Netflix’s final season of their original show, Stranger Things, has caused a storm of controversy amongst watchers.
The sci-fi horror drama series was first released in 2016 and stars an adolescent group of friends cast by Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, and Sadie Sink.
Set in the 1980s, the friends battle other-worldy challenges based off of the well-known game, Dungeons and Dragons. They do so while still facing typical coming of age difficulties that are relatable to watchers. The emotional and skin-crawling story has drawn lots of focus from Generation Z and Generation Alpha.
Directed by the Duffer Brothers, the series is popular with a 90% rating from Rotten Tomatoes.
The final season of the show – Chapter 5 – was released in three waves: Volume 1 released on November 26th of 2025, Volume 2 released on December 25th, and the 2 hour finale on December 31st.
Many fans followed the releases of the show over 6 years, and were incredibly upset with the ending.
“I think there were so many issues…there’s a ton of plotholes that simply do not fit with the story,” stated South Windsor High School senior Emily Ouellet.
For many teenagers, they began watching the show while being the same age as the actors, so they have a sense of physically growing up with the series. The fact of the series’ approaching end was difficult enough for fans, but the “major downgrade from past seasons” upset viewers all the more.
“It made me feel cheated and angry,” added student Olivia Childree. “I’ve watched this show for years of my life and the ending was so disappointing.”
Despite the conflicting opinions, Season 5 made it onto Netflix’s Top 10 Most Popular Shows list, but with lower ranking than Season 4.
Directors Matt and Ross Duffer received tons of backlash, with some of fans’ blame attacking their personal lives.
Actors’ performances also received criticism, with fans claiming that it seemed like everyone was a side character in Season 5, and that there was no main focus throughout the entirety of the episodes.
Across the internet, a theory spread that the released final episode was a “fake ending,” and that due to a series of clues, the “real ending” was to be released on January 7th, 2026. The name of the theory was deemed “Conformity Gate.”
However, Netflix addressed the theory and shut it down on the morning of January 7th, with all official Stranger Things’ social media bios reading, “ALL EPISODES OF STRANGER THINGS ARE NOW PLAYING.”
In the two weeks since the finale episode, Conformity Gate has been proven to be a theory created out of fan’s disbelief of the legitimate ending to the Stranger Things series.
Despite all theories, criticism, and opinions, one thing is true: the 10 year journey of Stranger Things as we know it has finally come to an end.
