The Netflix global sensation Stranger Things has finally completed its final season, but to the confusion and disappointment of many fans. Is Conformity Gate turning us all into mad conspiracy theorists like Joyce Byers of season One or is there some truth behind these fan theories?
From the very beginning, Stranger Things has captured the hearts of millions of fans with its cast of quirky, lovable characters, its eerie atmosphere and one of the greatest 80s soundtracks to hit our screens. It’s only natural that fans are devastated to be saying goodbye to this group of friends they’ve grown up with since 2016. Are these fan theories legitimate or just a desperate attempt to cling to our favourite show?
Throughout the airing of the final season, fans consistently took to social media to share various thoughts, opinions and theories on how the season would resolve. From relationships that could’ve been to potential deaths of fan favourite characters, these theories even reached television with cast members starring on shows such as The Tonight Show to discuss the newest episodes and give the most cryptic clues possible.
Finally, after the airing of the show’s finale on December 31, 2025, fans took to the internet with one eerily similar complaint: Why were so many things out of place? Thus, became the affectionately titled ‘Conformity Gate.’ Fans took to the black hole of X and TikTok to share inconsistencies with the set of Season 5, noting that many objects on set, such as the dial on the electric tower and the doorknob in Mike’s basement, changed colour or switched sides. Further, signs seen in the background of the graduation scene appear to be completely blank and the colour of the gowns worn switches from Hawkins High’s typical Yellow and Green to a vibrant Orange. This all led fans to speculate that there was a secret ninth episode in the works to be released on January 7th that would reveal the finale’s events to be yet another mind trick played by Vecna, but no such episode was released.
However, the release of a new Stranger Things documentary, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, on January 12th revealed that the writers of the show, Ross and Matt Duffer, were still writing the script of the final episode during filming for Season 5 and had never intended for multiple endings to the show. The documentary allows fans into the writing room and shows the Duffers debating which creatures of previous seasons to include in the finale’s final battle and attempting to construct nineteen separate character developments for the show’s huge cast.
Many fans also expressed disappointment in the length of the final battle scene, after a decade of taking down monsters in their path, the group seem to defeat their greatest evil yet in just five minutes of screentime. Fans also questioned the changes made to the Mind Flayer in the final scene, as this previously horrifying dark cloud of evil presents as a typical video game boss made of stone, akin to something from Baldur’s Gate 3 in the final moments. According to the Twitter account ‘Stranger Things Spoilers’ (via TheWrap), the Duffer Brothers had in fact written a three-hour version of the final episode, including an extended final battle scene featuring the Demogorgons of previous seasons, but this was cut prior to filming.
Whether you chose to believe the TikTok sensation known as the ‘Conformity Gate’ or not, there is no denying the impact Stranger Things has had on our lives—not just over the past few weeks, but across the last decade. The series dominated our Christmas and New Year, with viewers tuning in despite the holiday chaos and dedicated fans staying up through the night for any new glimpse of the Upside Down. Netflix recently released a what’s next post on the ever-famous January 7th, but Stranger Things was not mentioned, thus ending the joyful whimsy that conformity gate has taken up in my life for the last few weeks. Personally, I sobbed through the final moments of the finale and felt some sense of closure, saying goodbye to the cast of characters I felt I’d grown up with and found so comforting. It was never going to be easy to complete such a fantastically loved long-running show, and while many fans continue to struggle with the finale, perhaps it is finally time to step beyond the final gate and move on to our next adventure.