What happens to Nikki and the rest of the Hawkins party? By Belen Edwards on April 23, 2026
All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission.
After several harrowing encounters with “snow sharks” and “Jerk-O-Lanterns,” Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 ended with a decisive victory over the monsters of the Upside Down — or so the Hawkins party thinks. That’s because Tales From ’85 leaves the door open for more tales, which would still take place before the start of Stranger Things Season 3.
SEE ALSO: ‘Stranger Things: Tales from ’85’ review: This baffling prequel won’t cure the Season 5 hatred
From a possible Season 2 to the truth about the monsters and the fate of Nikki (Odessa A’zion), here’s what you need to know about the ending of Stranger Things: Tales From ’85.
Who created the Queen in Stranger Things: Tales From ’85?
Tales From ’85’s monstrous foes aren’t like Stranger Things’ Demogorgons or the Mind Flayer. They’re constantly evolving, and it’s all because of human experiments.
Dustin (voiced by Braxton Quinney) initially suspects substitute science teacher Anna Baxter (voiced by Janeane Garofalo) of creating the monsters, including the Queen who controls them. The evidence adds up: She’s a science teacher obsessed with evolution, and she’s working on cutting-edge research that can reanimate dead plant life. Plus, the view of the radio tower from her house matches up with the image that the monsters’ human victims remembered seeing after being swallowed.
SEE ALSO: Gaten Matarazzo hoped ‘Stranger Things’ fans would be conflicted about Dustin in Season 5
However, Anna was just a red herring. The culprit is actually her partner Daniel Fischer (voiced by Lou Diamond Phillips). Before he was a store clerk beefing with Dustin over change, he was a scientist at Hawkins lab. While he didn’t have high-level clearance, he did get his hands on a dead vine from the Upside Down. He brought it back to life using green goo similar to what Anna used in her experiments, and from there it evolved into the deadly monsters the Hawkins party faced off against. He thought he’d made a viable, controllable sample with the flower-like “Queen.” But turns out, her roots were growing deep below Hawkins, extending her and her offspring’s influence. When Dustin shows Dan the truth, the Queen transforms into a massive, almost unstoppable beast who tries to open a gate back to the Upside Down and return to her place of origin.
I say “almost” because Eleven (voiced by Brooklyn Davey Norstedt) manages to stop the Queen by telekinetically slamming the gate on her, chopping her in half. Not before the beast can eat Dan, though.
That’s the end of that saga, right? Wrong.
Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 sets up a Season 2.
The final scene of Tales From ’85 reveals that we may not have seen the last of this new breed of Upside Down beastie. Right before the credits roll, we see the corpse of the Queen lying prone in the Upside Down. While she’s dead, something within her isn’t: A small blue flower bursts from her skin, letting out a screech from its Demogorgon-like petal mouth. Funnily enough, the entire scene is set to Vera Lynn’s “We’ll Meet Again,” which also scores a haunting Stranger Things Season 3 sequence involving the Mind Flayer’s growing army of human hosts.
SEE ALSO: ‘Half Man’ review: Is Richard Gadd’s new series as good as ‘Baby Reindeer’?
Could this new flower be linked to Dan’s life source, since he was swallowed by the Queen and might still be in her corpse? Or is it just another stage in these creatures’ evolution? Either way, it’s clear that these monsters are sticking around a while longer. However, given that they’re not a threat in Stranger Things Season 3, or any future seasons, for that matter, you can guess that they’ll die out eventually. Tales From ’85 leaves the “how” of that open for the future. (Maybe Vecna does some weed whacking?)
What happens to Nikki in Stranger Things: Tales From ’85?
Speaking of characters who never come up in the rest of Stranger Things, let’s talk about Nikki. She’s the latest addition to the Hawkins party, which also comes to be known as the Hawkins Investigation Club in Tales From ’85. (Again, not something that comes up in the flagship series.)
Since Nikki isn’t involved in later seasons of Stranger Things, it’s clear she’s out of the picture by Season 3. However, Tales From ’85 keeps her firmly in the picture in its finale. While Nikki