**Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 episode 10.**
Hawkins has officially welcomed us back for animated show Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 seeing the return of Eleven and co, and the arrival of brand new monsters.
An all-new voice cast took over to tell the new story, which is set in between seasons 2 and 3, with the gang facing a supernatural threat against Hawkins – and even grappling with the gate to the Upside Down opening once again.
Robles recently told Radio Times of the spin-off, which comes just a few months after the end of Stranger Things season 5: “We wanted to focus on kids being kids, riding bikes, solving mysteries with their walkie-talkies and flashlights.”
So, as the series drops, here’s everything you need to know about that ending as we wait for any news on a potential season 2.
Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 ending explained: What was Daniel’s plan?
After the gang realise – a little too late – that Mrs Baxter is not in fact Horde Prime, it’s revealed that Daniel is the real villain of the season.
Stumbling across Max, Lucas and Dustin in his secret lab, he reveals his plan is to regenerate life using the secret serum – but he fails to contain his creation, the plant queen, who has been feeding on the stuff and, unbeknownst to anyone, burrowing under the town.
Driven mad by Daniel waving the serum around, the plant queen breaks free, causing everyone to fall into the tunnel.
While Daniel finds Will trapped under a rock, he instead prioritises rescuing his precious serum. Thankfully, the gang are on hand to rescue Will, with Nikki and Mrs Baxter scaring off the plant queen with Nikki’s light blaster.
But they also have the queen’s minions to deal with. Soon, the gang are attacked by a bunch of vine dogs, who have Daniel in their grasp. Desperate to save himself, he throws the serum at Nikki, with Mrs Baxter racing to save her daughter before the plant queen gets to her.
Thankfully Eleven comes to the rescue, hurling a gigantic rock at the monster. Daniel ends up covered in the serum, with the plant queen swallowing him whole. But ingesting that much serum only makes it more powerful, and it starts opening a gate to the Upside Down…
How do the gang survive?
Shedding some light on the situation, Mrs Baxter says that many creatures return to the birth of their place once they’ve matured and believe they can flourish – meaning it very well may get bigger.
Meanwhile, Eleven points out that there’s nothing stopping the plant queen from opening more gates to the Upside Down and heralding the return of all the monsters they’ve so far vanquished, including the Mind Flayer. Not great news.
So, the plan is set: Mike and El are tasked with luring the queen away from the gate, with Lucas, Max and Dustin set to distract the creatures around her, and Will standing guard. Meanwhile, Nikki works on repairing her light blaster, which got damaged thanks to Daniel’s stunt.
A massive battle ensues, but nothing our heroes try seems to work and El struggles to close the gate. As the queen heads back towards the gate to the Upside Down, Dustin and co manage to harpoon it and Nikki finally gets her blaster working, severing the queen’s arm.
It’ll take more than that to kill the it though. It’s still alive and starts crawling towards the gate once again. But, finding new strength, Eleven levitates and manages to close the gate while the plant queen is crossing, stopping the creature in its tracks and finally killing it.
But, of course, that’s not quite the end.
Three weeks later, the chaos seems to be over, and Hopper has a chat to El about extending her curfew so she can play D&D with the gang. Meanwhile, it’s revealed that Nikki and Mrs Baxter are staying in Hawkins.
But, in the background, the Upside Down is still lurking. As Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again plays, we see a shot of the plant queen lying dead, but with a flower – that has an uncanny resemblance to a Demogorgon – blooming from inside her.
It seems there’s new life in the Upside Down yet.
Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 will air on Netflix on Thursday 23 April. All Stranger Things seasons are available to stream on Netflix now.
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