Stranger Things 5 left many fans, including myself feeling disappointed. Some fans felt it was lacking so much that they deluded themselves into believing there was a secret last episode.
I’m sad to see it go but also glad because I’m not to sure of how I felt about the last season. I feel like the actors weren’t performing to the best of their abilities, compared to the caliber of acting displayed in previous seasons.
On December 31, 2025, it seemed the whole country was waiting at the edge of their seats for the highly anticipated finale of Stranger Things; however, what was to come wouldn’t live up to the expectations of fans.
The episode itself had a runtime of a whopping 2 hours and 8 minutes, longer than the average 90-120 minutes of a mainstream theatrical release. Even with all of this content, most fans seemed unsatisfied, leading to mass theorizing and criticism of the show and its creators.
Shortly after the episode dropped and everyone was taking in the events of the finale, an X (formerly Twitter) user by the handle of @67gate tweeted something that seemed to change everything people thought they knew about season 5.
“lowkey does anyone not find it weird how every single character in the end turned into a conformed version of themselves”
At first the tweet reached its target audience– the small community of Stranger Things fans following the aforementioned user. Replies flooded in agreeing with the statement– they pointed out that a lot of the characters ended up like the things they hated most. Mike ending up like his father, Nancy dropping out of college, Robin turning into a more feminized version of herself despite previously presenting herself as more masculine– it all seemed to add up.
Some stated they thought the finale, and the final few episodes of season 5 in general, was actually just Vecna, the main antagonist, putting a curse over the viewer’s mind. It made more sense as people searched through the last episodes of the series for clues.
They called it Conformitygate; the -gate suffix meaning to signify a conspiracy theory. It only took a few days for the theory to spread internet-wide, primarily apps like TikTok. Major news outlets were reporting on the theory, and posts discussing new ‘evidence’ garnered millions of likes. The general audience took this theory and ran with it, genuinely believing that the real finale to the show was going to premiere on January 7th, 2026, therefore making TV history.
However, as we all know, no episode actually dropped.
Not only did this disappoint fans of the show, but it made them realize that all of the ‘clues’ they had found that pointed to the theory being real were actually just plot-holes and errors made by the creators, the Duffer Brothers. Hate and criticism was sent their way, but it would be heavily amplified with the release of the two-hour-long documentary detailing the making of the final season. In the documentary, the Duffer Brothers didn’t exactly make themselves out to be the best directors. A shot showing the google document where the script was written had three ChatGPT tabs open in the background, leading people to believe that many of the errors in the final season were due to it being written by AI. It was also stated that they were already shooting the finale without it being fully written, so it was likely rushed. Considering the reported $400-480 million dollar budget of the final season, fans knew they could’ve done better.
While the season had some good moments, overall the Duffer brothers didn’t deliver the satisfying conclusion that fans hoped for.
