Before Stranger Things' ConformityGate, Fans Of Another Show Pushed The Same Conspiracy Theory

I haven’t watched Stranger Things since Season 1, but people who watched to the end apparently feel very strongly about the conclusion. I’ve picked up on a few details as to why, but ultimately, the reasons are less important than the fact that a vocal contingent of fans has decided that the final season, or at least the final episode, was so “wrong” compared to the rest of the show that there must be something conspiratorial going on.

A conspiracy theory that goes by the name ConformityGate suggests that what was released on New Year’s Eve as the final episode of Stranger Things was, in fact, not the final episode, and that a secret new episode will be released (eventually) that will be the real ending and explain why the episode we got was all wrong. I’ve heard all this before.

Fans Of Sherlock Were Convinced There Was More To The Story, Too

I’m not a Stranger Things fan, but I’ve been a Sherlock Holmes fan since I was about 12 years old, so when the showrunner for Doctor Who, Steven Moffat, created a new adaptation of the great detective set in the modern day back in 2010, I was interested. If nothing else, Sherlock succeeded in making a star of Benedict Cumberbatch, but the show had a lot of fans, who also had a big problem with how it ended.

Whatever you thought of the first three seasons and the TV special of Sherlock, it is generally agreed upon by even the show’s biggest supporters that Season 4 was terrible. The lead-up had suggested that James Moriarty might still be alive, or at the very least had planned some massive challenge for Sherlock prior to his death. It ultimately revealed that this (ridiculously convoluted) “plan” involved Sherlock's secret sister, whom he'd forgotten existed due to blocking out traumatic childhood memories of her killing his best friend, whom Sherlock had also forgotten.

If that sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is, and even the show's biggest fans couldn't hide from that fact. Those fans, who were convinced that every insignificant detail of a Sherlock episode had a deep and specifically designed meaning, began to suggest that if this season was bad, it must have been bad on purpose, and that a secret fourth episode would explain everything.

Similar to what we’re seeing with Stranger Things fans today, Sherlock fans began decoding details from the show that they believed led to the conclusion that there would be more of the show, that would reveal the "truth." If Sherlock says, “People always stop looking after three?” in one episode, that must mean there’s a fourth episode. A picture of writer Mark Gatiss holding up four fingers? Must be a reference to a fourth episode (and not simply a reference to the fact it was Season 4). The signs were all there; it was all a big game, and you just had to play to the end to figure it out.

This led to a great deal of focus being placed on the first episode of the series that replaced Sherlock on the BBC after its season ended, Apple Tree Yard. The show included an actress whose last name was Watson, and its website apparently gave off a 404 error at one point (Season 4, Episode 4, don’t you get it?). Unfortunately, when the show aired, it was just Apple Tree Yard, and a lot of Sherlock fans were very upset.

Sometimes Bad TV Is Just Bad TV

I don’t know if Stranger Things' ending is really all that bad or not. I didn’t think the beginning was all that great, or I would have watched more than just the first season. I do know that when a show that you’ve loved starts to go south, it sucks. The problem is that this happens all the time.

Sometimes great writers leave shows and lesser ones take over. Sometimes great writers just have bad ideas. Nobody is perfect all of the time. The history of frustrating series finales is almost as long as that of TV itself. Stranger Things is nothing new. It's just the newest example.

The thing is, even if ConformityGate was real, it wouldn’t make the finale better. Whatever is wrong with the show’s final episode doesn’t disappear if a new episode arrives and retcons it. It just goes from being a bad final episode to a bad penultimate episode.