Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 Season 2 Release Date and Recap

Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 returns with 10 new episodes

Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 is returning to Netflix on September 17 with a second season containing 10 episodes. The animated spin-off continues the adventures of Hawkins’ young heroes between the second and third seasons of the original series.

The first Stranger Things became a hit through its Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends, young ensemble cast and strong 1980s-inspired atmosphere. The animated series carries those elements into a new supernatural story, while also reflecting the era’s tradition of turning popular properties into cartoons.

Season 2 is set around Valentine’s Day. Its premise sees Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, Eleven and Max investigating ghostly apparitions and a swarm of unusual creatures causing trouble across Hawkins.

Before the new episodes arrive, here is a recap of the first season.

What happened in Tales from ’85 season 1?

The story begins when a small creature from the Upside Down is chased by a scientist wearing a hazmat suit. The scientist burns it, but the creature’s remains release spores into the air. Once those spores take root, more monsters emerge. They share features with other Upside Down creatures, but their appearance and behaviour are distinctly plant-like.

The Party soon learns about the threat. When a new Hawkins student named Nikki, voiced by Odessa A’zion, is attacked, Eleven, voiced by Brooklyn Davey Norstedt, uses her powers in front of her. Nikki is an outsider like the rest of the group and is welcomed into the friendship, developing a particularly strong connection with Will, voiced by Ben Plessala.

Max, voiced by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, and Lucas, voiced by EJ Williams, investigate the pumpkin patch previously seen in season 2. They discover that the pumpkins have become monsters, with some transported to a nearby festival. The group confronts a giant pumpkin creature there, and Eleven destroys it. However, each defeated monster releases more spores.

The investigation gradually points towards a human cause. Suspicion falls on Nikki’s mother, Anna, voiced by Janeane Garofalo, a plant-focused substitute science teacher at Hawkins Middle School. The real experimenter is Anna’s boyfriend Daniel, voiced by Lou Diamond Phillips, who previously worked as a low-level scientist at Hawkins Lab.

Daniel had been studying a dead plant from the Upside Down. His experiments accidentally created a living hive mind capable of controlling the plant monsters. When the children confront him, Daniel admits that the disaster began as an experiment that went wrong.

The group joins forces to stop the larger creature, but Daniel refuses to abandon his spore samples. The monster eats him during the final confrontation, while Eleven crushes the creature in a doorway leading to the Upside Down.

After the battle, the children celebrate with a game of Dungeons & Dragons. The season’s closing moment reveals that additional spores have produced another strange plant, leaving Hawkins with a fresh threat.

What to expect from season 2

The new season takes place roughly two months after the winter-break events of season 1, with Valentine’s Day approaching. Netflix’s season 2 description teases ghostly appearances and strange creatures disrupting the town.

Because the series is positioned between seasons 2 and 3 of the original show, its story has a limited space in the wider timeline. The first season also received a mixed response, so it is possible that season 2 could be the final instalment, although that has not been confirmed.

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Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 season 2 arrives on Netflix on September 17.