WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the second season of Stranger Things, streaming now on Netflix.


Stranger Things picked up on the dangling threads of its debut season, with Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) still connected to the Upside Down and seeing visions of that mirror universe a year after being rescued from it. Events came to a head in Season 2 when he was possessed by what he called the Shadow Monster, later renamed the Mind Flayer after a creature from Dungeons & Dragons, leading to a desperate by his friends and family to break Will from its grip. His possession tied together everything, as the Lovecraftian monster turned out to be a hive-mind entity and a virus that controlled the "Demodogs" that stalked Hawkins, Indiana.

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That also led to the breach at Hawkins National Laboratory growing even larger, with the sentient vines from the Upside Down spreading through a network of tunnels beneath the town. To stop those combined threats, everyone had to once more unite as part of a master plan. Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Steve (Joe Keery), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and newcomer Max (Sadie Sink), torched the vines, drawing the Demogorgon dogs (or Demodogs) to them, giving Chief Hopper (Jim Harbour) and the only person who could really fight the Upside Down, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), time to seal the rift.

While Eleven maxed out her powers, Will's mom Joyce (Winona Ryder), brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Mike's sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer) exposed Will to heat, driving the Mind Flayer out from him and back to the Upside Down. When Eleven sealed the breach, she also fought off the Mind Flayer's attempt to return to the real world, and as usual, saved the day. With the cast for Season 2 expanded and a lot more going down, let's take a look at how the Duffer Brothers wrapped the finale, fittingly titled "The Gate," and set up Season 3.

Justice For Barb ... Finally!

Season 1's focus on Will's disappearance and not Barbara Holland's (Shannon Purser) was a point of contention among fans. Nancy's best friend, Barb perished after being abducted by the Demogorgon while she lingered alone by Steve's pool, waiting impatiently for the lovebirds. Her fate was harsh, as she was only looking out for her friend and trying to protect Nancy's innocence when she was snatched away. We eventually saw that she was indeed dead in the Upside Down, and series creators the Duffer Brothers smartly used this as Nancy's emotional driver in the second season.

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Racked with guilt, Nancy worked with Jonathan and Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman), a kooky investigator hired by the Hollands to find their daughter, to secretly record researchers at Hawkins National Laboratory incriminate themselves, and then release the tapes to the public. In some of the final seasons of the season, Project MKUltra is shut down, and Hawkins National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy are forced to admit "their involvement in the death and cover-up of Hawkins resident Barbara Holland," whom they claim died because of exposure to "an experimental chemical asphyxiant" that had leaked from the grounds of the lab.

With that, a year after the events of Season 1, Barbara Holland at last receives a funeral.

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Jane's Got a New Dad

Following the events of the first season, in which Eleven killed the Demogorgon, got lost in the Upside Down and eventually returned, we saw that Jim Hopper kept her hidden in his cabin in the woods, forming an intriguing father-daughter dynamic. Given that he lost his own daughter to cancer, it proved to be one of the season's strongest points as Eleven was constantly rebelling to see her friends while Hopper made it clear he had to keep her hidden for her own protection.

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That led to Eleven discovering her origins on her own, following up on the investigation conducted by Hopper and Joyce in Season 1. She met her mother, the now-catatonic Terry Ives, and found someone else who escaped Project MKUltra, Kali (aka Eight), a young woman who can implant visions in people's minds. However, Kali's use of her powers for violence and murder drove Eleven back home, where she saved her friends from some Demodogs and broke the Upside Down's hold on Hawkins.

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Afterward, Hopper met Dr. Owens (Paul Reiser), whom he saved in the lab as the breach was sealed and bargained for his help to ensure Eleven could lead a normal life if they escaped. In one of Season 2's final scenes, Owens meets Hopper for lunch, and gives him an envelope containing documents that reveal Eleven is now Jane Hopper. Whether that means she's his adoptive daughter or simply posing as a relative remains to be seen, but it makes official the father-daughter bond we watched throughout the season. Owens warned that Hopper and Jane should wait a year before she comes back out into the public eye, but with so many people seeing her in action already, trouble could already be brewing. Hopper knew this but he still struck a second bargain, for Jane to have one night as a normal teen, as he felt she deserved a reward for saving the town twice.

The Romantic Future

The Snow Ball at Hawkins Middle School more or less brought together the show's romantic threads beginning with the love triangle involving Lucas, Dustin and Max. While Lucas and Max ultimately paired off, Dustin attempted to put on a more cavalier front after undergoing mentoring by Steve, who even offered him hair-care tips. Unfortunately, Dustin was unable to find anyone who'd dance with him, and swiftly dropped the facade, and ended up in tears.

Seeing Dustin's s despair, Nancy (who was on punch duty) took it upon herself to improve his nerd cred by dancing with him, making the girls who rejected him jealous while soothing his bruised ego by admitting that, of all of her brother's friends, he's always been her favorite.

But we can't forget Mike and Eleven Jane. After Hopper made sure to kill off one attempted kiss when they reunited, they received a second chance at the ball. It was poetic, because Mike asked her to this dance last season but she disappeared following the death of the Demogorgon. Fast-forward to now, and it was so cute watching them fumble around, learning to dance with each other, and eventually kissing again.

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The Ballad of Hopper and Joyce

After Hopper took Joyce into the Upside Down to rescue Will in Season 1, fans thought they might explore a romance especially as we learned more about their cigarette-sharing and unspoken affinity for each other in high school. However, it was newcomer Bob Newby (Sean Astin) who provided Joyce with romantic company while Hopper worked on being a father to Eleven and tied to keep Hawkins safe from the rift. The issue of Will still seeing visions of the Upside Down, and his subsequent possession, also complicated matters.

Matters got even worse because when the Demodogs attacked the lab, a trap that "evil Will" set while possessed by the Shadow Monster, the creatures killed and devoured Bob, who helped to take the building off lockdown and allowed everyone else to escape. At the Snow Ball, we saw Joyce and Hopper sharing another cigarette, but this time he wasn't pining for her. He instead offered her comfort as she struggled with Bob's death.

Every Move Hawkins Makes ...

As the show transitioned into its final scene, from Hopper and Joyce in the parking lot back to Hawkins Middle School, the camera cut to the Upside Down, while The Police's "Every Breath You Take" played. As we saw the darkened and derelict high school in the Upside Down, guess what was hovering over? That's right, the Mind Flayer, which clearly harbors some animus for Hawkins. And after the kids stopped its spread, this Shadow Monster is certain to come back for its vessel, Will, as well as for Eleven, who sealed the rift, and everyone else who torched its vines.

It's a virus, a parasite and a hive-mind that wants to destroy the real world by spreading its dark essence, so by closing the breach, but still leaving the creature alive, all Eleven did was delay the inevitable. Season 3 may well bring about another phase of its invasion, and fans are eager to see whether there are more Demodogs in the real world, if those that died might come back to life, or if any other creatures are secretly lurking from the Upside Down.

RELATED: How Stranger Things Season 2 Delivers Justice For Barb

We don't know what else escaped this season from the dark dimension, and with Dustin and Hopper exposed to the spores underground, maybe they could be future conduits for the creature. Whatever the case, the Duffers have made it clear a major threat is still watching every move that Hawkins makes, and with work under way on Season 3, we're eager to see what the Mind Flayer throws at the town next.


Now streaming on Netflix, the second season of Stranger Things stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Cara Buono, Matthew Modine, Noah Schnapp, Joe Keery, Sadie Sink and Dacre Montgomery.