Graphic by Gabrielle Orta ‘28
By Marri Shaeffer ’29
Staff Writer
Netflix’s “Stranger Things” began airing its fifth season on Nov. 26, 2025.
Prior to the release of this season, “Stranger Things” was hailed for its intriguing plot and relatable cast of characters. It appealed to nostalgia, with iconic actors like Winona Ryder and consistent callbacks to popular ’80s culture. Within the first 35 days of the first season’s release, the show averaged 14.07 million viewers. It was an instant success, and the next three seasons were met with equal enthusiasm.
However, the release of the fifth season brought that momentum to a speeding halt.
On paper, the season sounded like the perfect conclusion to an incredible show. It would answer questions that had been floating around since the show’s release, feature queer representation unheard of for a show set in the 1980s, and would end in an epic fight. Unfortunately, many of these promises went unfulfilled.
For many viewers, one of the most intriguing parts of the “Stranger Things” finale was the conclusion of Will Byers’ struggle with his sexuality, which was present throughout the show. Vecna, the main villain of the show, uses Will’s sexuality to control him by convincing him that revealing this secret will trigger rejection from his loved ones. As such, Will is terrified of that part of himself.
In season five, Will is finally able to come to terms with his sexuality in some capacity. He shares a heartfelt conversation with Robin Buckley, who is in a relationship with another woman. They discuss Robin’s own queer experience and how she accepted herself. It’s a deeply emotional moment where Will realizes that he too may be able to live truthfully as a gay man. It felt relatable and real, almost as if Robin was speaking to me directly.
I was shocked at how accurately my own queer experience was being represented in a TV show. However, those good feelings didn’t last for very long.
In the penultimate episode of the show, Will realizes that, in order to fight Vecna, he must overcome his greatest fear. The group is gathered together, Will comes out to them and, in a shocking twist of fate, everyone is completely fine with it.
Initially, it’s presented as though Will is going to talk to only his closest friends. Instead, however, the whole cast is there. It’s odd, and feels unnatural to have virtual strangers included in what should be an intimate conversation. In addition to this, it’s saddening that he is driven by fear to reveal this secret. It isn’t that he’s come to terms with himself completely, but rather that he has to reveal his secret, or Vecna will do it first. Robin’s touching message feels useless because of this fear.
Beyond this strange, even negative message on queer people and sexuality, the last episode, “The Rightside Up,” was, in my opinion, one of the worst recent television finales. With a runtime of over two hours, it drags on incessantly with little to no payoff. After four seasons of struggle, the main villain is killed with just a few swings of an axe. It’s anticlimactic, and not even close to the expected battle.
Despite the main villain being dead, there is still an hour left. This final hour is painstakingly slow and overall unrealistic. Mike goes missing, but is swiftly found. Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas and Max graduate together, despite the fact that Max was in a coma for just under two years. Jonathan, Nancy, Steve and Robin reunite after a time apart, and Hopper proposes to Joyce.
The episode ends with the main cast playing a round of Dungeons and Dragons, finishing their final campaign. It ends similarly to the Vecna fight, with an unfulfilling and abrupt ending. Max comments on the ending, calling it trite and unsatisfying, almost as if the Duffers are attempting to poke fun at their own show. Mike, as the dungeon master of the campaign, denies this, calling it realistic instead, and explains the endings for each character, including Eleven. Mike has theorized that she’s alive somewhere, a theory that is difficult for many viewers to agree with. Finally, Holly Wheeler runs downstairs to play Dungeons and Dragons, just as Mike had at the beginning of the show, symbolizing the start of a new generation.
This ending was bad. It was unfulfilling, and left plot holes so enormous that many fans began to theorize. The most popular theory, dubbed “conformitygate,” originated on X from user 67gate. According to this theory, everyone is trapped in Vecna’s mind, unable to escape and cursed to exist in a “conformed” state. It blew up on social media, and even attracted the attention of some celebrities, such as Jimmy Fallon. This theory pointed to the existence of a secret ninth episode. When the time came for this secret episode to air, however, there was nothing.
Fans instead got a documentary detailing the writing process of the show. Included in this documentary were shots of the writers’ laptops with ChatGPT open, worrying fans about the authenticity of this season’s writing, and signifying a larger problem for all productions moving forward.
Nevertheless, somehow, despite bad representation, one horrible finale, and possible AI use, the biggest crime the Duffer brothers committed in the end, was making Robin a Smith student.
Emelin Chuquimarca '28 contributed fact-checking.