As the clock struck 6 p.m. on January 7, many people were left in shock, realizing that Conformity Gate was untrue and that this was really the end for Stranger Things.

Fans rushed to Netflix to find a secret ninth episode of Stranger Things, causing the streaming service to crash, leaving viewers with nothing but an error message.

This phenomenon, known as “Conformity Gate,” was not created from a trailer or a leaked script. Instead, it was born of the hope that the finale would be different, and of many pieces of evidence pointing towards weirdness. The theory, “Conformity Gate,” goes as follows: The season 5 finale was an elaborate illusion of Mike Wheeler’s mind created by one of the show’s many antagonists, Vecna, and that the real ending will be released in a new secret ninth episode.

Disappointed by the result of the ending, fans began to essentially become “delusional” over the show’s ending, questioning whether or not it was the truth. “It seems likely that the myriad fans suggesting that there was a secret finale still to come were motivated by disappointment,” explained Benjie Goodhart in a feature for The Guardian. Viewers started to comb through the whole show, accurately finding much evidence that points to the ending being a fake one. Some of the evidence relates to inaccurate facts said by characters, colors changing on objects from Volume 1 to Volume 2 of Season 5, and clues found all throughout social media accounts and merchandise related to the show. As more continuous evidence was found for Conformity Gate, the theory started to gain a following, as it made sense. Using many clues and ideas from the show, fans ultimately came to the conclusion that the secret ending would be revealed Jan. 7, alluding to the reason why Netflix crashed that day.

Many of these fans also reside at Thunderbird High School, as Stranger Things is a worldwide phenomenon, and many students have heard about Conformity Gate. Aaron Mastov, junior, prior to Jan. 7 was hoping that Conformity Gate would become true, as he disliked the ending and thought it did not have enough action and threats. Another student, Matthew Shcherbakov, senior, saw all of said “weird” pieces of evidence all across the show, exclaiming how he is surprised that nothing came out of them, wishing that Conformity Gate became true.

The day of the crash was the final straw of a theory that many believed to be true, as millions realized that the story of Hawkins, the town that the show takes place in, had truly closed. While there were still many who clung to the hope of a secret ninth episode, the following weeks ultimately dismantled Conformity Gate as a whole, breaking it apart, leaving most of the community of Stranger Things fooled by their own creation of a plotline that was never confirmed to be true.

One of many major blows came from the actor Joe Keery (Steve Harrington). In an interview with Jack Saunders, a radio station show host for BBC’s Radio 1 New Music Show, Keery admitted that the intense fan speculation led him to confirm the truth with co-star Charlie Heaton (Jonathon Byers). “I discussed it with Charlie. It’s not true,” Keery stated, which should have crushed the Conformity Gate theory, but instead it fueled the fire even more. Fans of the show thought instead that Keery said this to push the fans offtrack, and that Conformity Gate was really going to happen.

Any last remaining hope came to an end on Jan. 12, with the release of the Netflix documentary One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5. The film provided a behind-the-scenes look at the final season of the show, showing that there is no secret ninth episode, ultimately disproving Conformity Gate. The documentary showed that co-creators, the Duffer Brothers, were under extreme pressure to push out the season, and they began filming the finale before the script was even finished. This revealed that many of the “clues” that fans think they spotted were most likely a result of rushed production and continuity errors instead of intentional hints towards Conformity Gate.

Ultimately, Conformity Gate was essentially a powerful example of “collective delusion” fueled by a desire for a different ending and disappointment in the current ending. With the documentary now available and the cast moving on to other projects, fans have finally been forced to accept the finale of Stranger Things.