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Warning: This story contains spoilers for the Stranger Things finale.
Netflix allegedly confirmed that there is no “secret” Stranger Things Tonight's episode is a response to fan speculation surrounding the supposed ending, unofficially dubbed “The Gate of Compliance.”
As of Wednesday morning, the show's social media accounts had made the following change: “All episodes of the show Stranger Things We’re playing now.” This was apparently in response to a conspiracy theory that spread across social media shortly after the series finale on December 31. It claimed that the supposed ending featured a fake ending that would be revealed and changed in the secret ninth episode.
Using various “clues” discovered throughout the show's five seasons, fans speculated that the ending they saw on screen – in which the villain Vecna was defeated and the stars returned to the real world – was an illusion.
The streamer did not respond to CBC News' request for comment.
Although not on par with Game of Thrones' widely criticized ending, last Stranger Things The episode was controversial, both due to its many conflicting plot threads and its evasive ending, which seemed more concerned with setting up a spin-off than bringing the story to a satisfying conclusion.
Canadian actor Finn Wolfhard details the emotional experience of completing the final filming of Stranger Things, the show he grew up watching as a main cast member since age 12.
“Did Stranger Things stick to the landing? asked Stuart Heritage Guardian. “Well, no, because in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t count as a landing at all.”
“Like so much of season five, this episode felt like it delivered a lot of things but very little emotional or thematic content,” joked. Angie Hahn of The Hollywood Reporter. “I guess I don’t feel like giving definitive endings for any of the main kids.”
“You can write ambiguous endings that work very well, but this one seemed like a cop-out, an attempt to do it both ways,” he added. NPR's Linda Holmes.
“There's also a real danger in expanding characters' supernatural abilities to the point where they can make anything seem like anything, so that maybe a lot of what you saw never happened. After all, if you don't know it actually happened, how much else could possibly not happen?”
“Secret Episode” Theories
It is this latter belief that appears to have fueled the “secret episode” theories. Given that Vecna can control people's minds, the idea has spread that the original ending was constructed to deceive both the characters and the audience.
In particular, it spread on TikTok, but also appeared on Reddit. Fans tried to convince each other that the supposed failures in the Duffer Brothers' narrative were intentional, with “evidence” ranging from subtle wardrobe choices to certain door handles and even secret Morse code messages.
And when others noticed that the clock was set to 1:07 against the background of an advertising postThe theory, it would seem, has become fact: Stranger Things will release an additional finale on January 7, scheduled to release at 8:00 pm ET, consistent with the release times of volumes 1 and 2.
Instead, the above message has been added to Stranger Things accounts on social networks, and Netflix released Trailer directed by Teyana Taylor promoting their future releases. In a previous interview with the Duffer Brothers confirmed to Hollywood Reporter that when it came to Stranger Thingsmain characters: “This is the end of their story.”
The show's creators are currently working on a spin-off intended to answer questions left deliberately unanswered in the finale. And before this series is released, an animated film will be shot… Stranger Things: Stories from '85 — is planned to be released in 2026.
It is assumed that this will happen between the second and third seasons of the series. Stranger Thingsin which “the original characters must battle new monsters and solve the paranormal mystery terrorizing their town.”
