WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Stranger Things, It, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, and Game of Thrones.

In the end, Stranger Things remained what it has always been, a love letter to outcasts and fans of genre fiction. The show that once ignited Easter egg obsessives with a The Thing poster hanging in the Wheelers’ basement went out with a handful of fun horror references.

Vickie (Amybeth McNulty) refers to the vicious demogos as “mutant Cujos,” namechecking Stephen King‘s 1981 novel about a rabid Saint Bernard. Nancy (Natalia Dyer) may channel John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) with her machine guns and bandoliers, but she infiltrates the Abyss in a haircut identical to Sigourney Weaver‘s Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott’s original Alien. Max (Sadie Sink) traverses memories from Hawkins’ past set to the pleasing chorus of the “Sh-Boom (Life Could Be...