All evidence for conformity gate:
Chapter One: What is conformity gate?
Conformity gate is the belief that the epilogue, and most of what we see in the finale (and possibly vol 2) is fake. The theory is that it all takes place in Vecna's mind, all the characters have been “Vecna’d.” This has also led to the belief that there is a missing 9th episode, which is the “real” ending to Stranger Things. This theory is mainly backed up by very obvious plotholes and inconsistencies that almost feel too obvious or out of place.
Chapter Two: The orange grad gowns
Why is everyone wearing ORANGE grad gowns???? This immediately stuck out to me because I thought it was super ugly, but there is definitely more to it. The overhead shot that we see of all of the students sitting down in their uniforms, they look like goddamn prisoners! Maybe it's some sort of metaphor for how they’re all prisoners in Vecna’s mind? Another thing that makes these orange robes strange is the fact that they’re the wrong color! In Caitlin Schneiderhan’s One Way or Another (a book written for the Stranger Things series), Nancy mentions her graduation robes being green. “The hideous green fabric… It had felt like a promise as she shrugged the slick polyester robe over her soldiers,” (One Way or Another, Caitlin Schneiderhan, page 18). Hasn’t it only been a few years since Nancy graduated, why this drastic of a change? There’s also the symbolism behind the color orange. It can symbolize attention, deceit, and hopelessness. And the color orange in a dream (like how the whole epilogue could be some sort of dream/trance) can mean that something is going on in your mind, and it might offer clues to what it means and what is happening.
Chapter Three: WSQK radio broadcasts
If you don’t know, WSQK was the radio station that Robin and Steve ran/worked for in season 5. Something you might not know is that it was a “real” radio station. The station was run by Stranger Things and would play songs from the show, and take requests from fictional characters. The radio station took place in Hawkins during what I’m guessing to be the 80s (when the show took place). And like most radio stations, there were DJs (like Rockin’ Robin) who would speak in-between songs. This in itself isn’t very strange, but what is, is the cryptic broadcasts from the announcers.
Soon before the finale aired, the broadcasters mentioned this being a “double watch.” This could just mean that they wanted you to re-watch it, but let’s dig a little deeper. This makes like zero sense, unless… unless they wanted to allude to the fact that this was a double finale, there was something more.
This in itself isn’t a strange broadcast from the radio station itself, but something a little weird. The station continued to air for one more day after the finale, why? We actually don’t know, maybe to drop some hints about some “missing episode?”
The WSQK collection was a limited edition Target Exclusive vinyl released to celebrate season 5. Out of all the songs on it, only two out of the ten songs were featured in season 5, which is pretty strange. Is this because the other 8 songs were to be featured on this missing ninth episode? One thing that does conflict this theory is that all 10 songs were played on the WSQK radio station whilst it was on air, which makes sense considering this was the WSQK collection.
On the last broadcast done by WSQK they mention six weeks, right before we hear the “Vecna clock” chime and Heroes starts to play. I’m not sure what this could mean, it just feels weird…
“We really took over this town,”:
Once again, in the final broadcast, we got something weird. Here's the dialogue:
“And you’re not listening alone. You never were. Every voice, every song, every moment on this frequency traveled outward. Spreading, connecting, becoming something larger.”
“We really took over this town, didn’t we?”
They also say “The queen at the controls, Mindy Flair.” Mindy Flair, Mindflayer. This is uncanny. They talk about “taking over the town” before calling one of the announcers/djs the damn mindflayer… something is up.
“Mindy Flair was talking about locks and gates being closed on WSQK today. Will’s necklace looks like a lock in the epilogue. ‘Getting to Mike was the key.’ Something about Mike and Will being associated with doors, and the final shot of Episode 8 being a closed door..” This whole gate and locks banter did happen on WSQK’s final broadcast, specifically saying “Make sure you close the gate, you’re always leaving it open.” So the gate is still open? They haven’t closed it because they’re all in Vecna’s mind????
In the static we hear after the broadcast, a voice can be heard. Most people believe it is saying “You need to wake up.” There’s no way the static is just randomly speaking now.
Chapter Four: Plot Holes/Inconsistences
I have seen so many plot holes from the finale alone, and I’m betting there’s more in vol 2 and possibly 1. While I hate to say it, the Duffers have proven themselves as great writers, with good attention to detail. So… why, all of a sudden; they’ve decided to ignore these gaping plotholes, these things that make no sense, all these details that are out of place. What happened? Well, maybe it’s on purpose. Maybe these things were placed, for us to notice, to be picked up. Maybe all these strange things are here to tell us that something is wrong, that this isn’t real. Here is a list of some of the biggest plotholes/inconsistences I’ve seen pointed out:
It made no sense, and didn’t really add to the story. Also, wasn’t the play supposed to be a production of Oklahoma???? Why the hell were there strobing lights, people in what seemed to resemble wendigo esc masks. Whilst I haven’t seen Oklahoma, I’m pretty damn sure it is NOT whatever that was… The whole scene just felt so out of place.
While I’ve never been in a coma, I’m pretty sure you can’t recover THAT fast. Wasn’t she in a coma for like 2 years…? How could she possibly have regained all of her muscle strength after like a year, it’s completely unrealistic. But this is where I have a theory. The first time we see Max walking and out of the wheelchair, is when El and Kali bring her into Vecna’s mind. Because she isn’t in the real world anymore, she has regained the ability to walk. After that, we only see her in the wheelchair once again. Maybe she’s able to walk in the epilogue because it isn’t real. I mean, we see her skateboarding! Even if she somehow magically regained all her muscle strength back, there’s no way she’d be able to skateboard again that quickly. I believe that she has recovered so fast because she’s in Vecna’s mind, she’s not in her physical body anymore.
“If the brain dies, the body dies”:
When Henry/Vecna gets shot in the hand whilst in his memory, we see how it affects Will. He feels it, and all the pain that comes with it. In past seasons, they’ve addressed the whole “hive mind” situation, so why didn’t it apply when Vecna and the mindflayer died? Shouldn’t Will have died with them? I believe he didn’t because they never died. Vecna and the mindflayer were too easy to defeat, and that’s because they weren’t. Will is still alive because they killed Vecna and the mindflayer whilst in a trance, while in reality they’re both still alive and out there.
So after El died the military was just like “oh, mb gng” and left???? The whole main group basically kidnapped kids, broke into the base, killed soldiers, did damage to the base, etc. And the military didn’t care, AT ALL???? That just makes no sense. Even though they were after El, wouldn’t they still want to punish the people who caused them so much trouble?
Doesn’t the whole town think Hopper is DEAD? Like he came back from the grave and NO ONE batted an eye?????? I’m sorry, but that’s weird as hell. I refuse to believe there were no questions asked.
Whilst in the hospital waiting room (after the Wheeler’s house got attacked), Nancy, Mike, and Lucas are having a discussion about where Holly could be. At some point, Lucas says “I don’t believe in coincidences anymore.” So then WHY was basically everything that happened after that some sort of godsend or coincidence????? The whole group just got too lucky, and I agree with Lucas, I don’t believe in coincidences anymore.
Why was there water in the water tank in the upside down? There literally has never been water there before. It’s just a little too convenient that water decides to exist in a place with no water the ONE time they need it… And to prove that water doesn’t exist in the upside down: Loverslake. When they all go through the gate in loverslake, the second they end up in the upside down, the lake bed is dry.
When Dustin is talking about how there’s chaotic good and bad, he forgets to mention chaotic neutral. How does he not know this???? Dustin was the valedictorian, he's always been a huge nerd and know-it-all, how did he miss this?
The Duffer brothers said there would be 6 deaths in the finale, I can only think of 2: El and Kali (and El’s death might not even be real!) I did see others say they counted more, but never up to 6. Were these deaths supposed to include random side characters that didn’t even have names? I’m so confused.
Why are there scenes in trailers that never made it to the final cut? Why have we heard about these “scenes shot over the summer” but never actually saw them? And why are there so many behind the scenes photos from things that never happened, outfits we never even saw???? Is there something more, something we haven’t seen yet?
Chapter Five: Strange/uncanny feeling of the epilogue
I feel that we can agree that the epilogue was uncanny, there was something wrong. After watching it, it just felt so off. After seeing people comparing it to Inception and The Truman Show, I can’t help but see all the similarities and straight up parallels. Here’s a list of all the stuff that just felt wrong.
Mr Clarke saying “pretty damn swell” felt SO out of place to me, and definitely a few other people. When I was watching the finale with my friend, both of us immediately pointed it out as weird. Now, this could just be an example of weird/unnatural dialogue. But, what if it’s not? The term “swell” originated in the 1920s and was popular all the way into the 1950s, where it started to die out. Henry/Vecna grew up in the 50s, is it really that far-fetched to say that the epilogue was a dream/trance caused by Vecna, and that’s why such outdated slang was used?
In the epilogue, Robin is insanely out of character (not in her personality, but her outfit and styling). We see her with long, feminine hair, a frilly, very girly outfit; it just feels so wrong. Why has she completely switched up from the style she’s been maintaining throughout all the other seasons??? And if the theory that this is all a trance that Mike is in, then Robin’s style switchup would actually make sense. Why? Because all Mike knows is the part of Robin’s personality that she puts out there for everyone to see, the parts of her that are confident and not the insecure parts. Also, he doesn’t know that her personal style preferences are more masc-leaning, OR that she’s a lesbian. Because Mike just thinks that Robin is a straight white girl, with a weird sense of humor; is it really that far off that he would imagine her with more of a soft, feminine style????
I think we’re all equally pissed with Nancy’s ending. For all 5 seasons, she’s been built up as this hardworking, smart, and overachieving girl. So why, all of sudden, has she dropped out of college? Everything she’s worked for, gone? It's so out of character, oh my god. But do you wanna know who probably sees Nancy as someone less than how I described her earlier? Her brother, Mike. I think you already know where I’m going with this, so I won’t go into depth. Mike isn’t going to see her as this super smart, perfect, and goal-getter (literally no-one sees their siblings in such a good light), he’s gonna see her more negatively; which is probably why her ending seems so bad.
Why does Mike look so much like Henry in this epilogue???? He has the hair, and the glasses! It’s honestly heartbreaking to see. He’s becoming such a bland person, the complete opposite of who he was merely episodes ago. We see that Mike has accepted conformity, and it’s killing him. He’s a shell of his former self. Everyone else has moved on without him, but he’s still at the restaurant. He spends the rest of his life telling the stories of what he wished happened, living in a fantasy because the life he has now is too depressing for him to accept. He’s become his worst fear. This definitely leads me to believe that we’re seeing something Vecna is showing Mike, to scare him, to weaken him. The Mike Wheeler we’ve known for these past seasons wouldn’t accept this type of ending. He would never choose the second door.
The place that Will went to in Mike's D&D campaign in the epilogue was called Vallaki. This seems like an insignificant detail, but listen up. Vallaki is described as “The town of Vallaki seems like a safe haven…Characters who spend time in Vallaki, however, quickly realize that there is no happiness here, only false hope…” It represents forced happiness and a false sense of security. We’re all hearing this…right? This sure sounds a lot like the house Vecna/Henry put all the kids in. He told them they were safe, he gave them false hope. So here’s my theory, that’s where Mike is now. In Vecna’s mind; in Vallaki.
At the end of season one, when Mike and his friends finish their D&D campaign, his friends are very disappointed. They point out plotholes and say it was too short. In response, Mike says that the campaign was ten hours long. Season 5 is 10 hours long, and you wanna know how it ended? With people pointing out plotholes and saying it was too short… we all see where I’m going with this, right?
In the epilogue, the lighting is very dreamlike, and is very similar to the lighting we see in the world the kids are kept in. The lighting is just so different from the rest of the season, it just makes it feel off, as if it’s some sort of fake reality. We’re also seeing SOOO much orange, why???? And why was Mike’s room yellow? It’s also just so much brighter in the epilogue than it has been in the rest of the season.
The fourth wall gets broken SO many times during this epilogue, it’s like the actors were instructed to look directly at the camera. In the graduation scene, almost everyone is looking directly at the camera. In the Jopper scene at Enzo's, almost everyone in the background is looking at the camera. We even see MIKE break the fourth wall, like c’mon guys…
El’s “kryptonite”, the sound that stops her from using her powers. It doesn’t faze Hopper at all when he hears it (which happens multiple times), and when all the other characters hear it, they don’t react. So at the graduation scene, when the feedback from the speakers makes a weird noise, why does Mike flashback to the kryptonite speakers? He can’t hear it, right? Unless it’s some sort of sign, all along, the kryptonite has been something or something trying to force him out of the trance. But, back to the graduation scene, Mike seems to have some sort of realization, but only for a second. It’s never addressed again. Why? And what does it all mean?
Chapter Six: Missing Merch
I already addressed the missing songs, so I won’t go over them again here. But, there’s more stuff that is missing, mainly merch. There was a mixtape design on lots of different Stranger Things merch sold to promote season 5. This design simply just said “For Will”, but it never appeared in Season 5. What happened, and what does this mixtape mean????
Chapter Seven: Set changes
I’m not even joking when I tell you that the damn SET changed. It’s subtle either.
At the end of the epilogue, we see an orange mat on the floor of Mike’s basement (take note of the orange), but in season one it was blue.
The crank thing (I totally forgot what it’s called) that they use to control the amount of power/electricity in the radio tower changes color. At first, the arrow on it is red. But later in the season, the arrow turns grey.
In the behind the scenes, the order of the books was Max, Lucas, Will, Dustin, Mike. But in the show the order is Max, Lucas, Dustin, Will, Mike. This totally just could’ve been a last minute take or a different take, but it’s still a little strange.
Someone online compared two shots of Mike’s basement that are from the exact same angle, and noticed something off. One shot is from season 1, and the other is from 5. In the shot from season 1, the door handle is on the left of the door. While in the shot from 5, it's on the right. How does an entire door just switch like that???
Now, these changes are important because we see mean something. When Max and Holly are navigating Henry/Vecna’s mind, they are able to travel memory to memory by finding things in memories that are “wrong” or off. Things that weren’t actually there in that memory. So with these small things that are “wrong,” it proves that they’re in some sort of trance. These small incorrect parts of memories are really just entrances to other memories (if discovered).
Netflix recently posted/aired an ad where we see a girl start to see things out of the ordinary, as if she’s hallucinating. As it progresses, her “hallucinations” get worse until she finally embraces them. The ad ends by showing us that her hallucinations have been real, and that there’s more than meets the eye. This just seems like some weird ad, but considering the circumstances of this theory; people immediately saw it as weird. What makes this ad relevant is the Stranger Things posters at the beginning, as if this ad has something to do with the series. In the caption of this ad, it mentions the date January 7th, take that as what you will. The theory is that the ad is trying to show us that we’re right, there is more to Stranger Things.
Chapter Nine: The “Missing” Episode
With all these theories and evidence circulating, it has become a relatively popular belief that there is a missing episode. I mean, it really feels like there’s something off, like we’re missing something. What if that wasn’t the finale… What if the finale was just a trance Mike was in…? Here’s some reasoning/proof that there could be an episode 9:
In the credits, we see an image of Max running to the portal (idk what else to call it) in season 4 when she’s trying to escape Vecna. On the side, there is some text; but that’s not the main concern here. In a gap between the text says “JK 95.” This seems meaningless at first, but what does JK mean? Just kidding. The 95 could mean S5E9. This means that it would say “Just kidding, S5E9.”
On the website wsqkthesquak.com , it says that there is a signal from Hawkins, IN that says “You’re hearing this… so it’s already too late.” Under that it says "Transmission Log,” and under that it says "Access Gear.” If you click on “Access Gear” it takes you to the WSQK Gear Archive. In there it says “Bootleg Tapes (Vol.3) - Status: LOST.” This means that Vol 3 (the finale, episode 8) is lost. So what we saw, that isn’t real? It can’t be lost if we saw it. Does this mean that what we saw wasn’t real? Now, it was pointed out that the site this is found on could be a fraud. But, the domain comes from Iceland. And I’m pretty sure in the epilogue when we see El on her own, that it was shot in Iceland or Greenland (which are often confused with each other).
After the end credits, we see the Stranger Things Players Manual, and next to it is a die with the number 7 on it. Now, this could just be a reference to episode one when Will says “It was a 7, the demigorgan got me.” Which would still give us proof of this regardless (if the demigorgan has us, then the epilogue isn’t real). It could also mean that episode 9 will drop on January 7th.
here’s a link to all the evidence (screenshots), organized by chapter: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-3uC4HHy9uNdeGYzZ6njdojMvFp2hxIRBol_eSeEUDc/edit?usp=drivesdk
(ignore the weird google account name, it’s one of my many alts 😭)
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