Stranger Things: Much-derided plot hole in season finale can be explained by tiny detail in episode seven

Fans have ridiculed a plot detail in the show’s final episode

Stranger Things season four has come to a dramatic close – but fans have been left with one burning question: where exactly did Hopper get that sword from?

Netflix released the final two episodes of its hit sci-fi series on Friday (1 July).

Spoilers for season four finale below!

For much of this series, viewers watched Hopper (David Harbour) trapped in a Russian prison. He later manages to break free with the help of Joyce (Winona Ryder), Murray (Brett Gelman), and his new friend Dimitri “Enzo” Antonov (Tom Wlaschiha).

Hopper’s story culminates in an epic battle with a Demogorgon in the final episode. Fans, however, were bemused to find that, when Hopper finds his gun out of bullets, he picks up what looks like a medieval sword from the ground.

Although Hopper was eventually successful in beheading the monster, viewers were left confused as to where the anachronistic weapon came from.

Where did Hopper get the sword?

The answer to the question can be found in episode seven.

David Harbour as Jim Hopper in ‘Stranger Things' (Courtesy of Netflix)

Fans will remember that Hopper and his fellow prisoners were forced to fight the Demogorgon at the behest of the Russian guards who supplied them with a weapons locker.

Inside the locker were several old weapons, including spears, axes, and, of course, swords, which they could arm themselves with.

As noted by Hitc.com, the sword that Hopper uses in the final episode is first wielded by another prisoner in the initial group fight against the monster.

During that stand-off, several prisoners are killed, including the one who picked up the sword, which explains how it ends up on the ground in the pit ready for Hopper to pick up later

The show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers, recently responded to Millie Bobby Brown’s criticism of the series that characters are never killed off.

You can read The Independent’s five-star review of Stranger Things season four, part two here.