Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfhard hosted Saturday Night Live over the weekend, and given the online shitshow that’s transpired since Netflix’s horror series wrapped up last month, the sketch comedy show had a lot of material to work with. Like most episodes of SNL, this one had its assortment of hits and misses, but particularly noteworthy was its Stranger Things spoof, which touched on the backlash that has sprung up in the wake of the finale and mentioned the widespread Conformity Gate conspiracy theory which proposed the existence of a secret, “better” ending to the series.
Wolfhard’s monologue may not have touched on the backlash Stranger Things’ final season has received online, but it has come under some fire for some low-hanging misogynistic jokes. The former child actor talks about growing up on the Netflix show over the past decade, and says the first time he learned what a woman looked like “down there” was captured on camera during the show. We then cut to a clip of his character Mike seeing a Demogorgon open its monstrous jaws. You get it? Vaginas are scary! Like a flesh-eating monster!
Thankfully the show’s actual Stranger Things skit fared better, envisioning Netflix milking the series into multiple spin-offs, including a Sex and the City parody starring Wolfhard’s character as a writer in ‘90s New York City. However, it too has come under fire for what some are calling a tasteless joke about Lucas’ future sex life with partner Max, who now “just lies there like she’s back in that coma,” a reference to her character being in a coma during the show.
Meanwhile, the skit’s joke about Will’s infamous coming-out scene in season 5, which fans said was sweet but a bit hokey and longwinded, has gotten an absurd bad-faith response from some viewers. SNL’s skit jokes that Will isn’t getting a spin-off because this coming-out scene is still going on. The choice to poke fun at the scene has been deemed homophobic, to which I say, making fun of the scene’s notorious length is not the same as making a joke at the expense of gay people.
The real joke of note is the skit’s direct reference to the Conformity Gate conspiracy which posits that a secret ninth episode that will “fix” the divisive finale is on the way. Wolfhard and two of his co-stars reunite on a mountaintop in Iceland, and Wolfhard exclaims that “everything we thought happened was an illusion that was planted by Vecna.” When asked for “one good reason” why they should believe him, Wolfhard responds, “How about eleven?” at which point Kenan Thompson steps in for Millie Bobbie Brown, holding an Eggo waffle and spouting gibberish.
Though the SNL episode has come and gone, the Duffer Brothers were in attendance, and some Stranger Things fans unhappy with the ending heckled them in public as they were leaving the venue.
The Conformity Gate conspiracy has mostly died down at this point, though some true believers are moving the goalpost and saying that it might still be coming. While some cast members have been hesitant to comment on it directly, actor Joe Keery has flatly denied that any such episode exists.
