Sadie Sink Reveals Her "Hot Take" About Eleven's Fate In Stranger Things
She did not old back.
At this point, pretty much everyone has a strong opinion about how the Stranger Things series finale ended — including Sadie Sink. The sci-fi show’s star, who escaped Vecna’s mental cage as the resourceful Max Mayfield, got very real about her interpretation of the very last scene. And her take is going to upset a lot of hopeful fans.
Sink was asked the pivotal question about the finale while appearing on The Tonight Show on Jan. 5: Is Eleven dead or alive? In the middle of Stranger Things’ grand finale, Eleven appeared to sacrifice herself by jumping into the exploding Upside Down. However, at the end of the episode, Mike told his friends a story about how Eleven’s sister Kali could have created an illusion to save her, which would allow Eleven to start a new life in a far-away town.
While some viewers bought Mike’s uplifting tale, Sink was not one of them. “What do I think? I think she’s dead. I don’t know,” Sink said. The remark was met with disappointed sounds from the audience. “Is that a hot take or something?” Sink responded.
The actor explained that she saw Mike’s explanation as the dungeon master spinning one last yarn to encourage his party. “I think Mike’s story is just one last story and then they say goodbye to childhood, but that’s just one final tale,” Sink said. “And that’s it. I think it’s just a coping thing. I think it’s stronger. That’s my interpretation.”
Sink’s decisiveness is a bold pivot from how Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers have spoken about Eleven’s ambiguous fate. The showrunners have stated in various interviews that whether Eleven is dead or alive is meant to be up to each viewers’ personal discretion. However, there is apparently one true ending.
“Yeah, Ross [Duffer] and I know. And we were just talking to Millie [Bobby Brown] about it,” Matt Duffer confirmed during a Jan. 4 appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “But I think it takes away the power of the ending if you tell people what you were thinking as you were writing it.”
The co-creators confirmed Brown is the only other person who knows the truth, but they say that she “swore herself to secrecy” once she found out.
