On December 30, 2025, the final episode of the Netflix Original series “Stranger Things” was released in theaters at the same time that it was released to the public. This episode concluded the show, which had produced five seasons over 10 years with fantastic reviews and support.
Despite being the third most streamed Netflix original, the finale was not received well by the fan base, gathering a total of 7.6/10 stars, which made it rank 3rd overall for the most disliked episode of the hit series.
Fans took to popular social media platforms to express their grievances with how the show ended. Some fans even went as far as theorizing that the finale was controlled by the villain of the series and the “real finale” would be released on January 7 of this year in a conspiracy called Conformity Gate.
Other fans brushed off this popular online theory and used the evidence that supposedly supported Conformity Gate to defend their claims that season 5 was rushed and not done well.
Small details such as school colors, similarities between the villain of the show and the main characters, and recolored props were often used to support the wild speculation of a secret finale. But a large percentage of the viewers cited these tiny things as carelessness from the Duffer Brothers, who directed and created “Stranger Things”.
In a past interview, the Duffer Brothers described the finale, stating, “It will be action-packed, emotional, and terrifying.” They described their intentions with the ending of this show to be “an effective closing on childhood.”
But when the highly anticipated finale dropped, many fans of “Stranger Things” reported that the final battle, which the entirety of the show had reportedly “built up to“, was very rushed and messy. In the two-hour and eight-minute-long episode, the final battle took up 58 of those minutes. In those 58 minutes of nonstop action, the main characters defeated the villain, stopped two worlds from colliding, and destroyed all connections between other dimensions and Earth with very few thrilling moments.
8th grader and long time Stranger Things fan, Samuel Anderson, commented on the finale. He said, “40+ episodes and honestly, a boring ending that didn’t make a lot of sense. I was very underwhelmed.”
A few weeks after the ending aired and the behind the scenes documentary became available on Netflix, the Duffer Brothers revealed that the final episode had not been fully written and designed until the first day of shooting it. Matt Duffer noted, “It’s not like we don’t know what the ending is; it’s all plotted out. I just have to write it. And we’re low on time.”
International fan, Sophia H., shared her opinions on the ending, saying, “It makes sense that it felt rushed, because it was. The Duffer Brothers said so themselves, and that is a really disappointing truth.”
The ending of Stranger Things was not satisfactory, but many fans of the show have appreciated the story as a whole and continue to adore it for the memories and nostalgia.
