• The series finale of Netflix’s Stranger Things officially dropped on Dec. 31.
  • Longtime fans of the show are theorizing that the finale isn’t real because of a certain character’s fate, dubbing it Conformity Gate.
  • One of the show’s stars, Sadie Sink, has weighed in on the theory and given her “hot take” on the situation.

Spoilers for Stranger Things below!

It may be hard to believe, but Stranger Things is officially over after five seasons. Throughout the past decade, we’ve followed the Hawkins crew as their Dungeons and Dragons games came to life and they slayed monsters like Demogorgons, Vecna, and the Mindflayer. A huge part of defeating the villains of the Upside Down came down to the telepathic powers of Millie Bobby Brown’s character, Eleven/Jane Hopper, who decided to spare herself and disappear along with the multidimensional portal. And, naturally, fans didn’t take Eleven’s death in the series finale well.

The Duffer Brothers may have left the ending a bit open-ended, which led viewers to take over Reddit threads and TikTok feeds with theories that the episode that aired wasn’t real and that an alternate (happier) ending could exist. Sadie Sink, who played Max Mayfield in the show, weighed in on these theories during an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon—and even gave her “hot take” on the whole thing.

“The big question is, at the end, is Eleven still alive?” Jimmy asked during the January 5 episode.

“What do I think?” Sadie responded. “I think she’s dead, yeah. Is that, like, a hot take or something?”

After the finale, viewers came up with the Conformity Gate theory, which claims that the true ending could potentially be Mike’s explanation to the rest of the Hawkins crew during their final round of D&D.

ICYMI, here’s a rundown (though we doubt you could even forget the emotional “I believe” moment shared by Sadie, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, and Finn Wolfhard). Mike suggested that Eleven’s sister, Kali/Eight, used her powers to create an illusion of Eleven’s death so she could run away and live in peace.

stranger things: season 5. (l to r) finn wolfhard as mike wheeler, caleb mclaughlin as lucas sinclair, sadie sink as max mayfield, noah schnapp as will byers, and gaten matarazzo as dustin henderson in stranger things: season 5. cr. courtesy of netflix/netflix © 2025
Netflix

Sadie isn’t buying into it, though. She doubled down on her interpretation of the finale, which is that Eleven is actually gone. “I think Mike’s story is one last story. Then they say goodbye to childhood, but that is one final tale,” she shared, explaining, “It is a coping thing. It is stronger. That is my interpretation.”

Well…there ya have it, people! Conformity Gate is a no-go for Sadie.