Stranger Things

[Frogki]

I'd also like to add that the social media team is clearly playing along now, there have been some pretty fun posts on their Instagram. It's all very sly and plausibly deniable but also this kind of feels like it's supposed to be part of the fun of the show?

Again I don't think there's some secret episode but I do think that some people involved in the media department are having fun with this because it's clearly spread all over the Internet.

 

[Brian G.]

 

[Parkscope Joe]

We live in an unreality where magical thinking takes hold. Not a fan.

 

[Clive]

That this even needs to be said...

 

[Lucky Planet]

I mean, I get fan theories and stuff like that. That can be fun. This has blown way beyond that into some genuinely unhinged behavior on social media (not calling anyone here out). It's genuinely concerning to watch.

Like do we also think the several instances of them forgetting to edit out the actors’ Under Armour is a grand conspiracy? Or is there a chance that it’s just a show riddled with continuity errors? And a shop selling milkshakes in a time when it was more period accurate and not selling them in the ‘80s is… normal? A character that wasn’t present at all in the season (Suzie) not being in the epilogue is expected?

Every single thing presented has been kinda nothingness. I honestly don’t even get what could possibly be presented in one episode that can both be this massive twist people want while also being able to still end the series.

I'd also like to add that the social media team is clearly playing along now, there have been some pretty fun posts on their Instagram. It's all very sly and plausibly deniable but also this kind of feels like it's supposed to be part of the fun of the show?

Again I don't think there's some secret episode but I do think that some people involved in the media department are having fun with this because it's clearly spread all over the Internet.

it crossed my mind that the entire theory came from their social media team or from Netflix itself as some kind of online free promotion. sounds cynical,
but it reminds me of when the first IT movie was coming out some years ago and people were seeing creepy clowns in the streets and it went viral.
no one knows how that clown stuff started or who started it, but some people did speculate about a viral marketing campaign that went wrong

 

[Brian G.]

it crossed my mind that the entire theory came from their social media team or from Netflix itself as some kind of online free promotion. sounds cynical,
but it reminds me of when the first IT movie was coming out some years ago and people were seeing creepy clowns in the streets and it went viral.
no one knows how that clown stuff started or who started it, but some people did speculate about a viral marketing campaign that went wrong

No, it's people who wrote their own fan-fic ending for the finale, and it didn't go their way.

A large subsection of the fandom hates the finale solely for this reason and they're coping in extreme ways. Welcome to the age of the internet in 2026.

 

[Legacy]

even if there's no new episode, and if their story is fully finished, they definitely wrote it in a way that makes it feel like something changed in their universe. like if they became an alternate universe or something

Spoiler

These are silly in a desperately preposterous way.

 

[Frogki]

Spoilers for the documentary but

Spoiler

It makes it very clear that the Duffer Bros did not take their writing seriously for this season. The fact that they had literal years between to come up with things and they said they didn't know, and you can see they had ChatGPT open in their tabs on the laptop... That tells me all I need to know about why the season was subpar.

 

[pumpkinbot343]

Spoilers for the documentary but

Spoiler

It makes it very clear that the Duffer Bros did not take their writing seriously for this season. The fact that they had literal years between to come up with things and they said they didn't know, and you can see they had ChatGPT open in their tabs on the laptop... That tells me all I need to know about why the season was subpar.

… wait, seriously? (I have no interest in watching the documentary as of now.)

 

[Jerroddragon]

If you enjoy it great but this feels like another Game of Thrones kind of ending where they just phoned it in

Not the actors or crew....also I just don't get how they didn't have an ending in mind since season 3.

You'd think after GOT, most writers would want to finish strong. Remember how the GOT guys were on top of the world...where are they now?

 

[Brian G.]

In GoT’s defense, B&B were writers that were adapting already-told stories. Once they caught up to George, it started coming undone. They didn’t have any of the rich lore of the books to pull from, just overall concepts.

Duffers had carte blanche.

And in the Duffers defense, I don't think they completely fumbled it - just that it could've been A LOT better.

 

[GAcoaster]

In the pantheon of series endings from best (Bob Newhart waking up next to Emily at the end of Newhart and realizing it was all a dream), to Game of Thrones, Lost, Dexter, How I Met Your Mother, The Sopranos, Seinfeld, and Quantum Leap, it was somewhere in the middle.

It was satisfying overall, and actually gave the ending Wicked For Good should have with the possibility of a "happy" ending out there, but not specifically stated. For Good was saddled with the ending they chose for the stage show, so the Duffers had a lot more leeway.

 

[SeventyOne]

A nerdy off-topic reply (where did the "off-topic" emoji go?) ...

In GoT’s defense, B&B were writers that were adapting already-told stories. Once they caught up to George, it started coming undone. They didn’t have any of the rich lore of the books to pull from, just overall concepts.

I'd add most of the things fans hated have been heavily foreshadowed in the books, or in the case of King Bran, outright confirmed. If we ever get "Dream of Spring," they will probably make more sense in context, but not going to be that far off.

In the pantheon of series endings from best (Bob Newhart waking up next to Emily at the end of Newhart and realizing it was all a dream), to Game of Thrones, Lost, Dexter, How I Met Your Mother, The Sopranos, Seinfeld, and Quantum Leap, it was somewhere in the middle

Decades later, I still don't get the hate for the Quantum Leap finale. I thought it was a perfect ending that tied up one the most nagging loose ends in the show. (And arguably even "the evil leaper" episode, in a general sense.)