Diksha Sundriyal
Eleven and her friends return to Hawkins with the second season of Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85.’ Taking place between the events of the parent show’s second and third season, it follows the adventures of the core group as they fight the creatures that were left behind when Eleven closed the gate in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 2 finale. By the end of the first season of ‘Tales of ‘85,’ she, once again, has to use her powers to close the gate, but the danger is not completely averted yet. After a few weeks of calm, another storm starts to brew in the woods of Hawkins. And once again, it falls on the young teenagers to save the day at all costs. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 Recap
It has been a few weeks since the Hawkins Investigators Club closed the gate to the Upside Down, and since then, they have not received any case that has even a hint of supernatural or otherworldly creatures. Except for Dustin, everyone in the group is ready to move on, and some of them are more interested in Valentine’s Day, which is only a few days away. Mike wants to ask Eleven to be his girlfriend, but he is gripped by fear and nervousness and unable to say the words aloud. Meanwhile, Lucas asks Max to be his Valentine, but she doesn’t believe in the pomp and show of the day. She also doesn’t reveal the personal reason behind why she’d prefer to stay at home and watch a wrestling match rather than go out on a date with Lucas.
This leads to a fight, and they break up, but anyone who knows them knows it won’t last long. Nikki and her mother are also suffering financially. Though they decided to stay in Hawkins, Nikki’s mom was a substitute teacher, and now that the main teacher is back, she is left jobless. She starts working at a diner, but the financial burden reveals how much pressure she is under, making Nikki feel guilty about keeping them there. The group’s night activities at HIC have also led them to fall behind in school. Elsewhere, Hopper has to go out of town for a few days to receive the Governor’s award, leaving Eleven free to hang out with her friends for a while.
To make up for it, the boys decide to make a documentary about the town’s founder, Samuel Hawkins. This gets them interested in Bloodaxe Bill, a miner who was believed to have killed several people and was stopped by Samuel Hawkins. Bill’s descendants are now the Dandridges, who are treated badly in town, which has pushed them into poverty and crime. Charlie Dandridge and his uncle break into the arcade to rob it, but when the cops arrive, they are forced to flee into the woods. This is where they encounter mysterious glowing blue flowers and a vicious entity, later identified as a Lich, that chases after them. Eventually, Eleven and the gang discover the existence of these new creatures and decide to stop them once and for all.
Is Mike Saved? Are the Golem and the Blue Flowers Destroyed?
Over the course of the investigation, the HIC gang discovers glowing blue flowers that power the mysterious creature lurking in the woods and attacking people. They also discover that the flowers don’t glow on their own. They only do it when they are near someone who is in emotional distress. Fear, it turns out, powers them, and this power is then absorbed by the entity, which grows more powerful the more it feeds. To make matters worse, the bluish ghost-like creature is not the worst part about this whole ordeal. The ghost is building a body for itself, which the gang discovers when they return to the tunnels where they’d defeated the nefarious creatures Daniel had brought to life only weeks ago. They find seven golems made of tree branches, which look like failed experiments.
However, an eighth space remains empty, indicating that this golem was a success and that the ghost has now possessed it. Sure enough, they find the giant tree-like creature in the wild, covered with the blue flowers to continue to power it. To make matters worse, it is attacking people to power itself up to the point that it can open the gate to Upside Down again. The attempts to stop it turn out to be futile, even with Eleven’s powers. The creature grabs Mike and pulls him inside its body. Mike’s fear gives it the power it needs, and it continues to send that power to open the portal. The gang believes the blue flowers are the source of their power, so they decide to destroy them all. Lucas and Max go around town setting the blue flowers on fire wherever they find them.
The only problem they face is Jeff and his friends, but eventually they succeed in destroying the flower infestation around town. Meanwhile, Charlie, Dustin, Nikki, and Will drive into the tunnels, which are filled with gas that could ignite the whole place with a single spark. The quartet succeeds in setting the tunnel on fire, destroying all the blue flowers inside. Now, the golem’s only source of power is Mike’s fear. Eleven calls out to him, telling him to let go of that fear. Once he stops being afraid, the golem will lose its powers and die. Her words strike a chord within a weakening, Mike. He remembers Nancy’s advice to take a deep breath and let the fear go with the exhale. The trick works, and once his fear is gone, the golem loses power over him. With some help from Eleven, he is able to claw his way out of the creature’s chest, leaving it to die.
Is Daniel Dead or Alive? Does He Open the Gate to Upside Down?
While the blue flowers and the golem are the ones they have to fight, the HIC gang also wonders what brought them to life. To get to the bottom of this mystery, Eleven takes a trip into the Void, where she discovers that Daniel is the one behind all of this. At the end of Season 1, he was consumed by the creature who was thrown into the Upside Down by Eleven. The creature died, but Daniel was still alive inside it. When he found his way out of it, he discovered he was not in his own world. Since he still had the vials, he tried to get them working again, but failed. This is when the blue flowers came into the picture. Using them gave him the concoction he needed, and he injected himself with it. However, it didn’t work the way he thought it would.
Instead of getting back to his world, he ended up lying on the field inside the forest, and from him, the blue flowers started to emerge. These flowers became his connection to the Rightside Up world, and soon, he discovered he could use them to open the portal to get himself back home. He missed Nikki and her mother, and while love motivated him to take this step, he was also consumed with fear. This is why fear became the fuel that powered the flowers and the golem. This also means that the ghost-like entity was actually him, and he was the one controlling the golem from the other side. Having been trapped in the Upside Down himself, Will knew what it felt like, and he tried to reach out to Daniel. But the man was too far gone by that time. Eventually, the HIC gang destroys all the flowers.
Since there is nothing to power the golem and the portal anymore, the gate to the Upside Down is closed, killing any chance of Daniel’s return to his world. Sure enough, the golem turns into a weird-looking tree with branches like arms reaching out to the portal, which is not there anymore. With the golem dead and the flowers gone, Daniel’s power source goes away. His body dissipates into nothing, suggesting he had physically died shortly after he took the drug and fell in the field. The flowers had used his essence to grow and spread, so as much as they were powering the creature created by the mind, they were also feeding on his body. This is why, when they are gone, Daniel is gone too, this time, for good.
Is the Dandridge Curse Lifted? Does Nikki Leave Hawkins?
When the HIC first comes across the blue flowers and the creature lurking in the woods, they think it is a ghost. Since the gate to the Upside Down is closed, they know no creatures can come to their side. This means they are dealing with something else, and it is pretty easy to believe that it’s a ghost. To understand whose ghost it is, they learn about the town’s history and come across the tale of Bloodaxe Bill. He is an infamous killer who was accused of killing several miners with his axe. He was so hated in town that his descendants, the Dandridges, were considered the scum of the Earth and treated with suspicion and disrespect. To the townspeople, the story went that when Bill died, he cursed the town of Hawkins, including his bloodline. But for the Dandridge family, the curse was the black spot on their name, which they couldn’t remove, no matter what they did.
Eventually, the group discovers that Bill was an innocent man. Instead of killing the miners, he stood up for them because he didn’t want them digging into a place that looked like nothing but trouble. When he shared this concern with the mine’s owner, Samuel Hawkins, he was killed, and his name was besmirched. The team finds evidence supporting their case when they chance upon Bill’s skeleton in the mines. They know it’s him because of his infamous silver axe. What confirms the identity of his killer is Samuel Hawkins’ ring found near the body. Charlie takes it before they destroy the tunnel, and later, it is used to clear Bill’s name. The boys make their documentary, exposing the truth about the town’s founder, restoring the Dandridge name to its respect and dignity, and lifting the family curse for good.
Things work out well for the HIC as well. The boys complete their film and get good grades for the assignment. Lucas and Max patch up after a conversation in which she reveals why she doesn’t like Valentine’s. Mike gets over his fear and asks Eleven to be his girlfriend. Things get better for Nikki, too, as her mother reveals that she got the job as the biology teacher at Hawkins High School. This job comes with higher pay and perks that are enough to solve their financial problems. Nikki is glad that they are finally getting their footing back. But the past few days have also taught her that she can do more than just sit around and let her mother bear the burden. She’d told Will she was going to take a break from the HIC so she could get a job and make some money. It seems she is going to stick to that plan.
Read More: Why Isn’t Steve Harrington in Stranger Things: Tales from 85 Season 2?
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