Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85 season 1 has finally arrived, and the newest addition to the Stranger Things franchise has truly left audiences divided.
On one hand, the show presents fans with a fun new journey with our favorite characters, taking us on an adventure we’d otherwise never get to experience. On the other hand, for a show that is said to be canon to the franchise, it also creates so many continuity headaches by introducing major events and characters that are never referenced in the main series. These contradictions pull you out of the story, making it feel disconnected from the established timeline.
Take, for example, the character of Nikki Baxter, who plays a pivotal role in the first season of Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85.
When we meet Nikki early in the season, it’s explained that she’s a transfer student who has recently arrived in Hawkins, which helps to explain why we hadn’t heard of her in Stranger Things seasons 1 or 2. She’s used to moving around a lot, which is why she doesn’t tend to form strong friendships or seek out connections.
As the season unfolds, Nikki forms a strong connection with Will and the gang as she’s thrust into the central storyline. Outside of the returning ensemble, Nikki is the biggest character of the series and is central to the mystery that unfolds over the course of the ten episodes. By the season’s end, Nikki has helped Eleven and the team to defeat the monster wreaking havoc on Hawkins and appears to secure a place in the party.
So why doesn’t Nikki appear in Stranger Things if she became such close friends with Eleven and the gang that winter?
This is a legitimate question for fans to have as they watch Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85, and it’s one that the show’s creator anticipated fans would have. So he prepared an answer and put it out into the world ahead of the season’s release. The only problem is that his reason makes absolutely no sense.
When addressing why Nikki doesn't appear in Stranger Things, Tales from '85 creator Eric Robles suggested that the 80s were simply a different time and that it was harder to stay in touch with people at the time.
“One thing that’s probably hard for a lot of people to understand is that in the ’80s, it wasn’t like it is now – you would have a friend that you would meet for summertime, if you went to camp, and they’d be amazing friends, and you’d have amazing adventures for that one summer. It wasn’t like you stayed in touch via Instagram or anything. If you got a phone number, maybe you stay in touch. But for the most part, people came in and out of your life, and they were your best friend ever for the two weeks or three months that you were with them, and then they’re out of your life. It’s the same concept with Nikki, but we’ll see what happens to her at the end of this thing," Robles explained to SFX Magazine (via GamesRadar).
That explanation doesn’t really hold up when you look at how relationships function within the Stranger Things world itself. Over the course of the show's five-season run, Stranger Things consistently established that shared trauma the Eleven and the others go through creates unusually deep, lasting bonds among the group, not fleeting “summer friend” connections that fade away once the moment passes.
In Nikki’s case, she isn’t some "camp friend." She's someone who Eleven and the group let into their world and trust so much that Eleven openly uses her abilities around Nikki without hesitation. Not only do they trust Nikki with Eleven's secrets, but the season ends on a note that makes it pretty clear she's been welcomed with open arms to the party.
Suggesting she’d drift out of their lives after a few weeks ignores the show’s own internal logic, as Stranger Things never treated relationships formed in crisis as temporary. Using a “that’s just how the ’80s were” argument feels out of sync with the emotional continuity the franchise has built and discounts Nikki's impact on the story Tales of '85 tells over the course of the season.
The sad reality is that if Robles wanted to use the drifted-apart reasoning to explain Nikki's absence in Stranger Things, he and the creative team had the perfect opportunity to write a story that would have fit that narrative. All they needed to do was end the season with Nikki and her mom leaving town. This would explain why Nikki failed to appear in the main show and would also align with Robles' "the 80s were different, 'camp friend'" reasoning, as it would have been understandable for the gang to lose touch once they left Hawkins.
Instead, we're left with a half-baked reasoning that makes no sense at all.
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