Editor’s note: Deadline’s It Starts on the Page features standout drama series scripts in 2026 Emmy contention.

By the time that it finally premiered last year, Stranger Things 5 was all but certain to be one of the biggest television events of the decade. Nearly 10 years after the comparatively modest first season of the supernatural series captivated viewers, creators Matt and Ross Duffer knew there was a lot riding on these final eight episodes — and not just for the fans.

Penning the last moments for Will, Mike, Eleven, Max, Lucas, Dustin and the rest of the Hawkins crew meant the Duffer brothers would also have to say goodbye to these beloved characters, which they say had become akin to “living, breathing people” to both themselves and the actors who played them.

The fans were, of course, a big part of the story as well. They are the reason that the fifth and final season of the series broke audience record after audience record as it barreled toward the supersized finale on New Year’s Eve. The episode, titled “The Rightside Up,” promised to answer many of the burning questions that audiences had long held about the Upside Down and the strife it brought to Hawkins, Indiana.

But, for as intriguing as all of those answers were, the driving force behind the episode was not very supernatural at all. Rather, it was the scene of the kids playing Dungeons and Dragons together one last time in the Wheeler basement that the Duffers say was “our north star.”

Below is the script for “The Rightside Up” (code name “Cedar Lodge”) with an introduction from Matt and Ross Duffer in which they explain why writing the Stranger Things finale was “the hardest and most heart-wrenching thing” they’d ever done.

Ending a show on your own terms is a privilege, and we feel so lucky that we ended Stranger Things the way we always wanted. But even still, endings are hard — and scary. In the near-decade of making Stranger Things, there were plenty of challenging moments, but writing this final episode — putting a period on the end of a five-season journey — was the hardest and most heart-wrenching thing we’ve ever done.

It wasn’t hard because the scenes themselves were more of a struggle than usual, but because we knew that each line we wrote was bringing us closer to the end. Each moment was a “last”: the last time Dustin and Steve bicker; the last time Eleven holds out her hand; the last time Lucas and Max share a smile. 

These characters are fictional, of course, but to us they feel like living, breathing people. They live inside our heads as we write them, and then our brilliant actors bring them to life. We felt a real responsibility to give each of them an ending that felt earned and true to who they are. 

What kept us going was our north star: the final scene. For as long as we can remember, we have planned to end the show with our “kids” gathered in Mike’s basement, playing D&D one last time. It would serve as a full-circle moment, mirroring the show’s beginning. But, more importantly, it would be a way for our characters to say goodbye to their childhood.

It also became a way for the actors and us to say goodbye to the show. 

By the time we wrote our final line — “END SERIES” — we were sad. But like Mike at the end of the show, we were grateful too. 

For all the memories. For the friendships. For the adventure. 
 
And what an adventure it was.

Read the script below.