"Eleven wants to know what happens then, and Mike responds using the only big-picture framework a 16-year-old nerd has at the ready: Dungeons & Dragons. "Usually the party doesn't return to their local village because too much has happened," Mike says about his campaigns' typical epilogues. "They've seen too much, so they travel to a faraway land, a peaceful land, somewhere beautiful - with three waterfalls or something. Then they start again. Together.""
"Ah, the innocence of youth. The moment may be cloying for some and refreshing to others, but it's a timely reminder of what's at stake: These kids have their whole future in front of them - so long as they survive the next few days - and their childish naiveté is what grounds their supernatural quest in a relatable perspective."
Early in the final season, Mike and Eleven share a quiet sunset moment as their town faces military occupation and Vecna threatens from the Upside Down. Mike frames their uncertain future through a Dungeons & Dragons epilogue about leaving a ravaged village for a peaceful, faraway land and starting again together. Their youthful innocence and plans for an unknowable future ground the series' supernatural stakes in relatable emotion. The opening hour balances affecting beats, wit, and energy to begin the final stretch, but the show increasingly embraces a 'bigger is better' spectacle that threatens those intimate moments.
Read at IndieWire
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