New Stranger Things doc buries ‘hidden’ episode theory
“The Last Adventure”, pure making-of of Stranger Things 5, has just been put online. But it tends to dampen the last hopes of disappointed fans…
Netflix is playing overtime with Stranger Things… but not as fans hoped!
No season 6 announced or “secret” episode posted online to everyone’s surprise. No, it’s a simple documentary The Last Adventure: The making-of of Stranger Things 5 which has just been put online, to prolong the pleasure of superfans of the SF series. And nothing more.
Moreover, the film seems to definitively bury the famous “Conformity Gate” theory.
Concretely, The Last Adventure: The making-of of Stranger Things 5 traces the making of the fifth and final season of the cult series, from the first ideas to the completion of the finale. A two-hour documentary for behind-the-scenes fans, between costume fittings, set painting and dangerous stunts entrusted to the actors’ stunt doubles… But for part of the fandom – notably those who plunged into the bottomless rabbit hole of TikTok videos dedicated to “Conformity Gate” – the film was above all an opportunity to track down the slightest clue confirming their favorite theory. In vain. Worse still: the film seems, on the contrary, to completely dismantle it, and this because of a key element revealed by the Duffer brothers themselves: the late writing of the series finale.
We will recall that the “Conformity Gate” theory has suggested since January 1 – and the posting of the finale – that the last episode of Stranger Things is not really the last. That Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) actually wouldn’t have been defeated. Supporters of the theory in question – understand fans disappointed by the outcome – are convinced that the final battle against Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) would have left the monster alive. The sentimental happy ending of the second half of the episode would then only be an illusion, an alternative reality shaped by Vecna, capable of manipulating reality. And clues would be hidden in the images: for example, during the graduation ceremony at Hawkins High School, students sit with their hands clasped on their knees, exactly like Vecna’s usual posture. The young heroes would therefore potentially be trapped in a false reality. But no.
This is not the case. After watching the making-of, the idea of a carefully disseminated secret plan seems very improbable indeed. The documentary reveals that Matt and Ross Duffer wrote the script for the last episode in an almost permanent emergency. All the tension of the film rests on this: while filming moves inexorably towards the finale, the script is still not finished. From the start of the documentary, the writers still hesitate on how to show Eleven’s final sacrifice. The production teams must design gigantic sets without having access to a final version of the scenario. Some actors even shoot scenes whose narrative meaning is not yet completely fixed. When the final script finally arrives, there is no mention of double reading or hidden meaning. During the last table read, Matt Duffer even told the actors: “Everything we want to say about the experience, the series and the characters is in the script”.
Of course, one could imagine that the Duffer brothers deliberately filmed this and kept silent to preserve the mystery, leaving eternal doubt about Vecna’s fate – like the question surrounding Eleven’s death. But the documentary above all gives the opposite impression: that of a team already overwhelmed by production challenges, without the luxury of being able to orchestrate and methodically conceal such a dizzying twist.
It’s probably more fun to believe that it’s all an illusion and that we’re trapped in the collective mind of Vecna. But sometimes reality just is…reality.
