Spoilers Stranger Things Season 5 - SPOILERS

[Ryujin]

Maybe it's my own experience in the military combined with my knowledge of how the US military typically treats things, but the more likely outcome is that they all disappear from the face of the earth against their will, not almost immediately get released back to their own lives (which is what would have happened in order for them to be at school long enough to not only graduate, but have Dusty be valedictorian. And nothing moves quickly in the army unless it's to destroy something). Dozens of US soldiers got killed by Hopper and El. No one in the military liked them. We know how the military typically treats people it hates who killed their buddies.

*for the record, I'm not super bothered by it because it's a show with a feel good ending and is fictional.

Yeah, a "real life" style ending might have been realistic, but not the way you'd want to end something like that. Noble sacrifice? Sure. Murdered or imprisoned forever/studied by your government? Not so much.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, a "real life" style ending might have been realistic, but not the way you'd want to end something like that. Noble sacrifice? Sure. Murdered or imprisoned forever/studied by your government? Not so much.

A real life show would have been a lot more boring from the start.

 

[Sacrosanct]

A real life show would have been a lot more boring from the start.

Just one episode

 

[BookTenTiger]

Just one episode

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I mean, I'd totally watch a show about a group of friends playing various D&D campaigns over the years.

 

[Morrus]

Just one episode

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What, they managed to schedule in that many game sessions?

 

[Benjamin Olson]

The ending was realistic enough. The actual government would have to either release a bunch of civilians or give them a trial, which would risk a lot of paranormal secrets and the nature of their actual activities in Hawkins coming to light. They probably also wouldn't want to draw attention to how their gates were defeated by a middle school science teacher, or how they thoroughly lost a gunfight to Hopper and Nancy Wheeler.

What it wasn't was consistent with the government as it functioned in the Stranger Things narrative, and other paranormal conspiracy narratives, where the government is always infinitely vast, infinitely competent in shady conspiratorial crap, and completely ready to disappear two dozen people without a hitch. Though, to be fair, the government just releasing people because "nobody will believe them" is also a staple of paranormal conspiracy narratives (because it's usually part of the stories of the people who originate government conspiracy stories).

And no, it's not that I don't think the government is up to all sorts of shady dealings, it's just that actual government conspiracies tend to be small and simple. The vast conspiracies we see in fiction require more hyper-competence and loyalty than large bureaucracies with crappy pay can command.

The easiest narrative solution would have been to contrive a death for Dr. Kay for some sort of Upside-Down collapse reason, and to have established a normal, non-evil conspiracist, soldier as her next in command on the scene of the protagonists' capture (or give Dr. Kay some nuance as a character which would lead to her letting them go). I also think they generally should have distinguished a subset of the military forces there, Akers' unit, as being the elite force of hyper-naughty words who can be killed with moral impunity, rather than just having our heroes treat any and all soldiers assigned to Hawkins as a faceless goons to kill. And they should have used Kali's illusion magic to get past the soldiers at the end of episode 7 rather then gunning a bunch of them down.

 

[TheSword]

Worth remembering that the kids are heroes that saved the world multiple times. Some or all of that is documented by the military and other agencies.

Also worth remembering it is effectively over. The gate is closed, the upside down destroyed and as far as they are concerned El is dead and gone with it.

None of the surviving kids are unique or paranormal and the areas that Brennan and Kay were experimenting in are effectively closed off. It all feels pretty consistent with how season 2 started - a more benign, live and let live approach.

Also remember it’s a kids TV show. It’s not X files.

 

[Reef]

Also remember it’s a kids TV show. It’s not X files.

Well, it’s a tv show. I’m not sure I’d say it was a kids show…

(Of course, I’m apparently one of the weird parents who wouldn’t let a kindergarten kid watch the Walking Dead, so what do I know )

 

[TheSword]

Well, it’s a tv show. I’m not sure I’d say it was a kids show…

(Of course, I’m apparently one of the weird parents who wouldn’t let a kindergarten kid watch the Walking Dead, so what do I know )

It’s TV-14

 

[Reef]

It’s TV-14

Well, to me, that’s not kids. But like I said, my own terminology. I see kids as “younger than teens”.