While Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 earned a mixed reception from fans and critics alike, the family-friendly Stranger Things spinoff has undeniably filled in one major plot hole from the original show. Between season 1’s debut in 2016 and the Stranger Things finale, the Netflix hit changed a lot in terms of tone and style. The show’s first outing was a dark, grim, mature, and relatively grounded small-town mystery that only revealed the extent of its sci-fi influences in its finale.
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In contrast, Stranger Things season 3 was cartoon-y, outlandish, and stuffed with predictable twists like Hopper’s fake-out death. A more garish outing than either of its predecessors, season 3 abandoned the believable plotting of the show’s first two outings in favor of introducing a body-snatching blob villain, a Terminator-inspired super-assassin, and a subplot involving Soviet spies operating a secret scientific lab under the local mall. As absurd as this sounds, the spinoff Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 did manage to justify the third of these plot details with a clever retcon seven years later.
Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 Explains The Location of Starcourt Labs
In Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, returning characters Dustin, Mike, Max, Will, Lucas, and Eleven are forced to face yet another set of monsters that have emerged from the Upside-Down. The series takes place in the months between season 2’s finale and season 3’s premiere, so the presence of Odessa A’zion’s prominent new character, Nikki Baxter, opens up a yawning plot hole since she is never mentioned in the later seasons of the original show. However, the crew’s adventures fighting monsters with Nikki also explain another, earlier plot hole.
It was always unclear why the shady Russian villains of season 3 would decide to place a gate to the Upside-Down under the Starcourt Mall, although viewers did at least find out how they got away this. The Soviets blackmailed the corrupt mayor of Hawkins, allowing them to set up this scheme until Hopper found out, but how they settled on such a specific and obviously prominent, highly populated location for this clandestine operation remained unexplained. Luckily, the ending of Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 justifies this choice.
While it seemed like the Russians could have opened a gate anywhere in Hawkins, the ending of Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 gate sees Eleven force closed a gate that was partly opened deep underground. This must have weakened the barriers between reality and Vecna’s Upside-Down at that precise point, which would explain why the Russian villains sought out such an otherwise tricky location despite its heavy footfall.
Stranger Things: Tales from ’85’s Lore Change Highlights The Spinoff’s Best Move
While Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 proves the Stranger Things franchise is now firmly family-friendly after the original show’s dispiritingly bloodless finale, the spinoff’s ending does prove that the new series serves a function. As well as filling in the blanks between seasons 2 and 3, the spinoff explained specific plot holes that Stranger Things otherwise left unsolved, such as the location of season 3’s gate to the Upside-Down. The new show might not be perfect, but there is now no denying that Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 has a clear purpose within the Stranger Things canon.
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