I just rewatched Stranger Things season 5 and holy shit 😭
I'm actually so serious when I say that's not the real ending of the show. Like just rewatching it, nothing makes sense.
Holly falling down from the Abyss? Nope! Vecna grabbed her in time (even though their powers aren't supposed to work at that range)
Max waking up? The heart monitor is beeping in the background.
Will's coming out? Nothing he says holds up. Milshakes at Melvalds? Never sold when he was alive. Getting lost in the woods? He got kidnapped, chased & raped in those woods.
Will in general sounds weird, and not like himself? Nope! That was just Vecna scaring him with visions.
Vecna & the Mindflayer dying? Nope! The particles leave the kids and go who knows where? If the Mindflayer is dead, shouldn't the particles just become dust and disappear? I guess not!
Mike making a theory about Jane being alive? He's not going to do anything to try and find her because why would he do that? (It's not like he did that for his best friend, right?)
Like dead ass if you told me they wrote the season in the dark, I'd believe you.
Which leads me to a theory.
We all know in the documentary we saw ChatGPT tabs open on the Duffers laptop (3 to be exact) and it got me thinking.
Generative AI cannot make new or original content, it's the king of plagiarism.
Basically how it works (for generating essays and anything similar- like a story or script) is that it will generate the statistically most likely word to be used after that word.
For example, if the most used sentence in the world is 'I love ice cream', when ChatGPT generates the work 'ice', it'll generate the word 'cream' after it because it's the most likely word to come after 'ice'. Does that make sense?
Also if you're asking for my qualifications on this, I'm an A Level Computer Science student so please take this explanation with a grain of salt because I don't know everything about generative AI but this is my basic understanding of it.
With this all out of the way, we can safely assume ChatGPT is a machine that takes information, rearranges it and spits it out.
Just think for a second about Season 5 of Stranger Things. Doesn't it all feel really familiar?
Jane dying in the MAC-Z -> El killing the demogorgan in the classroom (S1)
The massive Mindflayer fight in the Abyss -> the Meatflayer fight in Starcourt (S3)
Will being possessed/ in a trance -> Will being possessed by the Mindflayer (S2)
Will being taken by Vecna -> Will being taken (S1)
Camazozts, the battle in Henry's mind -> El vs Vecna, the battle in Max's mind (S4)
The Mindflayer fight (weapons etc) -> Vecna takedown with Robin, Steve & Nancy (S4)
It's all just reheated nachos. Literally.
This made me think a little. In the context of conformitygate, I was thinking, why? Why use/ allegedly use ChatGPT and show it? Blatantly and obviously at that.
What if this season felt so jarring was because it was supposed to feel that way?
It was supposed to feel like a massive merge of all the seasons before- like a bunch of memories merged together- because that's exactly what it was!
A massive labyrinth of memories.
What if they had ChatGPT generate a script for them and tweaked it to make it feel jarring on purpose? That way, they could something they had never been done before- a fakeout season.
To pull off something like this, you need time and resources. Resources isn't a problem, they had a $560 million for production alone. Time, is what they were short on. 3 years isn't a lot of time if you think about it.
1 year for the script(s) to be finalised and revised
1 year for filming (approximately)
1 year for post-production
We know they took almost a whole year for post production because filming wrapped in December 2024 and they were still editing the season in November/December 2025 (when it was being released)
But what if this wasn't the case?
If you watch older interviews (I'm talking 4/5 years old) you'll know that the Duffer Brothers had the end of Stranger Things 5 mapped out while they were writing season 4.
In the One Last Adventure documentary, the Duffer Brothers say they started filming without finishing the script. What if they were telling the truth?
What if they used ChatGPT to generate the script of the season we've currently got (making minor tweaks/revisions to it) and starting filming for that, and they hadn't finished the script for the real ending? That's why they're constantly saying "We started filming without a finished script"
The real script wasn't finished, but the fake one was.
Which means our timeline changes.
1 & 1/2 years in making the scripts
But if this is true, this means our release date for the 'real' season is six months later than the fake season.
We know Finn & Noah started filming earlier than the rest of the cast, and it makes me believe that they were in on the whole thing from the very beginning.
Noah's said that he took acting classes to prepare for this season, but what on earth could the classes have been for?
I'm glad you asked. If you go back and watch the season and then go back and watch literally any other season, you'll notice Will does not sound or act like himself. He sounds aloof, apathetic. He sounds like Henry.
Even Lucas and Mike clock this in the tunnels during Shock Jock.
"Th...that's what he called them. Vessels for reshaping the world."
This is most noticeable in The Bridge. During Will's coming out. He's talking about things only Henry would know (Melvalds ect). The entire time, it sounds like Henry cosplaying as Will. What if that was Noah's acting classes brought to light? What if he was learning how to mimic another person while still being (somewhat) like himself at the same time?
This entire time, Henry's been manipulating us. Noah's in on it and so is Finn.
If you watch this season, and you're paying close attention to Mike you'll notice he doesn't really act like himself. More unlike himself than usual (which is saying something).
It's like he's schizophrenic. He goes from being the leader/planner -> Will's best friend -> S3 assholery & actions -> Jane's boyfriend -> widower
It's like he's been split apart. Like his past selves have been thrown into the season.
Volume 1 -> We had Mike being the leader and being Will's best friend. This is basically season 1 & 2 Mike.
Volume 2 -> We had Mike not being able to touch Will, not being a very good boyfriend to Jane and just in general all around useless. This is basically season 3 Mike.
Volume 3 -> We had Mike break Will out of his trance and also be reduced to being Jane's boyfriend. This was basically season 4 Mike.
They just speedrun his character arc from season 1-4 in a single season. It felt like Mike was being thrown into situations left, right and centre, not being able to react in a more than 1 dimensional way. He can either be one or the other. Be Will's best friend or Jane's boyfriend. Be a leader or be sidelined. Be true to himself or conform.
Finn has always played Mike with such nuance and I don't think he'd throw that away in the final season. Finn said before that Mike is struggling with being 'normal' so why wouldn't that apply here?
He wants to be 'normal' = He wants to conform.
This makes me believe that Finn was aware of the plan from the start and played Mike as such. Like he's a character from Episode who's run out of gems and can only pick the 'normal' options.
(AKA be Jane's boyfriend not Will's best friend)
If Finn and Noah have been aware of the plan the whole time it makes the tower scene make more sense. Noah says he asked for the scene to be added later in production, and he was afraid to do so ("I was afraid that I was overstepping."). What if he was afraid that they would spoil the actual season because they didn't provide a reasonable conclusion to Byler in the fake one? He was afraid we'd figure it out.
He's also said that he thinks the Duffers close out the Byler storyline beautifully. ("It's beautifully done.")
What if they closed it out beautifully in the real season, not the fake one (the one we got), which is why he's so happy and hopeful straight after he finished filming back in January 2025 and in the pre-season press.
I think the Duffers knew we would bombard Noah, dissecting his attitude when asked questions (since he's known as the Tom Holland of Stranger Things) and told him to act all upset and cold in the season 5 press.
Hap-satisfied was back in the summer and I think everyone remembers how much we dissected Noah for that. The Duffers knew Noah was the 'weak-link' in terms of spoilers so they made him act like he was happy with the fake ending. ("I mean, it's a real representation of a queer kid in the 80's. I've felt that myself, loving your best friend and them maybe not loving you back, or loving you differently.")
He knows we're being manipulated by Henry but he can't tell us anything. He's also been MIA post-season 5 like the rest of the cast. The rest of the cast has made public appearances since the ending of season 5 apart from Noah (excluding Milan Fashion Week and the Nickelodeon Choice Awards). He's literally been erased from the narrative.
I'm going to call this ChatGPTgate because why the hell not?
The cast constantly talks about how close they are with each other and members of the crew, so I find it hard to believe Noah would be afraid to advocate for himself on set. He's been working with the Duffers for almost 10 years, he's close to them and I think he'd be able to ask for things without feeling afraid. This isn't too far fetched of a theory in my opinion (hey as far as theories go, I've had crazier).
Anyways these are just my thoughts after rewatching the season for the first time since it came out.
