“Okay, but WHY would Netflix spend millions of dollars on a fake show?”
How and why Stranger Things has set up the perfect foundations for a “fake ending” stunt.
A passionate essay by upsidedownlurker.
NOTE: For clarity, I will be using the phrase “the illusion theory” to refer to any theory that part or all of Stranger Things isn’t fully real – this includes lovewinsgate, conformitygate, anniversarygate, and countless other theories.
Since before Season 5 of Stranger Things, something has been building. Fans of the show were told repeatedly by the Duffers that by the end of Stranger Things, every question we had would be answered. There would be no loose threads left to unravel.
But by the end of the show, we were left with more questions than answers.
There are countless theories about what exactly went on with Season 5 of Stranger Things, and what may happen in the future – AKA, what is happening. We can sort them into two main categories.
OPTION A: Stranger Things isn’t over, and at least part of the show was an illusion.
OPTION B: Stranger Things is over, and ending of the show was bad.
Therefore, we also have two main reasons for why it happened.
OPTION A: This is a deliberate stunt intended to mimic patterns in popular culture, highlighting the problems with the modern media industry.
OPTION B: This is a perfect example of the problems with the modern media industry.
I'll be exploring Option A today.
So – we have the what, and the why of Stranger Things not being over. Along with that, I am here to explore the how. How the Duffer brothers have already laid the perfect foundations to achieve this exact type of stunt, how it fits into the show, and... well, the answer to the question in the title, too.
THE BEGINNING: BIRTHDAYGATE
As mentioned prior: for several seasons of the show, something had been building.
A large and still unexplained example of this is birthdaygate.
Throughout Season 4 in particular, important information seemed to have been forgotten by the characters in the show, including Will Byers' own birthday on March 22nd – one of the only birthdays ever mentioned in the show.
There were many theories as to why. Was it altered memories, timelines or something else? Regardless, fans dubbed this idea “birthdaygate”. It gained some traction – but the Duffers claimed it was just a “mistake”, a lapse in their memory, that they were sorry, and that they would edit it out of the show.
After this, many people in the theory space seemed to agree that Stranger Things was building up to something big. Especially considering the Duffer brothers' love of well-written plot twists, like "Sixth Sense" by M. Night Shamalan. Twists that change the way viewers understood the show upon rewatching it.
Fan theories ranged from alternate dimensions to altered memories to time travel… but by the “final” episode, these theories coalesced into one collective belief: the show was not over, and at least part of it was not real. An illusion.
But a week went by, then a month, and most people had given up on this idea. The show was simply bad. Unsatisfying for the audience.
Like Max at the start of ST5, (and arguably, like Mike at the end of that same season), we accepted our fate.
For those who chose Option B, Stranger Things is done. They got their complaints out, and they’ve now moved on to the next thing. Found another TV show to binge. Another thing to consume for the purpose of escapism.
For the fans who chose Option A, who still believe the show isn’t over – well, we don't have any confirmation that we're right. We're stuck in limbo, either rewatching the show to find clues, or escaping our limbo with something else.
Stranger Things has forced us to live in fantasy.
Whether you theorise that the current story is a “fantasy”, or whether you believe that what theorists call the “fantasy” is the real, but poorly-written story… regardless, the result is the same. We are repeating the cycle, participating in the patterns of the modern media landscape and more importantly: we are accepting that the fantasy is "real".
If this is an intentional stunt, then our expectations as an audience, and our idea of reality are being played with on a massive scale. It's like we're all acting our part in a play. Very meta.
Considering the themes of the show, this is far from unbelievable.
The illusion theory thrives on a particular duality; two important themes that Stranger Things has established across multiple seasons…
You know what else thrives on the idea of reality vs. fantasy? All of TV! (featuring characters/people, anyway…)
It’s most visible in what we call relatability; the idea that you can stare through the pixels of a glowing rectangle, see the person those pixels represent, and think, “You’re just like me”.
You can feel what the character onscreen is feeling, think what they are thinking, and live the life they are living – if only for a moment.
Mike and Will are relatable. They are just like us. Forty years after their story takes place, we are all repeating what they do; escaping our reality through fantasy. For them, it’s D&D. For us, it’s TV.
If intentionally written, the illusion concept only strengthens this relatability. Not only are they escaping their reality through fantasy, but they are living it. So much so that they have forgotten what real life is like; they have become the fantasy. They are the characters in what is essentially one big game of D&D.
Meanwhile, for us, the audience, the thin line between reality and fantasy has been totally dissolved.
Fans of the show have asked,
“If this is all on purpose, why would they do this to us?”
“Why would they make us wait not just weeks, but months to confirm our favourite show didn’t end like… that?!”
Post-finale, the majority of Stranger Things viewers are living the fantasy, just like the characters. It’s like escapism on steroids.
Let's set the scene for a moment.
You're watching the final episode of Stranger Things, Season 5. It just ended. It was... surprisingly short. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t satisfying, either. It was somehow nothing like what you expected to see, and... something you've already seen before.
You wonder what it was all for. Having now watched all five Seasons of the show, there was no greater message that you now understand – you just feel hollow. Empty.
To take your mind off of this disappointing reality, you decide to find a better fantasy. You watch another show, scroll through social media, read some fanfiction.
Reality isn't empty anymore, because it's filled with fantasy.
If this is an intentional stunt? It’s that emptiness between our escapes, the quiet, that they want us to notice.
In a moment, WSQK will fall silent. But uh, Hawkins, that doesn’t mean it’s gone, just that it’s somewhere else. [...] So when WSQK disappears, don’t be afraid of the quiet. Sit with it. Listen to it. It knows you better than you think.
(The above is a quote from the final moments of the final broadcast on WSQK, the official Stranger Things radio station – the day of the "finale".)
When the show disappears, and our screens fall silent...
We can be afraid of the quiet; we can fill the quiet with sound and move onto another show.
Alternatively, we can sit with the quiet, just long enough to hear our thoughts – or even to remember the ticking of time.
[Clock ticking] The clock is counting down to 11…
Personally, after I thought the show was over, and I wasn't aware that the WSQK broadcast had continued, I sat with the quiet for a good long while. I laid on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Felt my feelings, thought my thoughts. It was a quiet moment with my own experience before I would be inevitably flooded with the opinions of others.
It seemed, for a few hours, like my favourite show had ended in a way that was totally antithetical to everything that made it my favourite show to begin with. As though the show’s creators had done exactly what they said they wouldn’t do – abandoned the premise of the show, thereby disappointing their audience.
Yes. The Duffers did a lot of things that they explicitly stated they would not do.
BETRAYING YOUR AUDIENCE <3
In their documentary, and in several interviews pre and post finale, the Duffers talked repeatedly about shows that have betrayed their fans in how they ended, versus shows that ended well – “landed the plane”.
Ross: “I think when we were looking at the various finales of long-running shows that landed the plane, the ones that did it the best really just stayed true to what they were. [...] We need to be true to what Stranger Things is and always was from Season 1 on.”
Within the first few minutes of the One Last Adventure documentary, the Duffers had said this:
You see these shows that people love and adore, and the ending falters. And they just discard the rest of the show.
The Duffers talked repeatedly about how every question would be answered; no loose ends.
You can’t leave anything dangling. You have to wrap everything up.
Notably, they also discussed how early-on in their career, they went AGAINST the norms of TV at the time and by doing that, they created something extraordinary. About how, when conceptualising the show, they wanted to create something they hadn’t seen on TV before.
Shawn Levy: The rules of the TV and movie industry back then said you can’t make a show about kids that isn’t for kids; you can’t combine horror genre and coming of age.
The Duffers: Eventually we realised we just needed to listen to our gut, and wrote for ourselves [...] it came so easily.
Shawn Levy: It was that transgression that made [Stranger Things] feel so fresh.
They know what makes Stranger Things good. They know what makes the finale of most shows good.
So why is Episode 8 of Stranger Things a betrayal of EVERY SINGLE ONE of these ideas?
I mean... just read this line from an interview.
Matt: We could’ve definitely killed some people; it’s just not what we want to do, and it’s not, to me, what the show is, or what the show is about.
And yet, in the documentary…
“The whole episode has to be building towards ‘Eleven is going to k*ll herself’.”
By the final season, the show seems to totally forget what and who brought it here. It’s a Marvel movie, a spectacle, “bigger” than its previous season yet again – following the rules of the TV and movie industry. It left question after question dangling, loose end after loose end, with an ending that most fans agreed felt like a disappointment. It’s a copy of what’s already been done before, not only outside of the show, but within it, too.
So, the Duffer brothers have claimed that they researched the endings of shows, both good and bad, in order to make sure theirs was good – that it “landed the plane”.
Additionally, Shawn Levy has said that he watched the “final version of the final episode”, and that not only did they land the plane, but that the Duffers have created a “masterpiece”.
I think this is all true – but I also believe that they did this research in order to REPLICATE the most hated endings and media tropes of all time, before revealing their “masterpiece”. Their own version of the "Sixth Sense" twist, which both Duffers cite as a big inspiration.
So, which common, hated tropes has Stranger Things participated in during their final season?
Here is a non-exhaustive list, from memory:
TELL, DON’T SHOW: Instead of SHOWING the audience what is happening, the audience is TOLD what is happening, often through lengthy, repetitive, boring conversations – exposition able to be understood by a baby sitting in front of an iPad.
RETCONS: Nancy’s “Mike, Holly and Karen” vision is suddenly changed into a “Ted, Holly and Karen” vision with no explanation. The Mindflayer is retconned into being able to be killed with guns and fire, instead of being an unkillable ancient entity. The Upside Down is revealed to be a wormhole, despite never functioning like a wormhole, and using information that is only introduced in Season 5 (the wall).
BAD SCIENCE: The “wormhole” defies the science of wormholes, science which is clearly explained IN THE SHOW ITSELF. It has solid walls, and characters are able to travel within it as they please. It is kept stable by “exotic matter”, which doesn't answer our questions, only brings up more.
“BAD” SFX: The CGI effects for the void and Henry’s mind are notably less realistic than in previous seasons, looking more like a play than a TV show.
GRATUITOUS/OFFSCREEN DEATHS: An entire lab full of pregnant women is introduced, only to be never acknowledged, and presumably blown up offscreen in the finale. Oops.
FORCED LOVE TRIANGLES: Steve, Nancy and Jonathan. Mike, Will and Eleven. Notice how neither of these love triangles had satisfying endings for the characters or the audience? Shit.
NO SPARKS: Mike and El appear to have zero romantic tension throughout most of ST5, to the extent that many people thought they had broken up offscreen. They continue to have zero romantic tension during their final kiss – in which Mike does not tell her he loves her back.
FRIDGING: El, a female protagonist, dies when she genuinely could've chosen to live. This is a catalyst for Hopper to move on from the death of his daughter, and for Mike to… um… uh...
QUEERBAITING: Mike and Will’s relationship was explored carefully over several seasons, Will’s love for Mike was revealed, and their ship was referenced in promo/marketing multiple times – only for Will’s love to be reduced to a “crush”, and Mike replaced with a random dude in a bar who looks just like him. Meanwhile, Mike ended up ALONE, with all his friends moving away without him, and El dead. Jesus. Anything but Byler.
NOT TOO GAY: After getting together offscreen, kissing once, arguing, then promising to go on a date to Enzo’s together, Robin and Vickie are never seen as a couple ever again. While Lumax go on a movie date and Jopper LITERALLY GO TO ENZO'S... Rovickie never do. Vickie isn’t even in the Epilogue, and Robin half-implies they broke up offscreen.
JUMPING THE SHARK: Rather than narrowly evading the unkillable Mindflayer through love and memories, or spending twenty to thirty minutes of runtime fighting for their lives, the characters apparently won by killing a ridiculously huge, spiky meat monster with guns and fire – in eight minutes of runtime.
PLOT ARMOUR: During the battle with the aforementioned ridiculously huge, spiky meat monster (with incredibly sharp teeth and multiple sharp, stabby limbs), not a single character dies or is even injured. To put this in perspective, let's go back to Season 1. Jonathan injured Steve more with a couple punches than the RIDICULOUSLY HUGE, MULTI-LIMBED, SPIKY MEAT MONSTER injured anyone.
It's not usually like this. There's been the occasional retcon or plot armour moment, but... damn. It really is a copy and paste of people's least favourite TV tropes.
Vecna: Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades! Each life a faded, lesser copy of the one before. [...]
…designed to distract us...
Vecna: Everyone… is just waiting… waiting… for it all to be over, all while performing in a silly, terrible play, day after day.
...from the emptiness of reality. Consume, consume, consume.
Many of us watched the finale in theatres, a viewing method which did what the streaming industry cannot do: it brought attention to the fact that we may be individuals with auto-renewable streaming subscriptions, but we are also an audience; a group of people who are collectively making the choice to spend our limited money and time on this earth consuming this show.
And once it’s over, we crave more.
Jonathan: The Consumer. It's a metaphor; the more she eats, the hungrier she gets.
Despite the individualistic nature of streaming, we were never alone in our experience of this show, nor others.
You aren't listening alone. You never were. [...] Spreading, connecting, becoming something larger.
A quote from the final WSQK broadcast
Regardless of whether we are in the same room, we will always be an audience, a collective – all sharing the same experience through a subjective lens.
They’ve shown the play in theatres, and soon, they’ll be showing episodes of Tales of ‘85 in theatres too. Keeping the spectacle going. If this is deliberate, it's all a part of the experience.
“At the end of the day, the audience cares most about the characters, and not the spectacle... but the ultimate goal is to collide the two.”
Then, where were the characters in all this? What about all their unfinished arcs, unmet goals and unanswered questions?
“Every year it gets bigger, and every year there’s more expectation.”
“How do you meet those expectations but surprise the audience still?”
You do it by making the show “bigger” one last time, claiming it’s done – and then, when everyone has moved on, hitting them with the reveal that there is more to the story.
Something that is character-focussed. Grounded in what the show has been about since Season 1. A “masterpiece”, which “lands the plane”, and reveals a plot twist that changes the way the audience views the series – just like the Duffers’ biggest inspirations.
Which, intriguingly, is exactly what the illusion reveal would do*.
*Given, of course, that it's not done just for the shock factor – but a plot point which contributes to the overall themes and message of the show.
Now… I am a firm believer that the illusion theories are believable, with or without new content – because the foundations of these theories already lay entirely within the foundations of the show. The subtext, themes, and overall narrative of Stranger Things. Because it's there already, we don't need new content to interpret the show this way.
However, I would argue it is for this exact reason that it is more likely for the illusion interpretation to have been intentionally written into the show. The idea that two showrunners could set up the perfect foundations for a very specific plot twist for years, which would achieve everything they aimed to achieve… ACCIDENTALLY?
I find that difficult to believe.
How do we know it's real?
We don't. But I choose to believe it is.
If this subtext became text – if it was revealed to the wider audience through new content, thereby becoming part of the show’s official canon, Stranger Things would achieve exactly what the Duffers have aimed to for years.
It would create a well-written ending that is satisfying for the audience, yet is also unexpected. It has the potential to spark a cultural shift in the way that audiences view media, and the way that those in charge create media intended for an audience.
Rather than being remembered as a “blip” in the grand scheme of things, this stunt would give the show a legacy, cementing Stranger Things as an iconic, well-written TV show with a crazy twist, that pushed back against the status quo of the TV/streaming industry – by temporarily assimilating into it.
So, why would Netflix spend millions of dollars on a fake show?
Well, the question itself is flawed. If intentionally written, then Stranger Things isn't a "fake show" at all – it's written with a surprising, creative and iconic twist, which plays with our suspension of disbelief as an audience. It's a show that will have managed to do the "it was all a dream" twist, and actually do it well.
If you were a giant corporation, wouldn't you wanna the only platform available to watch a massively popular show, guaranteed to become even more popular after a huge stunt reveals its surprise finale?
Wouldn't you want the publicity? The subscriptions? The millions of people who would REWATCH the show after finally finishing all 5 Seasons and discovering said twist? The fans of the show who would buy copious amounts of merch from your official store?
Wouldn't you want all that money to go into your giant, corporate pockets?
If Stranger Things is a good show with rewatch value, then funding it is a good business strategy. Simple as that.
(And on that note... if Stranger Things doesn’t end up doing this twist, then it’s only a matter of time before someone else does. The clock is ticking…)
Thanks for reading my passionate rambling. Now, back to your irregularly scheduled programming!
#lovewinsgate #anniversarygate
Also, if you're that one person who writes rude comments on everyone's theory posts – you know who you are – you better have read all ~3,432 words of my essay before asking me the same exact question in the title. I'm watching you :P
Part 1 (The altered reality), Part 2 (Why write this twist?)
I'm including this post in anniversarygate, but it applies to basically any illusion theory in general, not just my take on it. That's why the links are all the way down here :)
