Stranger Things star finally addresses secret finale after delusional people broke Netflix

We are now a full day past the alleged release of Stranger Things’ secret episode nine, so tell me why a portion of the internet is still convinced it’s out there.

It all started after what many people saw as a disappointing finale to Netflix’s Stranger Things. People were so upset that they fully convinced themselves another finale was dropping on January 7, because there was simply no way the Duffer brothers messed it up that badly. As it turns out, they did.

The trend quickly became known as conformity gate, named after Vecna supposedly forcing conformity on the main gang. There were mysterious clocks online counting down to something, but one simply told Stranger Things viewers to “touch grass” in response.

Perhaps unshockingly to anyone who had their head screwed on, the secret episode never actually dropped on Netflix. Still, that didn’t stop those with Netflix from crashing the whole damn platform in search of it.

A Stranger Things cast member has spoken about the secret episode

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A post shared by Randy Havens (@mrrandyhavens)

Randy Havens, who played science teacher Mr Clarke in all of the Stranger Things seasons, has been a bit of a hot mess this go around. For a 48-year-old man, he spent a lot of time on his Instagram stories. He even beefed a pop star.

Yesterday, when the secret Stranger Things episode was supposed to make itself known, Randy interacted with some Mr Clarke artwork on Instagram.

“What an amazing moment seeing MY FACE in the closing credits of the Stranger Things finale on the big screen!” he wrote. “I truly had no idea that they were gonna give Mr. Clarke one final shout-out. Thank you @matttaylordraws for your absolutely amazing work on the closing credits DnD manual!”

Not to miss a potentially messy moment, he then firmly stated once and for all: “Yes it’s the actual finale I’m sorry to all the conspiracy theorists but that’s actually and truly the end of Stranger Things.”

Since then, he’s been reposting memes of Stranger Things stans acting like lunatics.

It’s somewhat odd that Netflix didn’t comment, given how huge the conspiracy theory got, but they did update their social media bios in a move that convinced a handful of true believers.

“ALL EPISODES OF STRANGER THINGS ARE NOW PLAYING,” Netflix posted on Twitter and Instagram.

so they really ended the show like that and thought it was a masterpiece #conformitygate pic.twitter.com/OXvNLrZsJ5

— lorna 🫧 (@lornacb_) January 8, 2026

Conformity gate is still trending on Twitter

Despite all the glaring evidence in 4k, and amidst the episode not being on Netflix, there are still some people wearing tin foil hats for conformity gate.

“Conformitygate IS the true ending, we will just NEVER see our favourite characters escape it on screen because they WONT,” one person wrote on Twitter, further theorising that Vecna did actually win in the end.

“Really starting to think the 9th episode exists,” another said, hours after it was meant to drop.

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Featured image credit: Netflix/Twitter