Stranger Things surprise Episode 9 does not exist, despite ‘evidence’ of Conformity Gate — Here's why

Stranger Things fans who believed in a surprise Episode 9 were in for a rude awakening as the clock struck 8 PM ET on January 7, and no viral conspiracy theory post-series finale was released. This is because it never existed.

There has been no official comment from Netflix or the show creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, on the viral fan theory yet. But, the social media handles of Netflix and Stranger Things categorically mention: “ALL EPISODES OF STRANGER THINGS ARE NOW PLAYING.”

A brief crash was reported in Netflix at 8 PM ET by social media users as fans anticipated the secret ninth episode of the final season. According to Downdetector.com, 1,512 users reported a Netflix outage at 8 PM ET for a maximum of 10 minutes.

Reportedly, only US users were affected by this outage; no Netflix outage was reported in India.

What is the Conformity Gate?

Stranger Things fans are calling this theory of Stranger Things Episode 9 on Netflix the ‘Conformity Gate’. Believers say that the finale was an altered reality and Vecna has captured everyone's minds and what we have seen in the finale is an image created by him.

Conformity Gate believers said that Vecna is not really dead, backing their claims with various observations and pointing to subtle inconsistencies in the finale.

Stranger Things Season 9 ‘evidence’

The conspiracy theorists cited “evidence” for their belief in Season 9, which included everything from wardrobe choices, set design changes, and even a doorknob in Wheeler's basement.

In an epilogue scene, some fans even found a stack of cassette tapes seemingly arranged to spell out “U DID NOT STOP ME” in Morse code.

However, what really cemented their belief in a surprise drop on January 7 was a video shared by the Stranger Things official TikTok page. The video reportedly featured Hawkins' science teacher, Mr Clarke (Randy Havens), standing in front of a clock that is set to 1:07.

The Conformity Gate theorists took that as a signal that the surprise Episode 9 would be released January 7, and that the timing for launch would be 8 p.m. ET — the same time that Volumes 1 and 2 dropped.

Stranger Things episode “tampered with”

Another group of fans believe that the finale season episodes had been “tampered with”. According to a Variety report, the conspiracy-minded fans created a Google doc detailing scenes that had allegedly been cut. This document went viral on social media.

The report said that a Change.org petition demanding the release of the “unseen footage” now has more than 390,000 signatures.

‘Not a real thing’: Duffer brothers

In an interview with Variety, the Duffer brothers shut down the disinformation around the “tampering” conspiracy theory and the Google doc they’d seen.

Matt Duffer said, “Obviously, that’s not a real thing.” Ross Duffer added, “I don’t think there’s a single cut scene in the entire season.”

Matt also said, “Online, there’s just so much misinformation. Just tons of it. We would be here for hours trying to bat down the stuff that was not true.”