Stranger Things: Tales From '85 ending explained – Does Nikki die? Where did the monsters come from?

Four months after the release of Stranger Things season 5, Netflix has finally unleashed all 10 episodes of animated spin-off Stranger Things: Tales From '85. It might be a little throwaway, given that it takes place in between seasons 2 and 3 of the flagship series and, subsequently, doesn't have any real stakes – but there's no denying that it's a real treat to hang out with our favorite Hawkins heroes again.

During a time when things didn't feel quite so… tense, too. By the end of season 2, Eleven, Will, and co had fought off vicious Demogorgons and uncovered dark truths about the lab full of sinister scientists at the center of the Indiana town. They hadn't yet met Vecna, however, and been tasked with essentially saving the entire world. With that, Tales From '85 has the time (and tone) to remind us what it's like to have a laugh in between life-threatening situations. That's not to say, though, that the cartoon-y TV show doesn't revolve around its very own mystery...

Since Eleven closed the Gate to the Upside Down a few weeks before Tales' first episode kicks off, The Party is as surprised as anyone to discover that there are new monsters wreaking havoc in Hawkins. A snow shark? Jerk-O-Lanterns? Killer vines? Having never faced anything like 'em before, the youngsters set out to find out exactly what they are, where they came from, and how to stop them. The answers to which aren't as straightforward as you'd think. Fortunately for you, we've knocked up this handy spoiler-filled guide to answer all your burning questions about the Stranger Things: Tales From '85 season 1 finale. So if you're dying to know whether it killed off punky new kid Nikki (since she was never mentioned in the main series) or how Mike, Will, and co bested the beasties, scroll on, mouthbreathers!

Stranger Things: Tales From '85 ending recap

Having fallen into the ground after the confrontation at the Baxter house, Dustin and Daniel – who, it turns out, stole some of Nikki's mom's experiments to try and claim her discoveries for himself – descend deeper and split up to try and find the others.

Almost immediately, Dustin is grabbed by Max and Lucas, who urge him to "be quiet" in light of the Queen stalking in the vicinity. Meanwhile, Daniel stumbles across a trapped Will, but elects to pick up the surviving vials of plant-reviving serum rather than help the Byers boy. When a creature comes close, he runs off with the vials and leaves Will – but luckily, Dustin, Max, and Lucas come to his rescue.

Elsewhere, Nikki, Mrs. Baxter, and Mike make their way into the sewers... after picking up a bunch of the former's makeshift weapons, of course. After Lucas slices one of the monster's attacking vines off, Nikki uses her light blaster against it, sending it into the shadows.

The team then walks deeper into the caves in search of El. "We're gonna find her, Mike. We can't play DnD without our mage," Will whispers to comfort his pal. His pep talk is cut off, though, when a bunch of neon nasties start circling them. The little ones, having captured Daniel, present him to the Queen, who tries to play an ill-advised game of fetch with his inadvertent creation and a vial of serum. It lands and explodes near Nikki, as Mrs. Baxter yells, "Daniel, how could you, you monster?!" As El said in an earlier episode... "Sometimes adults do bad things."

The Queen charges towards Nikki, as Baxter huddles over her daughter to protect her. Eleven arrives in the nick of the time, though, and sends the stunned creature hurtling backwards with her telekinetic powers. As she reunites with the gang, the Queen swallows Daniel whole, and since he was holding a bunch of vials, supercharges... and starts opening a Gate to the Upside Down. Uh oh.

"I have to stop it," El says, before Mike interjects, "We have to stop it. Together."

"Why does it wanna get to the Upside Down?" Will whispers, as Baxter ponders: "Many creatures, I guess even from other dimensions, return to the place of their birth once they've matured and believe they can flourish."

"If she can open one gate, she can open many gates," El adds, as the Queen continues to push her way into the Upside Down. In short, The Party quickly realizes they've got to act fast. Will says he'll defend Nikki while she fixes her broken blaster, as Lucas, Dustin, and Max volunteer to protect her, too. As the group battle her minions, Eleven uses her powers to distract the Queen.

Struggling to fix the blaster, Nikki has a crisis of faith, crying to her mom that they "need to just run and get out of here!" "Baby girl, I have been running my whole life," Baxter answers, handing Nikki a screwdriver. "Not you, never you. You never run. You do this. Now take a breath and create."

Dustin harpoons the advancing Queen, before he, Max, Lucas, Will, and Mike desperately try to pull her back from the Gate. Baxter's encouragement of Nikki looks to do the trick, though, and in the next scene, as a bloodied Eleven orders the Queen to "stop hurting [her] friends" and pulls the walls down on top of it, Nikki sends a blue laser right into the monster's left shoulder – and cuts its arm off. The injured beast continues to drag itself towards the Upside Down, though, forcing Eleven to use her last bit of strength to levitate into the air and bring both sides of the Gate together, crushing it into a squelching of green goo.

Three weeks later, Hopper agrees to extend Eleven's curfew, allowing her to go play DnD with the gang at Nikki's new house on the outskirts of town. Before the credits roll, we catch a glimpse at a dead plant-monster in the Upside Down. As Vera Lynn's 'We'll Meet Again' plays, a flower grows out of its back and glows blue, before it sprouts a Demogorgon head and screeches.

So, where did the new monsters come from?

Well, it turns out that the monsters in Stranger Things: Tales From '85 kind of came about by accident... A classic move, to not have a truly bad villain, in an animated spin-off that skews younger than its live-action counterpart.

Mrs. Baxter, who the kids first suspected to be behind the creation of the creatures, was just trying to make a substance that could bring dead plants back from the dead. Unfortunately, though, the goo she was tinkering with mixed with leftover Upside Down spores from the Upside Down and made... monsters. Eleven may have closed the Gate but there were still remnants topside, you see? Remember in Stranger Things season 1, when local farmer Merrill Wright called Hopper out to his pumpkin patch to have a look at the rotting crops? Remember how it essentially became "ground zero" for the expansion of the Upside Down? Well, yeah... that's why a bunch of monsters – including the spooky Jerk O'Lanterns – spawned there. Because the Upside Down's particles there were so strong.

Daniel made things worse by directly injecting the serum into vines and other fantastical flora from the Upside Down... and failing to contain them inside his not-so-secret lab under his green house when they started to transform.

Who was the scientist at the start of Stranger Things: Tales From '85?

In episode 10, titled 'Countdown', it's revealed that the scientist who torched the creature in the show's cold open is Daniel. It's not explicitly stated, though.

When they break into the Baxters in the previous episode, Max and Will found (and watched) some research tapes that see someone in a yellow hazmat suit inject vines from the Upside Down with Mrs. Baxter's serum. "That must be Mrs. Baxter," Max suggested aloud at the time, but in the finale, Daniel berates the kids for breaking into the house and stealing his tapes. With that, we can assume that the cold open was the aftermath of him chasing after the "plant-creature that freaked out" in the video.

What happened to Daniel?

It seems safe to say that Daniel is dead, marking Mrs. Baxter's phony, bespectacled boyfriend as the show's only major casualty.

After prioritizing the retrieval of the vials of serum over helping the others kill the Queen, Daniel was eaten by the monstrous creature while holding a bunch of vials. This gave the Queen the strength to open the Gate to the Upside Down. So while Daniel didn't intend to put Hawkins at risk, his careless actions got The Party into this mess... and, well, it's only fair he got his comeuppance.

Does Nikki die in Stranger Things: Tales From '85?

No, Nikki doesn't die at the end of Stranger Things: Tales From '85. It's a pretty big deal, too, because it's almost Stranger Things tradition at this point for beloved new characters not make it to the end of their respective seasons: RIP Barb, Bob, Chrissy, and Eddie.

Nikki, in fact, proves crucial to The Party's fight against the new monsters, crafting all sorts of weapons to help them overpower the botanical baddies. Most notable of which is her light blaster, which she uses against the Queen in season 1's final few moments.

Episode 10 wraps up with the gang cycling over to Nikki and Mrs. Baxter's new place on the outskirts of town to play Dungeons & Dragons. "Part bard, part berserker and some leftover Legos," Dustin, Lucas, and Will say with a smile, as they present her with her own figurine.

"You guys… made me a character?" she whispers, as Will replies: "Of course. Everyone in our group has a character." Cute stuff.

"I'm hoping that everything goes well and we continue the story," showrunner Eric Robles tells GamesRadar+, when we ask why it was so important to him to keep Nikki around. "I don't feel that her story is over, and I really feel that she's contributed to this story. It's not like this was the plan, right? But going into this and creating this character, we fell in love with her, and now we're telling stories with her. So if the community out there really embraces what we're trying to offer them, we'll give you guys more adventures, right?"

Will there be a Stranger Things: Tales From '85 season 2?

Netflix has yet to greenlight a second season of Stranger Things: Tales From '85 but if Robles gets his way, the series will definitely back to offer up "more adventures".

In an interview with GamesRadar+, he said: "I can't predict how big this thing can grow. Like, it might become something that everybody wants more of, and then we'll just continue to grow and see where it goes from there. I'm happy to do that. We're all happy to do that, because I feel like we've only just started creating this world that's becoming its own thing."

"The more ownership that we have as, not only the filmmakers, but as a community of people who enjoy this," he continues. "Then we can start to kind of branch out and keep growing." We'll be sure to keep you posted on any developments.

Stranger Things: Tales From '85 is streaming now. For more, check out our picks of the best Netflix shows for some watchlist inspiration.