Diksha Sundriyal
The monsters from the Upside Down return in Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things: Tales From ’85.’ The animated series fills the gaps in between the second and the third seasons, expanding the ‘Stranger Things‘ universe by introducing new characters and plot elements. The show begins with a scientist running after a monster, which they kill. As the creature dies in a flash of fire, a green substance comes out of its body and floats in the air until it lands on a spot, where it gives birth to another creature. Throughout the show, the green stuff comes into the picture repeatedly. Eventually, it turns out to be the very reason for the monsters’ flourishing return to Hawkins. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Green Stuff was Not Intended for the Upside Down Monsters
The events in ‘Stranger Things: Tales From ’85’ take place after the second season, which ended with Eleven closing the gate to the Upside Down, blocking the path of any monster that may want to enter Hawkins. Due to this, everyone believes they have won the war against the monsters and that everything can go back to normal now. However, when the lab is shut down, one scientist gathers the remains of the creatures that died in Hawkins due to the closing of the gate. They couldn’t go back to their world, and the right side up was not the place they were built for. So, they die. This scientist, who turns out to be the store owner, Daniel, finds a way to bring them back, without actually knowing what he is getting into.
The closing of the Hawkins lab coincides with the arrival of Mrs. Baxter and her daughter, Nikki, in town. Mrs. Baxter is a substitute teacher who is there to replace Mr. Clarke, Dustin’s favorite science teacher, who is going on a break for that semester. While being a teacher is what helps her pay the bills, that is not Mrs. Baxter’s primary goal. She is a scientist and has been working on a project for several years. She has been focusing on finding a way to bring plant matter back to life. For this, she creates a green substance, which, when poured on a dead plant, should revive it. She works on it for years, and while she comes very close, there comes a time when it becomes clear to her that she may never succeed in her endeavor.
Meanwhile, she meets Daniel, who runs a convenience store, and starts a romantic relationship with him. Later, it turns out that Daniel is also a scientist. He used to work at the Hawkins lab, but because he lacked clearance, he had no idea what his superiors were working on there. When the lab closed, Daniel was left with nothing to show for it, which meant he could not get a job elsewhere. The only way he could go back to being a scientist and get the glory he had dreamed of was to create something of his own, something that would change the world. When he didn’t have any ideas of his own, he stole Mrs. Baxter’s research and kept working on her formula until he ended up tweaking it such that it started working on the creatures that were left behind when the door closed.
The Green Stuff Turns Out to be the Life Force of the Creatures
While Mrs. Baxter fails to revive plants with her formula, Daniel succeeds in using it to revive the Upside Down creatures. Of course, he had no idea where the creatures came from or how they died in the first place, because he was never promoted to the point where he would become privy to what was actually going on in the lab. He likely thought the creatures’ deaths were some sort of failure, and if he could bring them back, perhaps he could get the validation he had been wishing for all along. The formula wasn’t perfected overnight. He spent some time trying out different variations of it. But eventually, one vial succeeded in reviving a creature.
He reproduced this vial full of the green stuff, believing that he could present it to the scientific community and establish himself as a genius of his time. What he didn’t realize was that not only did this green stuff bring the monsters back to life, but it also gave them a boost that helped them evolve and survive outside of their home environment. This is why the monsters were attracted to its scent. They would attack and kill anyone and anything in front of them just to get a drop of the green liquid. To make things more interesting, once a monster died, the green stuff inside him would live on, bringing a new creature to life once it touched ground.
All in all, Mrs. Baxter’s formula becomes the lifeblood of the monsters. The more they have of it, the stronger they become. We see its effect in full force when the queen bee of the monsters, whom Daniel had been holding captive in his secret lab all this time, ingests all of the vials in his possession. The increased dose from multiple vials allows the creature to not only expand in size but also in power. It becomes so powerful that it starts to open a gate to the Upside Down. It takes all of Eleven’s powers and the help from her friends to finally stop the monsters and close the gate. All of this proves that without Mrs. Baxter’s formula, the creatures would never have been resurrected, and Hawkins would have had an entirely uneventful winter.
Read More: Why is Joyce Byers Not in Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85?
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