Stranger Things Fans Flip the Finale Upside Down

MC Savage, staff writer

The final episode of Netflix’s number one show Stranger Things sparked a lot of controversy with fans. Many fans were upset by the ending, calling it boring and a horrible way to end such a popular show. The show’s finale was rated so badly by fans that many began theorizing and creating conspiracies online. These theories took off on social media, especially TikTok. A huge sum of fans all came together to add on to these ideas and call it ‘Conformity Gate’.  

Conformity Gate is a conspiracy theory about the finale of Stranger Things where many fans believed that the final episode was a fake ending. They believed it was made to make people believe the show was over just to come back with an amazing and true final episode. Online, those who believed in this theory began analyzing the finale along with details from the recent season as proof of it being a fake out, and tried to create evidence that another episode was coming. So many details were pointed out and turned into proof, and the conspiracy took over the internet.  

“It [Conformity Gate] was all over my feed on my socials and I actually started believing it. It kept getting proved and looked really true to me,” says Kayla Hochman, a sophomore at Johns Creek High School and a Stranger Things Fan.  

Fans pointed to inconsistencies in these final episodes and turned them into being a part of Conformity Gate. No one thought that the talented writers of this hit show, the Duffer Brothers, would have been careless enough to make these mistakes in their finale that cost millions of dollars to produce. This led to the conclusion that they were left in on purpose to tell the audience a different story. Everyone who banded together on social media pieced together clues that led to a release date. Jan. 9, 2026, was a sad day for the fans who believed in Conformity Gate because even after refreshing Netflix constantly, there was no new episode.  

“I was so upset when nothing came out. I fully believed that it wasn’t just mistakes and there was really a true finale being released,” Hochman added.  

All the believers were not only sad, but angry that the Duffers were so careless about the details of the show. Considering the impressive writing in the earlier seasons many even pointed to AI usage like ChatGPT, claiming the Duffer brothers got lazy with creating the last seasons and looked for an easy and money saving solution. Even more convincing evidence of AI emerged when the documentary of the creation of the final season came out, revealing that one of the Duffer brothers even had ChatGPT open on their laptop.  

The theories were thought out and seemed to be undeniable, but it turned out that it was just fans coping with the ending of the show with conspiracies. After the internet craze, Netflix or Stranger Things have yet to address any of the Conformity Gate rumors. Fans worked hard and banded together to brainstorm these theories with attention to detail and corresponding connections to the show just to be disappointed with no new episode, and simply just angered by poor writing.