Alas, there is not a Stranger Things Season 5, Episode 9. The fallout from Stranger Things‘ ending led to the theory, known as #ConformityGate, that the series finale was fake. That the events of the episode were a hallucination caused by Vecna, and the REAL conclusion was still to come. Netflix had teased something for January 7th, 2026, and so that was the predicted date for release. In the end, it was simply the reveal of its 2026 slate, not a return to Hawkins.
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This should not come as a shock, although ConformityGate did take on a life of its own, so much so that Netflix actually crashed for some Stranger Things fans at the anticipated release time. Certainly, the finale did have its fair share of problems and plot holes. And maybe there’s an upside down world where a ninth episode fixes some of those. But in this reality, it’s for the best that the finale was real, and there was no secret episode.
Stranger Things Season 5’s #ConformityGate Theory Was Always Impossible
Firstly, to address the most glaring issue with ConformityGate, is that it would not have made sense for Netflix. The Stranger Things finale was, no hyperbole, the biggest event in the streamer’s history: the end of its flagship franchise that had defined its first decade as the dominant force in the Streaming Wars, and more simply one of the most popular, talked about shows of the last 10 years. To try and pull off a secret episode, while having to market Episode 8 as the finale, with its huge promotional push and even a release in theaters, would be a bold strategy the likes of which we’ve never really seen, and bordering on deranged.
It would also suggest the Duffer Brothers had made what is essentially a movie, costing tens of millions of dollars, that they anticipated would piss off fans, just to then create hype and expectation for a secret episode. And if, for some reason, they had done that, and if, for some reason, Netflix had agreed to it, would that really have made things better? Would Season 5 be more satisfying knowing that an entire installment, which we all tuned into thinking it was the very end, was a trick that doesn’t actually matter? It’s hard to think that it would work, and it’d very likely hurt not only rewatches, but the brands of both Stranger Things and Netflix, not to mention setting a dangerous precedent.
Stranger Things Season 5, Episode 9 Would Only Make The Finale More Divisive
The explosion of #ConformityGate makes it seem as though Stranger Things‘ series finale was an unmitigated disaster, but that’s not the case in terms of its reputation. “The Rightside Up” has a rating of 7.7/10 on IMDb, low enough to be the show’s third worst, but still fairly respectable and suggesting it was liked enough. Compare it to some of the truly reviled series finales of the last 15 years, and that score is extremely favorable:
- Two and a Half Men – “Of Course He’s Dead: Part 1 & 2”: 3.8
- Game of Thrones – “The Iron Throne”: 4.0
- Dexter – “Remember The Monsters”: 4.9
- True Blood – “Thank You”: 5.4
- How I Met Your Mother – “Last Forever: Part Two”: 5.5
So, while the Stranger Things finale was somewhat divisive, it was not hated enough to justify a ninth episode, even if such a thing could somehow have existed. Indeed, all that would happen is that you’d add to the division, because all those people who enjoyed or perhaps even loved the finale would suddenly find their own feelings invalidated. It would risk being cheap, insulting to the audience, and, worst of all, with no guarantee that the “real” ending would even be more satisfying.
Of course, Stranger Things‘ ending was never going to be perfect. And that’s not just because of expectations or theories as to what would happen, but simply that, in reality, finales rarely are. They’re extremely difficult to pull off, especially with more pressure on them than any other installment and the task of wrapping up years of storytelling. Something that’s good enough, that stays true to the ethos of the show and, most of all, is emotionally satisfying, is a pretty solid result, which I think this achieved.
Could it have been improved? Absolutely, though the problems can’t be fixed with just the finale, because there are issues with the setup and its increasingly convoluted mythology, which it was always going to struggle to reconcile. But for the finale itself, yes, there were some leaps of logic that a tighter script could’ve helped with, and Vecna and the Mind Flayer were defeated too quickly, and maybe it shouldn’t have hinged so much of its story on a stage play.
Ultimately, though, I think it got most of the character endings and sendoffs, and the emotion of it, pretty much right, when that could’ve gone wrong in so many ways. To deliver that, and then reveal it was a fakeout, and then still have us believe in, care about, and actually feel something for what’s happening in Episode 9? That might be even more difficult to pull off than the secret episode itself, and just lead to an even greater backlash.
All five seasons of Stranger Things are streaming on Netflix.
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