Netflix's Stranger Things Documentary Seems To Disprove 'Conformity Gate' Theory Once And For All

Mike Wheeler would be so proud: The "Stranger Things" fan theory known as "Conformity Gate" seems, more than ever, to merely be one heck of a story.

Netflix on Monday released the documentary "One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5," which chronicles how series creators Matt and Ross Duffer brought the show's fifth and final season to fruition. All told, the two-hour film is a dream for "Stranger Things" superfans and behind-the-scenes geeks, who get to see everything from costume fittings to set paintings to the exact moment that a cast member's stunt double runs into a scene to do something dangerous.

But many fans, especially those who've gone down the rabbit hole of "Conformity Gate" TikToks and other social media posts, might have been searching for crumbs in the documentary that would prove the popular fan theory correct. Instead, the theory seems to have only been further debunked — and it's all because of the Duffer brothers' last-minute series finale script.

Let's back up first. For the uninitiated, "Conformity Gate" refers to the theory that Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) was not actually defeated in the final "Stranger Things" episode. Instead, some fans — many of them displeased with the events of the finale — believe Vecna survived that final battle with Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and the sentimental ending delivered in the second half of the episode is actually just an illusion that Vecna — who's capable of warping reality — is showing us.

As noted in many a TikTok video (here's just one example), quite a few of the finer details in Season 5 are a little off, or don't make any sense at all. Some objects aren't the same color as they've been in previous seasons. In Will's (Noah Schnapp) coming out scene, he says he loves to get malted milkshakes at Melvald's with his friends, but the general store doesn't sell milkshakes in the present day; those were only a Melvald's thing when it was a diner, when Henry Creel (aka Vecna) was young. At the Hawkins High School graduation, the graduates are sitting with their hands folded across their laps, matching Henry's usual stance. The list of evidence goes on, all seemingly suggesting that the "Stranger Things" characters — and viewers, by extension — are trapped in a faux-reality created by Henry.

Then, after "Stranger Things" posted a TikTok video in which science teacher Mr. Clarke (Randy Havens) was standing in front of a clock that read 1:07, "Conformity Gate" believers anxiously awaited the January 7 release of a bonus "Stranger Things" episode, which theorists suggested would reveal and resolve the "we're all living in Vecna's mind" story. January 7 came and went, though, and no such episode was released... but Netflix did reportedly crash in the meantime.

Now that we've screened Netflix's "One Last Adventure" documentary, it appears more far-fetched than ever that clues were being planted about Vecna's survival and subsequent twisting of reality... because Matt and Ross Duffer cut it very close on writing the series finale script.

That's where the doc gets its main source of tension, really: As we watch Season 5 become a reality, the cast and crew inch closer and closer to filming the series finale, which the Duffer brothers haven't finished writing. In fact, at the start of the documentary, the Duffers and their fellow writers are still weighing how, exactly, to communicate Eleven's choice to sacrifice herself in the final episode; later, the show's set builders and designers realize they're going to have to create massive sets without seeing a completed script ahead of time.

The missing script weighs on the Duffers more and more, and production on the series finale does ultimately begin before the script is fully finalized, with some actors shooting scenes that aren't totally realized on the page yet. Once that script does come in, the Duffers make no mention of any hidden meanings in the episode. On the contrary, at the final table read, Matt tells the cast, "Everything we want to say about the experience and the show and the characters is in the script" — indicating that the words are what matter to the story, and not the visuals that fans would later zero in on.

It's possible, of course, that if the Duffers did want to communicate that Vecna had survived, that they would never utter anything aloud about that big reveal. Maybe they've wanted all along for viewers to dissect the finale, with no intention of ever confirming whether fan theories are true or not. Like the mystery of Eleven's death — is she actually alive?! — perhaps the series creators want Vecna's ending to be forever ambiguous and hotly debated, and the documentary intentionally skips over any crucial Easter eggs to preserve the mystery.

We're a bit more cynical, though, and see this documentary as proof that the "Stranger Things" finale should be taken at face value. Sure, it's a little more fun to believe that the ending is all Vecna's concoction, and that we're all trapped in the hive mind somewhere. But amid all the stressful and unexpected production decisions that the Duffer brothers had to make during Season 5, it doesn't seem there was any time left to create (and systematically hint at) such a jaw-dropping, upside-down twist.

What say you, "Stranger Things" fans: Do you still believe in #ConformityGate? Give us all of your thoughts on the documentary in a comment below.