Stranger Things Fan/Analyst (7:15)

Well, the Conformity Gate plot just thickened because we might actually be getting something tomorrow. Because why did Netflix Nederland in their bio put one last episode but upside down? Why were there people planted all over that WWE Stranger Things crossover event telling Mike to wake up? Why did Netflix post a photo of Mr. Clark with a clock with the hour hand at a 1 and the minute hand at a 7? And when you count the letters in their bio, it comes out to be 1 7? The Duffer Brothers said that we could expect a dark Christmas, but that didn't happen. But what happens on January 7th? Orthodox Christmas. But LP, they've already announced that they're releasing a documentary on the 12th. That's weird. That's suspicious because the Duffers have also said that Vecna's inspired off Freddy Krueger. Holly was watching Nightmare on Elm street when her and Max went into her memory, remember? And what was Freddy Krueger's seventh movie? It was a meta movie, like a documentary where the real life actors played themselves and Freddy came into the real world. Interesting, because when Millie Bobby Brown was asked to use one word to describe the finale, she used the word meta. What is going on at the start of the epilogue? It makes a point to focus on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which was heavily marketed to be the last Indiana Jones movie. But we know that was a lie because there was two more after it. Friends don't lie. Remember why? As part of the marketing campaign, the WSQK radio host named Mindy, Flair and Vance, which are anagrams for Vecna and Mind Flayer. And in their final broadcast, it ended with us hearing the sound of Vecna's clock, like we're still counting down to the true ending. Why, when you type in the words I believe on Netflix's TikTok, a pop up of dice rolling appears. And why, when you type in Secret Ending into Netflix, it links you to Stranger Things. I should probably go to bed. Wake up, Mike.

Isabel Brown (8:46)

I should probably go to bed. Um. What? That seems like a little too much coincidence for something not to be weird, right? I mean, you type in Secret Ending on Netflix and it sends you to Stranger Things all the way down to the interviews that the cast is giving. There's a lot to unpack there. And that is literally just scratching the surface, barely, of what all of these people have dug up about the potential alternate ending. Conformity gate to Stranger Things. I guess somebody noted on their Netflix account and it almost immediately got taken down, that there is a new episode being teased for Stranger Things on their Netflix. And again, I hate the era of AI because how do you even remotely know if this is true or not? This. This looks to me to be a real video, not an AI video. But who knows? I have no idea. I'm just unpacking the same things that you guys are unpacking too. Someone said if tonight is supposed to be the last episode, then why does it say this? They were watching this on New Year's Eve. It says next episode coming Wednesday at 7pm Interesting. I saw this too. Someone tweeted the video and then it got taken down. Wtf? And then people are going back to think about, like, deep, deep Stranger Things lore. If you guys remember the season with the Russians in the mall. Starcourt Mall. God, that season was so underrated. That was such a golden era of television. You might remember that part of the code that they're deciphering from the Russians operating their secret base in the Starcourt Mall has to do with this riddle that they're reciting in Russian over and over and over again. When blue and yellow meet in the west. And that all is about a clock that they're seeing in the Starcourt Mall. It's a signal based on timing of the hands of the clock, the blue arm of the clock, and the yellow arm of the clock. Somebody put when blue and Yellow Meet in the west and took a screenshot of the clock from this show, which would be 9:45pm aka episode 9 of volume 4 of season 5, which would be insane. There is no episode 9 unless this alternative ending is in fact dropped, Mikey tweeted. If Conformitygate turns out to be a giant nothing burger, it's insane how many coincidences there are. Like everything is fitting together seamlessly like puzzle pieces. Someone else uncovers the fact that in the last season of the show Delightful Derek we love Delightful Derek is playing a video game. In this new season they noticed that he's playing a game called Ghosts and Goblins, a game famous for fake ending. Like what? This is insane. Where you have to replay the whole thing on harder difficulty to get to the true finale and Derek doesn't get to finish the game because his sister Tina won't let him. Guys, this is like getting to be a little insane, right? Sadie Sink, who plays Max Maxine on the show, gave an interview this week on Jimmy Fallon about her experience on Stranger Things and her life as an actress and what projects she has coming up next. And someone said that in tonight's Fallon interview, this was last night. She said her favorite musical was Pippin. Great musical by the way. I absolutely love it. And Sadie Sink is a Broadway kid. You guys might not know that she was Annie on Broadway when she was a little girl. Unbelievably talented. She loves Broadway and wishes more people knew that about her acting career. She said her favorite musical is Pippin. Someone reminded us Pippin is a play within a play. This person tweeted. I'm going to keep looking into this, but in the meantime, read this. Conformitygate Playgate Pippin's coming of age story is actually told as a play within a play. At the opening of the show, we are introduced to a group of players who will be performing the play Pippin his life and Times. These players, and particularly the leading player who seems eerily in control of every aspect of the show, AKA Vecna, the Mind Flayer we don't know, ignore the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience. They call attention to the theatricality of the production by asking for more light. They castigate each other for miscues and misread lines. The only person outside this paradigm is the actor who plays Pippin himself. He may be a little nervous. This is his first time playing the role, we are told. Odd Strange. At the very least people are even as mentioned in that first TikTok compilation of all the Easter egg clues Counting the number of letters in the phrases in the Instagram and Tik tok bios of the Netflix Stranger Things Instagram account. They had, quote, I believe a reference to the final episode of the show in their Instagram bio this week. And someone counted I is one letter and believe is seven letters. So clearly on January 7, we are getting an alternate ending to Stranger Things. But my absolute favorite beyond all of the insanity of all of this, people saying, oh well, everyone's standing the same way as Henry Creel. Everyone's looking past the camera into the fourth wall, clearly at the graduation scene, yada yada yada, there are hundreds. I'm not exaggerating of these little tiny potential Easter eggs that people are losing their minds over. Foaming at the mouth over. My favorite analysis of all of this is ironically posted as a comment from someone named holly under this 17 number numerology thing. We are going crazy. Crying emoji Holly. Holly Wheeler could not have said it better ourselves. Yes, we are going crazy. Genuinely. People are like foaming at the mouth, rabidly searching for any potential alternate ending to what we got for Stranger Things, which, sadly, this sounds pathetically clickbaity and hyperbole, but it's not. We basically got I'm going to save the universe because I'm gay. Everything's great. But I think it's important for us to zoom in on that. On the freaking out foaming at the mouth rabid behavior from the fandom here for a minute. Why are the fans so crazed, so freaking out over the idea of of an alternative Stranger Things ending? Back to decoding the insanity of Conformity Gate in a second. But first, I want to talk to you guys about something that's hit me really hard. After becoming a mom, especially going into a new year and thinking about all of our goals and resolutions for 2026, I have realized that every decision I make about my health isn't just about me anymore. It's about showing up for my daughter, Isla, being present for all of her milestones, and having the energy to keep up with her for decades to come. And that is a totally different kind of of motivation. But here's the problem. Our healthcare system is built to be reactive. You wait until something's wrong and then you try to fix it. So when you want to take a proactive approach, it can be really hard to know where to even start. That is exactly why I have been partnering with our friends at Jevity who make proactive health easier than ever. Jevy offers you different membership tiers so that you can choose what fits your specific needs. You get comprehensive at home blood draws that test over 100 different health markers way beyond what your standard health checkup ever covers. They then give you personalized health plans with custom supplement protocols, access to functional longevity specialists for ongoing guidance, plus discounts on supplements and specialty testing in the future. I have loved my experience with Jevoty. It was so easy. They sent a phlebotomist to my house to do a really big blood draw all at once and then just a couple of days later I got the most comprehensive map sent to me with everything about my body, different hormone levels, what organ systems I should be paying more attention to my biological age. Turns out I am biologically only 18. So your girls live at large despite pushing 30 and I will take that as a massive, massive badge of honor. You guys can figure out everything that's going on in your body too with Jevoty, which is now available in 47 different states across the country. So if you are ready to be there for the people you love, not just today, but for decades to come, use Code Isabelle at the link in today's show notes for 20% off because investing in your health now means so much more time with the people who matter the most.

Stassi Schroeder (17:15)

I am your host, Stassi Schroeder. Welcome to Tell Me Lies the Official podcast. What's the most unhinged thing of season three?

Isabel Brown (17:24)

Steven because he's so evil, I do.

Stranger Things Fan/Analyst (17:26)

Think he is misunderstood.

Isabel Brown (17:27)

You see everyone face consequences. It's intoxicating.

Stassi Schroeder (17:31)

The writers just know how to trick ya.

Isabel Brown (17:33)

There's always a twist in this show. It's nothing you would expect.

Stassi Schroeder (17:36)

Tell Me Lies the official podcast January 6th and stream the new season of Tell Me Lies January 13th on Hulu and Hulu on Disney.

Isabel Brown (17:45)

The insanity is real, but honestly, it's hard to blame people for it. It's still legit because people are just tired. And I think zooming in on why we're freaking out over a potential twist ending that involves all of these Easter eggs and intellectual stimulation is because fandoms, particularly of these really nerdy sci fi shows that typically involve a deeper level of intellect in them beyond just the mindless slop that we see on our television screens every day, we the nerds, we the geeks, we the super fans, are tired of bad, lazy writing. Which is exactly why we fell in love with shows like Stranger Things in the first place. We loved the multi dimensional aspect, not just literally between multiple dimensions, but the multi dimensional aspects between Historical fiction, sci fi fantasy, between nerdy board games like Dungeons and Dragons, the hero's journey, a coming of age story. All of these things layered together, particularly when coupled with mystery and intrigue and having to put puzzles together while you're watching these episodes finally gave us a stimulating challenge compared to all of the crap that passes for entertainment, particularly in the the 2000 and 20s today. Coming out of Hollywood and I hear all the time in our culture today that people just think our society at large is losing the ability to think critically. Particularly with the dawn of AI when nobody is writing their own essays for school anymore, when people aren't writing their own work assignments and reports for their jobs anymore, we're just plugging everything into ChatGPT. When people aren't writing amazing books and stories and movie scripts and television shows anymore because everything is supplemented by either either weak writing at the hands of DEI or potentially AI itself. It is so easy to think that our society is just losing the ability or desire to think critically anymore. Life is happening in 7 second TikTok sound bites and we don't want something that provides that extra level of depth or intrigue. I don't think that that's true really at all. I think people are craving desperately an intellectual challenge in the things that we are entertained. It's why we're paying really big money to go have fun in escape rooms. To go be locked inside of a room for an hour and be told you have to find a million different clues and put them together in order to figure out how to get out. It's why Taylor Swift is the most popular artist for young women on the face of the planet today. And why her massive fan base is so obsessed with finding 8 million Easter eggs. Just like this conformitygate so scandal situation where people are looking at the hands on a clock and they're looking at the number of sequins on her dress and this particular color that she wore on stage in Vancouver but she didn't in New Orleans. And all of these things clearly obviously mean something. What does it mean? Let's figure out the puzzle. It's why everyone is so desperately clinging to the idea of an alternative ending for Stranger Things. And there is of course a whole extra layer to people wanting a different ending too. The whole woke concept of how Stranger Things unfortunately ended. If you guys haven't had a chance to see spoilers right now, I'm not gonna try to ruin the whole show yet. If it's not in your prerogative to want it ruined, please turn it off. But in case you missed it, basically the entire ending of Stranger Things came down to Will Byers secretly having powers. And the way that he activates these powers and is because he's gay. Yeah, the kid who was abducted into an interdimensional wormhole by an evil, deranged supervillain fantasy figure. The guy who was taken at a young child's age in middle school by a faceless Demogorgon monster with a face full of teeth. This guy's biggest trauma in life is indeed that he's just been unable to admit to his friends and family that he likes guys. That's it. That's his biggest trauma in life and what he has to overcome in order to save the universe. And the multiple minute series of listening to him explain this to the people in his life, some of whom he literally met like four minutes ago. What the heck was Vicky doing there? I can't. I don't even. We have a lot to unpack there, which will be a different rant for another time that was so insufferably bad that the entire Internet. I don't care if you are gay yourself. Everyone was like, gagged me with a spoon. Claw my eyes out with a fork. This is the worst writing I have ever seen in my entire life. For the record, by the way, I also was screaming at the TV the entire time that this scene was unraveling, thinking, hello, Is the universe not, like, imminently ending in five minutes? Why are we wasting so much time sitting around laughing and talking about all of my favorite memories of how I don't like girls. Not like how you guys like girls. Oh, no. And then everyone individually hugs Will over all this stuff. Is the universe not imminently ending in, like, five minutes? Hustle it up, people. Someone, by the grace of God, a good Samaritan out there, actually compared the timestamps of how long Will's gay speech in Stranger Things lasted to real life events that happened during the same week. And fun fact, Will's little coming out I'm gay party in Stranger Things actually lasted longer. You cannot make this up. Than the operation from the United States to kidnap Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela and remove him from power. Will's little gay speech, 6 minutes and 51 seconds. The entire in and out to kidnap Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, 6 minutes and 34 seconds. So pretty sure if the universe was ending, we'd probably be able to kick it into high gear thing. And the ridiculous woke ending that nobody asked for from Stranger Things immediately reminded me of the Go Woke Go broke Pipeline we've seen with countless other franchises over the last few years great shows that, again, had that depth of intellect that people were so desperately craving for the last few years. Look at the Last of Us, when we saw the entire fan base essentially drop off after a singular episode in the most recent season of the Last of Us, when the main character proclaims, I'm going to be a dad as a woman, when her lesbian girlfriend announces that she's pregnant. The finale for season two of The Last of Us drew in 3.7 million viewers, which compared to 5.3 million for the premiere of the show. Basically, everybody just stopped watching it. And I doubt after how the season ended, everyone will be coming back. Let's see if you guys remember this moment. So we're all having a baby.

Stranger Things Fan/Analyst (25:05)

Holy.

Isabel Brown (25:10)

I'm gonna be a dad.

Leslie Headlund (25:13)

Yeah.

Isabel Brown (25:14)

I'm gonna be a dad. Proudly pronounces Ellie. Yeah. No, no. And that also takes you to Star wars, right? Where Leslie Headlund and Kathleen Kennedy and the whole band of let's put a chick in it and make her lame and gay are desperately trying to do everything they can for the Star wars franchise to turn everything gay. Remember last spring when Leslie Hedlund was on the red carpet doing an interview about how important it is for her to turn Star Wars LGBTQ inclusive? Listen to this.

Leslie Headlund (25:54)

When I saw Frozen as a. As a grown woman, I. I cried through the entire movie. There was just something about the relationship between the sisters. The. The like, de. Villainization of the classic kind of fairy tale bad, bad guy. You know, the concept of true love being between two sisters and not a heterosexual relationship. Like, it just. It just destroyed me completely. And I thought, gosh, you know, I would love to make something like this that is, you know, for lack of a better term, Disney, meaning something that, like, my parents would have allowed me to see when I was younger as a queer person. Gotcha. But I would have been able to understand as a queer person, and I think I would have had a completely different life. And so I really was inspired by it and was like, God, I would love to make a story like this. And so when I was developing this original idea to pitch to Kathleen, I thought, well, you know, it can't just be that, you know, when you're pitching Star wars, you have to pull from what, you know, George was also interested in. Like, it can't just be like, well, I'm referencing. Especially if you're gonna set something, you know, in. During the High Republic or end of High Republic into prequels. You don't have the Skywalker saga. Like, you can't reference a character that was created by George and or Floney. Like you have to create your own new character.

Isabel Brown (27:15)

Can somebody again, refresh me on how watching Frozen as a, quote, grown queer woman was some sort of sexual awakening for you in your queerness? And how a story, beloved story, between two sisters automatically means LGBTQ plus? Every time I watch this interview, it makes my head explode. But this is the mission, right? Take something substantive, take something beautiful, take something intellectual and timeless and put a chick in it and make her lame and gay. Make no mistake about it, this is exactly what Greta Gerwig is currently doing in her attempt to destroy the CS Lewis Narnia stories, which I am devastated over, because those are perhaps some of the greatest written stories, particularly for kids, in all of human history. And so, yeah, there's the woke element to all of this. But honestly, I really think people's desperate attempt to cling to an alternate ending opportunity for Stranger Things is a lot simpler than the lame gayness of Will Byers. I think people genuinely just crave an intellectual challenge and a shocking twist. At least something that makes us think slightly harder than the mindless slop that graces our TV screens every single day. There is a reason that the movies that are doing unbelievably well in the box office that people are returning to over and over and over again, that they're watching over and over and over again right now, are movies like Oppenheimer and the Odyssey and Dune. It's these long, challenging stories with great, timeless books and scripts to model them after, but things that surprise you, things that require a depth of paying attention more than just sitting there scrolling through your phone, listening to something watching or playing on your TV in the background, things that shock and surprise you, things that have a twist, things that maybe involve an element of mystery or a depth of a challenge to think about beyond just the bare minimum, bare minimum effort of AI style writing that we're coming or that is coming out of Hollywood right now. Beyond that, I'm disappointed in how Stranger Things ended because that's what I think we did get. We did get that, that intellectual challenge for a very long time. For a very long time in one of the greatest written shows in all of modern history. People love Stranger Things because it did encapsulate that concept of a mystery, that journey of discovery, the shocking twists, the crazy upside down references, a journey that people had to go through. And we watched kids grow up learning how to confront these ideas on a more adult level as well. And then they just treated us all like kids at the end, wrapped it up as soon as humanly possible and gave us the Game of Thrones treatment but like the woke version. So I don't know if I have the emotional wherewithal to get into where I wish it would have ended differently with Stranger Things. Nothing, for the record would make me happier than if Stranger Things did indeed have a different delivered ending coming today. So I guess we'll see. Will Conformity Gate end up becoming True today on January 7th? Give us your prediction in the comments before I let you go for today. I cannot close the show without talking about the greatest new meme format that is sweeping Internet culture. In the great meme wars of 2026, which are well underway at this point, 2025 gave us some great memes, not the least of which was fat. JD and I think the world will always be grateful for this era of meme warfare. But as many people have been joking for the last year or so in this first year of the Trump administration that Marco Rubio is being tasked with doing all of the jobs on the face of the planet, people are now memeing this into an incredible format and I cannot stop laughing. This has been one of the only things getting me through the doom and gloom of being sick is all of the new Marco Rubio memes, and I knew I had to share them with you guys to give you something to laugh at this Wednesday. Marco Rubio is a busy guy. As you guys may know, he already is like the Interim Administrator Secretary of everything under the sun in addition to being the Secretary of State. And people have been making this same joke for a while now that whenever there is a job vacancy, Marco Rubio is the guy tasked with jumping in and saving the day. But particularly this week, Marco Rubio found out he's going to be extra busy given all of the shakeups happening in various job listings around the planet. This person tweeted out being Marco Rubio finding out he has to run Iran, Venezuela, Minnesota and the Hilton Hotel chain. And you can see Marco Rubio in his beautiful Venezuelan military outfit, his Midwestern dad hunting fit that he clearly picked up from Cabela's to be the Governor of Minnesota. His Ayatollah of Iran costume, which we absolutely love. His suit with the Hilton Hotel's logo over the lapel lapel. Poor guy is already exhausted and there are thousands of these memes out there now. This is one of my favorites. Interim Ayatollah and president of Venezuela, Marco Rubio takes questions from reporters in Greenland and my husband sent me this one. As a lifelong Manchester United fan, let me just say, you know, that you've married a man of extreme resilience when he chooses voluntarily to cheer for really difficult fan bases. My husband is a Manchester United fan. He comes from an Auburn University family. For some inexplicable reason, his whole life he considered himself a Panthers fan. In football, he's a Duke basketball guy and they do generally pretty good. But there's some really painful nights in that scenario as well. This week he texted me this meme, Marco Rubio now finding out that he's the manager of Manchester United. Low key. He would probably do a better job speaking as the wife of someone who has to listen to the screams of agony when Manchester United does not do very, very well. Poor guy. Marco Rubio, we were praying for you wearing all of the many hats you are tasked with wearing as supreme Leader of basically everything. Time will tell what he is tapped to do next. Heck, maybe Marco Rubio should be the new writer of Stranger Things and then we would have gotten a much better ending to one of our most beloved franchises. You guys, tomorrow we have a very special episode lined up for you with our new friend at the Daily Wire, Matt Fradd, host of Pints with Aquinas. You guys have all sent me really, really exciting new data showing that for the very first time in American history, the next generation Gen Z is more Catholic than we are Protestant. There's a lot to unpack there and I think it's going to be really fun for you guys to hear Matt Fradd's experience at Seek just a few days ago, what he is seeing on the ground with young Catholics, listening to his show Pints With Aquinas and officially welcoming him to the Daily Wire family with his show coming out next week. I'm so excited for you guys to see him here on the Isabel Brown show tomorrow. And we got all kinds of other exciting stuff we're cooking up for you for the rest of January. Thank you so much for your prayers for my continued recovery. As you can tell, I'm still sick but still recovering as best as we possibly can and my daughter Isla is feeling so, so much better today. I'm sure a lot of that is thanks to your guys's prayers and well wishes. Don't forget to subscribe here on the channel wherever you are watching and go find us on your favorite podcast platform to give us a five star review and make sure you are subscribed over there just so other people can hear about the show and everything we have planned for this exceptional year of a 250 in 2026.

Leslie Headlund (35:32)

Love you.

Isabel Brown (35:32)

God bless you. See you tomorrow. Go watch Stranger Things, Hopefully. Fingers crossed.