
This is, of course, very bleak. But by the end of the episode we nevertheless haven't turned to despair. Because Stranger Things never really was about the supernatural threat- it's about the characters, about growing up, about how we all deal with adversity together. About how, yes, the world is full of suffering, unfairness and death, but how we can nevertheless find joy and make our own meaning.
Which is why we need this long coda for the characters to be seen to be getting on with their lives, pursuing their dreams and friendships, dealing with their grief. Life goes on. The proposal scene with Joyce and Hopper is so very wonderful, as is Hopper's speech to Mike on healthy and unhealthy ways of grieving, lessons we will all need at some point.
But there is also fun. It's 1989, the end of the decade. We have the Pixies! Dustin gives a wonderful valedictorian speech, including a tribute to Eddie. And we end, of course, with D&D (or rather, I assume, 2nd edition AD&D!), with a beautiful imagined happy ending for El. It's just Mike's fantasy, of course. But sometimes we need to believe in comforting fictions, and that's ok.
The perfect finale.
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