Right before Halloween—a pumpkin poisoning mystery hits Hawkins. Perfectly healthy pumpkins at local farms all rot overnight. Farmers point fingers at rival farms, and Hawkins PD gets dragged into the mess. While Hopper's stuck mediating between furious farmers, his officers kick back. "Basically Hawkins' own <Chinatown>." They laughed it off—but oops, turns out a massive conspiracy really was lurking underneath.