Brenner and his men show up to Hawkins High after Hopper leaves, but Eleven makes quick work of most of them. Their bloody remains attract the Demogorgon, who takes out the rest of the men and seemingly kills Brenner (there's never a shot of his dead body, though, so we can't be sure if he's truly dead). Eleven passes out from using too much of her powers, so the boys fight off the monster with Lucas's slingshot in the meantime. Right as it's about to eat them for dinner (or whatever it plans on doing with them), Eleven reawakens and uses the last of her powers to blow up the Demogorogon — and herself. Everyone is devastated.
Season one ends by flashing forward one month later. The boys, including a recovered Will, are once again playing Dungeons & Dragons in Mike's basement. Despite the chemistry between Nancy and Jonathan, she's gone back to dating Steve. Jonathan and Will are then seen having Christmas dinner with Joyce, but Will leaves to go to the bathroom. He looks at himself in the mirror, distraught, before coughing up a slug-like creature, which climbs down the pipe.
Hopper puts on a brave face at the police station's Christmas party, but it's clear that he's still processing everything that happened. He leaves the party early to drop off a box of Eggos near a tree in the woods, which implies Eleven might be alive after all. Her survival is left ambiguous, but she's alive and (kinda) well in the season two trailer, so there's still hope!
