The ending of Stranger Things was a very big event; it was a show 10 years in the making, with an extremely vast audience, all of whom were extremely excited to see the finale and how the Duffer brothers (the creators of Stranger Things) would end the series. There were worldwide press tours, multiple interviews across talk shows, and the final episode was even released in theaters across America and Canada.
The show took a specific approach to releasing episodes, twisting the ‘weekly episode’ format and releasing a specific number of episodes every month or so, with the first volume of season 5 releasing worldwide on November 27th. The second volume was released December 25th, and the finale was released both on Netflix and in theaters on December 31st.
At first, the reception was positive, though there were some mixed reviews. But, by the time the finale had come out, fans were split between enjoying it and hating it. It led to the creation of many theories, namely Conformity Gate, and mass frenzy online. But what exactly led fans to do this?
The first volume is widely regarded by fans as a relatively strong start, the highest rated episode of the season being episode 4, The Sorcerer, with a score of 9.4/10 on IMDB. The second volume garnered mixed opinions, with ratings dropping to barely above an 8, and also having the lowest rated episode, The Bridge, at a 5.6/10. The fans had started to question the creator’s writing, along with the storyline and other aspects of the show.
This brought the creation of ‘Play Gate’, a fan theory spread on X (formerly Twitter), and created by user @/strangestjane. The ‘-gate’ suffix comes from online slang that means a scandal or controversy, and it’d been adopted by a handful of Stranger Things fans to signify a theory or possible storyline. Play gate was a theory that detailed the possibility of the audience being under the control of “Vecna”, the series’ main antagonist. The name is derived from the Stranger Things: The First Shadow stage play, which goes into the backstory of Vecna. In the stage play, a character puts on a play, and in teasers for volume 2, we see two characters stepping onto a stage, which led fans to immediately latch onto the theory, specifically those who didn’t particularly enjoy the second volume.
Soon enough, another theory rose, called ‘Cut gate’. It was a theory, where fans believed each episode had been cut down, and there were missing scenes. It came partly from scenes in trailers not being shown, but also from the fans’ belief that certain scenes didn’t make sense storywise. Both Cut gate and Play gate were relatively well known by fans online, but it wasn’t until the finale’s release that everything blew up.
The finale had extremely mixed reviews— while a majority of the general audience enjoyed it, quite a large chunk of the fanbase didn’t. The Rightside Up, the penultimate finale, currently holds a rating of 7.5/10 on IMDB, making it the second-lowest rated in season 5, and the lowest rated finale from all seasons.
Fans online gathered, and the infamous ‘Conformity gate’ rose. It was originally a commentary on how fans believed that Mike Wheeler (played by Finn Wolfhard) had conformed to societal expectations, and how it seemed out of character to them.
People connected it to Play gate and Cut gate, and started a campaign stating that there was a ‘secret 9th episode’ that would release on January 7th, 2026. As of February 2026, Conformity Gate and Cut Gate has been confirmed to be nothing more than a theory. Conformity gate has also been disproven simply by the lack of a secret episode, though fans are still theorizing about the ending online.
The theories were widespread, with major news articles like Forbes, The Guardian, Teen Vogue, and more covering Conformity gate. The Duffer Brothers also addressed the fan theory, stating there was no cut content or secret episode, which led many fans to be disappointed.
The infamous infection of Conformity gate will live on as a major statement of fans’ opinions on the finale, and how one simple theory can gather fans together.
