The Stranger Things season 5, and the show finale, aired this past New Year’s Eve. It aired on December 31st of 2025, concluding the show’s 10-year run, leaving many fans with opinions and theories. One of these being conformity gate.

If you are out of the know on what conformity gate is, it’s a theory made by fans, primarily on TikTok who were dissatisfied with the finale’s ending. The theory states that the finale is a fake; it was a mental trick on the show viewers by Vecna and the real finale episode was going to come out on January 7th, then viewers could see the real, unmanipulated ending of the show. The name comes from the running theme throughout the show of not conforming to social standards, which some fans thought was forgotten about in the ending, as most of the characters got endings in which they did conform to those very standards, leaving some fans feeling unsatisfied.

As you could guess, there was a big disappointment when January 7th came and went with no new episode to be seen. The Duffer brothers have not addressed the theory directly, but the Stranger Things TV Instagram page changed their bio to “ALL EPISODES OF STRANGER THINGS ARE NOW PLAYING,” which some fans have speculated to be a subtle response and refutation of the theory.

But what do teens, one of the primary consumers of the show that make up most of the fan base, think of the last season? Opinions seem to be matching among teens, at least at Horizon High School. Most teenagers seem to be very disappointed in the ending. Pointing to character flaws, plot holes, vibe changes, corny/cheesy writing, and continuity errors for the reasoning behind their dissatisfaction.

Horizon High School sophomore Sophia Lorbiecki said, “They destroyed my GOAT, Will Byers.”

Some teen fans were very excited for Conformity Gate and thought that the fan theory would be a better ending than the official one, like Horizon High School junior Gray Nyquist, who said, “I thought it was so cool, and I was so disappointed when it wasn’t true.”

Or another Horizon junior, Max Harvey, who said, “I loved the idea of the rumor because the ending was poor, it was weak, it was unsatisfying.”

Another leading theory for the decline of the show, that some fans have pointed to for their disappointment, is that Ross Duffer’s former wife, Leigh Janiak, ghost wrote for the series, and after her divorce from him in February of 2024, right around when production of season 5 should have started, means her direction and vision were also pulled from the show. Which some fans speculate to be the reason the writing fell flat in season 5.

Lorbiecki said, “She developed the main queer characters, then they got divorced, and the Duffer’s couldn’t finish the queer characters she made”.

You can see disappointment with the ending of the series everywhere, both in real life and online, but not everyone shares these sentiments. Sam Douglas, a junior at Horizon High School quite liked the ending to the show, even saying.

“I liked it a lot. I thought it was really cheesy, though, but I thought it was perfect for the vintage coming-of-age vibe.”

Another reason for fans’ disappointment could have been the 10-year run time, leading to years of fans workshopping their own writing through alternate universes, fanfiction, theory videos online for the show, and an immense buildup of 10 years of anticipation, which could lead to fans being disgruntled no matter what. Some of the students here have even grown up with the show, leading them to have a very personal relationship with it.

Like Lorbiecki, a lifelong fan who said, “Especially people who grew up with it, like me, think this is stupid.”

This matches with what Douglas said, “I think I liked it a lot more than some people did, especially the old fans [who] were criticizing every little thing about it”

No matter how you feel about the ending of Stranger Things, the overarching trend from fans seems to be deeply disappointed and dissatisfied with the ending. Hopefully, future shows can use this as an example to take precautions with how to end their final episode to protect themselves from the same fate of angry, unsatisfied fans.