Why Stranger Things did not have a secret final episode after all

Netflix aired the final episode of the fifth series on New Year's Eve but an apparently happy ending appeared too good to be true for some long-term viewers.

And fans looked at minuet details, including hidden messages spelled out by background set objects and inconsistencies in a flash forward, to come up with Conformity Gate - which quickly spread online.

Conformity Gate suggested that Netflix would release a "real" final episode of Stranger Things 5 on Wednesday, January 7, and fans were glued to the streaming service to see if there would be more to see.

However, despite searches for 'Conformity Gate' bringing up only Stranger Things on Netflix, hopes were ultimately dashed to the disappointment of some.

There were even reports that Netflix crashed due to the surge in users trying to find an episode that was not there.

Netflix has not commented.

What was Conformity Gate?

The now debunked Conformity Gate was a belief among some Stranger Things fans that the last episode of series five, which was aired on New Year's Eve, was not the final episode - and that one more would be broadcast on Wednesday, January 7 - one week later.

The theory was that the antagonist Vecna/Henry (Jamie Campbell Bower) did not actually die and that an epilogue seen by viewers at the end was just an illusion. The theory was given life by fans noticing:

• Graduation gowns seen in the future scene were not the school colours,
• Many characters were seen in the (Vecna-created) ending wearing similar glasses to the villain,
• A stack of cassette tapes seen in a set could be arranged to reveal a message reading "U Did Not Stop Me."

The Duffer brothers have commented to say that there was hardly any footage recorded that was not ultimately used. However, 390,000 fans have signed a petition on Change.org calling for unseen clips to be released.

All Netflix has said in relation is that "all episodes are available now".

The best memes as fans realise that Conformity Gate is not real