'Stranger Things' Villain Defends Show's Ending Amid "Conformity Gate" Discourse

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Henry Creel turning into Vecna in Stranger Things Season 4, Episode 9.

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In the days since Stranger Things wrapped its decade-long run with a supersized finale on New Year’s Eve, one question has completely hijacked the internet: Was that really the end? As TikTok, X, Reddit, and YouTube continue to spiral into post-finale analysis mode, a growing fan theory — dubbed Conformity Gate — insists the answer is no. According to believers, the episode Netflix released wasn’t the real ending at all, but a deliberate fake-out, with a secret ninth episode allegedly set to drop on January 7.

It’s a theory born from disappointment, grief, and a fandom trained by the show itself to never take things at face value. But while fans are busy corkboarding symbols and freeze-framing background props, Stranger Things villain Jamie Campbell Bower seems perfectly at peace with how it all ended. And that's why we love him so much. Bower, who played the series’ final big bad Vecna, recently addressed the ending during an appearance on The Tonight Show, where he made it clear he believes the finale landed exactly where it should have.

“It’s the ending the show deserves. I’ve been a fan of the show since the start, so even just joining the show was a huge achievement, and I felt very honored and blessed to be a part of it.”

Vecna Meets a Necessary Fate in the 'Stranger things' Finale

For Bower, Vecna’s demise wasn’t just inevitable for the story, it was thematically necessary too. “This show is so much about friendship and love and hope and joy,” he continued. “And of course, the person who is not that has to go. All he really needs is a hug, though.” That “hug,” for the record, came in the form of an axe swung by Winona Ryder’s Joyce Byers, who delivers the killing blow in Episode 8, the official series finale. Ironically, Bower didn’t even learn Vecna was going to die until the table read for the finale — an experience that ended up being unintentionally on-brand for the character. “It was a really strange experience,” he said. “I got COVID for that table read, and so everyone’s in the studio in Atlanta and I’m stuck behind a computer screen in my little apartment… isolated, alone, lonely… like Vecna.”

All episodes of Stranger Things Season 5 are now streaming on Netflix. And yes, that's all 8 episodes of Season 5, not 9.