Stranger Things and Societal Discomforts

Disclosure: I started writing this blog post on Saturday, January 3, 2026, and so much has happened since then.

The Stranger Things ending has become such a telling online social experiment. (I have to clarify that it's "online" because none of the conversations I've had with people in real life about this ending contained the amount of vitriol and disappointment that I've been seeing in online discourse). I really believe that we as a society are becoming way too uncomfortable with ambiguity and too insecure in our own thoughts and opinions. It's gotten to the point where people have to force others to take their side in order to validate their own worldviews. So many people just aren't comfortable exploring unanswerable questions and sitting with their own thoughts, opinions, and beliefs.

In the 24 hours since the premiere of the Stranger Things finale, I saw so many articles, blog posts, and social media posts across different platforms trying to definitively prove whether El is alive or not, and so many people insulting each other in comment sections for not agreeing with their opinions. I watched the episode when it premiered on New Year's Eve, and I personally do believe that Eleven is alive, but I have no proof one way or the other, and neither does anyone else.

That is the point of the ending. I was shocked and angry when I saw her dissolve in the explosion, sad watching everyone else get a happy ending except her, and then hopeful when I heard Mike's theory. I think the ending was beautifully done. Enough clues were sprinkled in to support both theories so that viewers could form their own opinions, but no definitive proof or answer was given.

I expected people to form their own opinions and theories, but I didn't expect so many people to go online saying, "This is the absolute truth, and you're wrong if you don't agree." The ending was written ambiguously so that, in universe, no one knows for sure what happened to her, but the viewer, like the characters, can choose what they want to believe. I'm not going to call the Duffer brothers geniuses because there were some minor plot holes, and there was some retconning and some lazy writing throughout the last season that annoyed me, but I do think this ending was, overall, beautifully and powerfully done, and I think the amount of hate it's getting is worrisome.

Since this weekend, Stranger Things fans on the internet have started a new conspiracy theory: "conformity gate." It posits that the ending was so bad, it had to have been fake, that Vecna secretly won, and all the characters are trapped in his mind. Followers are convinced that a secret episode is going to air on January 7th. The reason conformity gate works is that there are plenty of clues pointing to this theory being true, just like there are clues pointing to Mike's theory being true and to it not being true. It's a choose-your-own-ending. There is no right or wrong answer to how the viewer chooses to watch it.

Before going into the finale, I watched a video about the discourse surrounding Frankenstein. This video introduced me to the idea that we need to get more comfortable with ambiguity in media and with not having every question answered and spoon-fed to us when we're consuming media or creating art. According to the video, Frankenstein asks existential questions that are meaningful and make the reader uncomfortable, and that's what's missing in a lot of modern media. Whether or not they did it well, or on purpose, the Duffer brothers embodied that idea with Stranger Things. It's a myth, a legend, a story. The details aren't as important as how the story makes you feel and what it makes you think about, and it's ok to not have all the answers. It's also ok for other people to disagree with your interpretation of a story. Your interpretation should reveal something about yourself.

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Slightly off-topic, but I also think audiences need to start taking stories less seriously. It's great to care about a story and its characters, but that doesn't give audiences the right to dictate how a story should go. It's important to listen to constructive critique, but I truly believe that artists and creators should have final say and control over their own work. There's definitely a balance that needs to be struck between making things people will like and connect with, and staying true to your own vision.