“Stranger Things” fans who believe a viral conspiracy theory that there is a secret ninth episode of the Netflix series dropping on Jan. 7 at 8 p.m. ET will have their post-series-finale hopes shattered — because there isn’t one.
Though Netflix and creators Matt and Ross Duffer have made no official comment on the theory amid ongoing post-series-finale press interviews, the show’s bios on Netflix’s Instagram, TikTok and X accounts state as of Wednesday: “ALL EPISODES OF STRANGER THINGS ARE NOW PLAYING.”
The theory, colloquially known across social media as “Conformity Gate,” is that the Duffers have another episode of the show still to come, one that would undo certain plot points from the series finale, including a reveal that Vecna/Henry (Jamie Campbell Bower) did not actually die and was controlling what viewers had seen as as the ending in a fourth-wall-breaking experience.
Across social media, the theory gained steam on TikTok in particular, as well as Reddit and other platforms, where fans shared posts and videos including what they deemed to be hints that things were off in-universe in Episode 8, “The Right Side Up,” which launched as the much-heralded and well-promoted series finale Dec. 31 on Netflix.
Among the purported “evidence” for the theory is everything from wardrobe choices (the graduation gowns were orange, when the Hawkins High colors are green and yellow, and many extras were seen wearing glasses similar to the kind worn by Henry/Vecna). They also point to set design changes: a doorknob in the Wheelers’ basement appears to be on the opposite side of the door in the finale, and a dial at the WSQK radio station had changed colors between episodes.
Eagle-eyed viewers even found an instance in the series finale where a stack of cassette tapes featured in an epilogue scene were seemingly arranged to spell out “U DID NOT STOP ME” in Morse code.
The idea that the episode was going to surprise drop on Jan. 7 was sparked by a video shared by the “Stranger Things” official TikTok page that featured Hawkins science teacher Mr. Clarke (Randy Havens) standing in front of a clock that is set to 1:07. The Conformity Gate crowd took that to mean the surprise Episode 9 would be released Jan. 7, and that the timing for launch would be 8 p.m. ET — the same time that Volumes 1 and 2 dropped.
All of this has fueled the larger fan theory of Conformity Gate, which gets its name from the idea that Henry/Vecna was not defeated by Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Will (Noah Schnapp), Joyce (Winona Ryder), Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and the gang, and that the Hawkins crew is stuck under Vecna’s mind control, “conforming” to false memories and an ending that he has created for them — and for viewers.
The final season of “Stranger Things” has been beset by conspiracy-minded thinking. After the release of Volume 2 on Christmas Day, a segment of the fandom began believing the episodes had been “tampered with,” and a Google doc created by fans detailing scenes that had allegedly been cut was widely shared across social media. A Change.org petition demanding the release of the “unseen footage” now has more than 390,000 signatures. In an interview with the Duffers on Jan. 1 about the series finale, they definitively shut down this disinformation, and Matt Duffer said about the Google doc, which they’d seen, “Obviously, that’s not a real thing.” Ross Duffer added, I don’t think there’s a single cut scene in the entire season.”
“The show has just grown so massive,” Matt Duffer said, speaking generally about the conspiracy-theory-addled segments of the show’s fandom. “Online, there’s just so much misinformation. Just tons of it. We would be here for hours trying to bat down the stuff that was not true.”
Jennifer Maas
Source link