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Stranger Things 3 ends with the dazzling “The Battle of Starcourt.” The heroics are off the charts. There are a couple of major deaths. We’ve got the recap!
If you’re reading this and haven’t seen “The Battle of Starcourt,” please know that this recap contains major spoilers. If you’re reading this while you’re watching the season finale of Stranger Things 3, hi! We could probably be friends. Either way, it should go without typing that if you want to remain unspoiled, close this tab now. The 77 minute finale was written and directed by the Duffer Brothers. Let’s go.
I Can Do It
We pick up with Joyce (Winona Ryder), Hopper (David Harbour), and Murray (Brett Gelman) in the Todd Father racing towards Starcourt Mall. Murray is listening in on the Russian radio they scored in “The Bite.” The guards again say that they have located the kids. Murray tries to say that it might not be Jopper’s kids. Joyce gives massive side-eye and declares, “Of course, they’re our kids!”
At the mall, Eleven (Millie Bobbie Brown) is still on the ground writhing in pain. Something is moving just under her skin. Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) goes to the Chinese restaurant and gets a butcher knife. He sterilizes it with fire and apologies to El. He gives her a wooden spoon to bite down on while he cuts.
Jonathan’s cut creates an area for him to work. He sticks his hand in El’s leg and tries to catch the moving infection. El tells him to stop and gives the most pathetic sounding, “I can do it” that I’ve ever heard. She needs all the hugs. El seems to use the same amount of powers she used to close The Gate last season to pull the baby demodog, yes, a demodog, out her leg and throws it across the floor. The demodog tries to crawl away, but it’s stomped by Hopper! He, Joyce, and a completely confused Murray rejoin the group.
The Best Laid Plans
This is where things get tricky. Everyone catches up as much as they can during the opening credits. When the episode picks back up, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Erica (Priah Ferguson) inform Hopper that they will guide Jopper and Murray through the quickest, the most clandestine path to the Russian Gate. There, Murray will shut the Russian Gate down while Jopper will make it explode.
In order for their radio signals to reach deep into the Starcourt basement, they will need to get to Cerebro. The newly minted Scoop Troop (I liked Team Scoops Ahoy, Dustin!), takes the Todd Father to Cerebro. They will walk Murray aka Bald Eagle through the conveniently bigger air vents.
We see the elevator race down towards the fateful hallway we’ve spent the last few episodes running around. It has Team Jopper on it. Murray declares that if everything goes well, no one will even know they were there. The elevator opens to a small squad of Russians. Murray tries to reason with them, but Hopper just shoots them all to death and takes their uniforms. He calls this improvising. We cut to the elevator racing down towards the hallway again. This time it has Terminator Grigori (Andrey Ivchenko) on it. Uh oh.
Some Light Window Shopping
The Party attempts to get as far away as possible. But the ignition wire has been removed from Joyce’s car. Nancy (Natalia Dyer) hears a vroom vroom. She looks left and sees Nilly (Dacre Montgomery) in his car waiting to charge. He summons the Mind Flayer. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Will (Noah Schnapp) help rush El back into the mall with Nancy, Jonathan, and a horrified Max (Sadie Sink).
The car that El flipped in “The Bite” should have an ignition wire. She tries to flip it, but her powers seem to be gone. There’s not even a nosebleed from the attempt. The Party has to use physics to flip the car and get the wire. They push it. But, before they can get out of the mall, the Mind Flayer mounts the very top skylights and drops in. Our heroes are trapped.
Steve (Joe Kerry) and Robin (Maya Hawke) can see the electrical anomalies occurring from Cerebro. They take the Todd Father and rush back to evacuate The Party. Dustin and Erica stay to monitor Cerebro. Back in the mall, The Mind Flayer can’t find El. Billy doesn’t have eyes on her and they can’t sense her powers because they seem to be gone. Mike, El, and Max make a run for the back of the Gap. They’re heard. Lucas uses his slingshot to create a diversion.
This is It
Lucas’ diversion gives Mike, El, and Max time to get partially away. The rest of The Party tries to make it to the car. It won’t start right away. Billy hydroplanes and floors it towards Nancy. The car is about to be T-Boned when, out of nowhere, Steve rams the Todd Father into Billy’s car. Steve and Robin are okay. They collect who they can and get into the now fully functional Joyce-mobile. The Mind Flayer is chasing them on foot.
Billy also survives and gets to the remaining group. He knocks out Max and Mike. He subdues El. The Mind Flayer turns around and heads back to the mall. Jonathan instinctively turns the car around and heads back towards the mall.
In the basement, Murray messes with the power and deactivates the key that’s opening the Russian Gate. It’s go time for Jopper, except the code they have is incorrect. It’s supposed to be Planck’s Constant. But something is wrong. In desperation, Dustin radios Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo) one last time. She answers! Unimpressed with Dustin’s excuses for disappearing for a week, she won’t help him unless he sings ‘ their song.’
The next couple of minutes are taken over by Dustin and Suzie singing the theme song to The NeverEnding Story while we get reaction shots from most of the cast. Some are confused. Others are horrified. Audiences will approve. Even though there was no guest appearance by Vincent D’Onofrio, this is the musical episode of Stranger Things that we didn’t know we needed. Suzie gives Dusty Bun the actual Planck Constant. Erica hangs up on Suzie, Jopper gains entrance to the Russian Gate room. So does Terminator Grigori.
Spoiler Warning: Major Deaths Ahead
Billy tells El to not worry and be very still. We’ve heard that before. The Mind Flayer enters and prepares to eat El. At the last minute, fireworks start going off. The Party has re-re-rearrived on the scene and leads a full on assault of the Mind Flayer with colorful and harmful fireworks. Billy won’t let El get away. When the fireworks are all gone, El, powerless, remembers the memories she saw when she melded with Billy. She tries to remind him of his real identity. And, it works. The Mind Flayer sends a vicious arm at El and Billy blocks it.
The Mind Flayer seems genuinely saddened. They stick multiple arms in Billy to remove the infection and then impales him. It’s now or never. The Russian Gate must be closed. But Hopper and Grigori are still fighting. When Hopper looks defeated, he is able to get the upper hand and throws Grigori into the key. But, that causes some blocking force of blue energy. He’s trapped.
Minutes earlier, Jopper had finally settled on a day and time for their date. It’s a Friday, but El likes to watch Miami Vice, so Hopper can’t stay out too late. But, Hopper can still pick up Joyce (hey, now) and they can hit Enzo’s. In the present, Hopper tearfully nods to Joyce to turn blow up the key. Everyone in the room is killed when the key blows up. Joyce is heartbroken.
The Mind Flayer remains corporeal, but with no access to its rat-king of a body, the mass simply collapses. Billy apologizes to Max before he dies. Dr. Owen (Paul Reiser) shows up with a squad of helicopters and asses the damage. The Russian Gate is closed, but still partially lit. There are now two Gates in Hawkins that are healing.
Epilogue
Three months later, the Byers have sold their house. It’s moving day. El still doesn’t have her powers. She worried, but takes a big risk anyway. El tells Mike that she knows how he feels. El tells Mike that she loves him, too. The two have Thanksgiving and Christmas plans. Mileven is in a good place.
Max and Lucas serenade Dustin with the NeverEnding Story song, which receives the bird. Will throws out his old D&D campaign notebooks and guides. Mike asks if he’ll ever play again. Will says that he can just use Mike’s when he comes back to visit. Will would never think of joining another Party. Dustin and Lucas present Erica with the D&D loot as a proper introduction into her nerd-nerd status.
Robin and Steve get jobs at the local video store, with a lot of help from Robin. Their boss will be Keith (Matty Cardarople). The arcade is in the same strip mall, so this totally tracks. Steve trips over a life size cutout of Phoebe Cates. At home, Mike, for seemingly the first time in the history of Stranger Things, seeks a hug from his mom Karen (Cara Buono).
As Joyce closes the door on their old home, the speech that Hopper wrote for El at the beginning of season is read via flashback by Hopper. It’s sad, touching, and something that the season three Hopper would be incapable of once they retconned his growth from season two. Still. It made me tear up. Peter Gabriel’s version of David Bowie’s “Heroes” plays. This is the song that played when the fake Will was found dead in season one. The Demogorgon Trilogy is over.
Psych! There’s a during-credits scene where Russians are feeding people to the Xenomorph looking Demogorgons from season one. When the guards were looking for which unlucky inmate to feed the Demogorgon, they passed over “The American.” It appears that the blue forcefield created by Grigori’s body may have saved Hopper after all.