It's been one week since the Stranger Things 5 finale hit Netflix and theaters across the United States. While most of the discourse has been about what happened in the finale, including Eleven's ending, there is a small cluster of fans pushing a wild theory that there's a secret episode of Stranger Things coming to Netflix on Wednesday, Jan. 7.
Well, it's Wednesday, Jan. 7, and as we all knew, there's no new episode of Stranger Things to watch on Netflix. I'm sure that is disappointing to the fans who bought into and believed these wild theories about a secret Stranger Things episode that would undo the events of the finale.
Dubbed "Conformity Gate" on TikTok and other social channels, users tried to point out inconsistencies in edit that, they claimed, pointed to Vecna actually basically mind-controlling everyone, including the audience, into believing the events of the finale did not happen and are simply an illusion.
I don't even know where to start with all of that, and I really don't want to go down the rabbit hole to debunk every claim made on the internet. But, if there are inconsistencies in Stranger Things 5, it's likely do to the series being filmed over the course of a full year, put together on a tight deadline, and made by humans who are human, just like the rest of us, who can make mistakes. The history of film and TV is full of accidents that either worked out or didn't.
The other key point is that this would never and could never happen. It's not a choose-your-own-adventure series. It's the biggest TV show in the world from the biggest streamer in the world, and they literally went out of their way to put the finale in theaters. Can you imagine the outrage? Like, it's a non-starter.
The Duffer brothers confirm the events of the Stranger Things finale are the end of the story
But, if you don't want to hear it from me, just a Stranger Things fan of a decade not wanting TikTok wannabes to hijack the series ending with conspiracy theories, you can hear it directly from the Duffer brothers in the 1,000 interviews they gave leading up to and after the Stranger Things finale.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Duffers confirmed the scene in the Wheeler's basement is the end of Stranger Things. Why wouldn't it be? There's no secret episode. This is the end of the story.
Here's what Matt Duffer told THR:
"Mike’s [Finn Wolfhard] closing the basement door. We’re closing the door on the story. That’s one reason we had the closing credits the way we did, because it was a way of saying: ‘This is finite. This is the end of their story. It’s the end of the story of Mike and Eleven and Joyce [Winona Ryder] and Hopper.
"So, no, there’s no plan or intention to [revisit] the story because it’s a coming-of age story. Ultimately, that’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s what the show always was. When he closes the door to the basement, he’s closing the door on his childhood and he’s moving onto adulthood.”
Or, we can look to Netflix. The streamer has not commented, but Variety pointed out that they changed the social bios for Stranger Things to "“ALL EPISODES OF STRANGER THINGS ARE NOW PLAYING.”
So, we have a few choices here. We can believe the creators of the series we just watched for the last 10 years, who have apologized for inconsistencies in the past, or we can believe the conspiracy theorists who have a monetary interest in growing their platform. I know who I'm going to believe.
In the words of one my favorite characters from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Kemo, played by Taylor Willy, "It's over; find a new show."
The good news is there are a bunch of new, returning, and ending shows coming in 2026 that have Stranger Things potential. While there will likely never be another show like this one, there's still going to be plenty of great stories to watch this year, and that's super exciting!