Stranger Things 'Conformity Gate' Theory Is Huge, Secret Episode Conspiracy

Stranger Things has officially drawn to a close, following the recent premiere of the series’ finale.

I personally enjoyed it very much and spent almost the entirety of the second half of the episode sobbing; I’d call it a near-perfect goodbye to these beloved characters. You may agree. You may not.

Either way, it does feel as if so many people have lost their sense of whimsy or joy these days.

A quick trip to conversational black holes like X, a place once known as the more pleasant world of Twitter, and you’ll find millions picking something apart merely for the sake of it.

It happens with almost every major TV show, game, or film, and Stranger Things is just one of the latest examples.

Did the finale prompt questions? Sure, but I’d argue any good finale should.

Not everything needs to be tied in a nice neat bow. The audience should be respected enough to fill in certain gaps.

But if you ask me, Stranger Things more than stuck the landing. I’ve seen some people criticise the length of the fight against Vecna and the Mind Flayer. I don’t see it as a six-minute battle personally.

The entirety of Stranger Things’ fifth season charts the 10-hour final showdown against Vecna.

That shortened gun fight is the last stage of our heroes’ plan, certainly, but criticising the writers for “killing off Vecna in six minutes” belittles everything our heroes did in every episode leading up to that moment. This bizarre belief that Stranger Things’ finale felt incomplete forms the basis of what’s being referred to as ‘Conformity Gate’.

Stranger Things, Credit / Netflix

Conformity Gate: The Secret Stranger Things Episode?

It’s essentially the belief that there’s a secret episode cut from Stranger Things’ fifth season with fans believing the final released cut reflected a change of plans.

As reported by For The Win, viewers noted that everyone at graduation held their hands like Henry Creel, while the D&D books in the final scene lined up to say, “X A LIE”, potentially referring to Dimension X, better known as The Upside Down.

For the most part, however, ‘evidence’ for this so-called secret episode boils down to what I see as denial.

One of the most popular ‘Conformity Gate’ tweets revisits the Duffer Brothers’ claim that Season 5 will include the most violent death of any season.

“So what’s all this then?” reads one tweet, seen by more than six million people at the time of writing.

I’d say Vecna having his head hacked off by an axe wielding Joyce in quite a long, drawn out sequence - while impaled through his chest - perfectly fits that bill.

Others are obsessing over the show’s new key art which has appeared on Netflix since the finale premiered.

It shows Eleven, Mike, and Will ready for battle in the Upside Down.

Sure, no such exact scene appears in the finale, although all three characters are present during the fight in The Abyss.

That doesn’t mean there’s a secret episode though. This is a poster. It’s clearly just highlighting three key figures against an Upside Down-esque backdrop.

The Duffer Brothers have confirmed there is no secret episode; in fact, they went as far as saying that they couldn’t think of a single deleted scene in Season 5.

Everything made the final cut. Some scenes were shortened, of course, as is the case during the editing process of any TV project, but the intended story is what you see on screen. Conformity Gate appears to be a delusion, but it's a delusion that hasn’t yet subdued, so expect to see the phrase thrown around for a few days longer.