A group of Stranger Things fans are taking inspiration from Snyder’s cut — or at least, they wish they could. In the week since the release of eighth episode of Stranger Things 5, “The right side” reactions varied from from pure delight to total disappointment. Some on the pessimistic end of the spectrum came to believe the theory that a secret ninth episode would be released on January 7 and turn everything around in the finale. Well, that didn’t happen and obviously it never will.
As with many theories online, this is a deep rabbit hole, but here are the basics. Some fans believe that the clues present in the final episode and beyond indicate that the entire episode is a grand illusion perpetrated by Vecna to convince everyone that he has lost, when he hasn’t yet. A new finale, called “Conformity Gate”, will then be released and will magically make everyone who watches it super happy with all the choices. Some of these indices range from the time on a clock in a social media posteveryone at graduation have hands claspedthe length from a YouTube clipand much more. (These are just a few examples, but a quick search for the hashtag “#ConformityGate” on any social media platform is a good place to continue if you want.)
And even though some of the supposed clues share similarities, like references to the numbers “1” and “7” (the supposed release date), logic should really take over here. Why would Netflix spend millions of dollars to promote the finale of a series that was released on New Year’s Eve, put it in the cinemasend his cast and crew out has talk about itpraise it audience figuresand releases a behind the scenes documentaryto undermine all of that by releasing a secret, unpromoted episode that could only be discovered by watching TikTok clips? This literally makes no sense.
Now, is it fun to think of a secret version of something we love coming out of nowhere? Of course. We love a good surprise that ends as much as the next person. And, as mentioned before, in some cases fans have asked for alternate, unedited versions of things, like Snyder’s cut, to be released, and it has worked.
In reality though, much like Mike’s story about Eleven to his friends in the final moments of the series, it’s all just a coping mechanism. A way of pushing back the reality that Stranger Things ended the way it ended, and everyone will have to deal with it. All the clues and coincidences are exactly that.
However, just to be 100% sure, io9 contacted Netflix about this theory, and we were directed to the Stranger Things social biographywhich both currently read “ALL EPISODES OF FOREIGN THINGS PLAY NOW. Gate closed.
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