December 31st, 2025, was the date that Stranger Things had officially ended. Numerous people loved the finale. However, many have had several complaints about how it ended. I have similar thoughts. 

If you somehow have not finished Stranger Things in the ripe month of February, here is your spoiler warning. Since the plot of Stranger Things was a DnD game, nothing was truly real. The series ends on a cliffhanger about the disappearance of Eleven. The character Eleven only exists inside the game, as far as viewers know. Millie Bonnie Bongiovi, the actor of Eleven, didn’t really like how her character ended. She stated in an interview, “I just saw my ending and thought, oh, and then I walked away very slowly.”

Due to many plot holes, there became theories that were being speculated across social media. Some theorized a secret ninth episode being aired on dates that have already passed. Even if those dates have gone by, and there is seemingly no extra episode, many fans (including myself) still have hope for one. 

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, allow me to introduce the Conformity Gate! Conformity Gate is a theory based on the fact that the characters are just in Vecna’s mind. In the finale, the graduates are all sitting just like Henry and Billy when they were possessed. Twelve people in the graduates wore glasses, just like Henry needed 12 kids to do what they believed was right. There is no sign of Vickie because Vecna had no knowledge of her. In the earlier seasons, Will released this black fog out of his mouth, and evil was brought back into the world. However, Holly and the other kids did the same exact thing, and… everything is fine? Something isn’t adding up. 

In the future, everyone became similar to someone they hated: Max became more aggressive like her brother, Billy, Nancy had a haircut like her mother, and those are only a few examples. Not to mention, several things appear differently colorwise than they should. Remember Holly’s realization that something in her memory was “off” simply because the color was different? Or like how Melvald’s General is supposed to be a Milkshake place. It was only a general store when Will was a kid, which is when Vecna spied on him – My point is that they never escaped Henry’s mind. Vecna won. He made them think their previous lives were a game, but they were as real as can be. I thought it was kind of annoying how they let the “happily ever after” go on for 45 minutes, but maybe it was because it wasn’t real as I’ve provided evidence for. 

 I would like to mention how, behind the scenes, the actors started with an unfinished script. There were also reports of five tabs of scripting being opened with ChatGPT. Many fans speculate that they wrote the finale using AI. However, Ross Duffer divorced Leigh Janiak after 9 years in the middle of the production of season five. If you do not know, Stranger Things started nearly 10 years ago. It is an unverified and unconfirmed rumor, but many fans say that she helped write Stranger Things as we know it today. 

Many fans adored the finale across the world. The series “Stranger Things” will always be in our hearts as a series that we loved.