Episode 2 opens on "The Pipe Dream Server" over clips from later in the episode, then a title card reading "Episode 2, To the Stronghold!" over Basket at spawn. The plan comes in Basket's own words: "We're about to do the stronghold and then kill the Ender Dragon. So hopefully we survive."
Everyone meets at spawn
A crowd gathers around the chests in the spawn plaza: TopStiGearGaming, PsychoSFK, Th3pooka, Scoti_Garbidis, derpguru and Virii333 all show up by nameplate. TopStiGearGaming drops out of the game and comes back a couple of minutes later. There is a lot of armor talk, and one voice wants it known that "my entire armor is named dragon chain." Then the group steps through the portal by spawn. derpguru earns the "We Need to Go Deeper" achievement on the way, and Virii333 types in chat, "we are in the nether hub."
Iron golems in the Nether hub
The hub has a netherrack floor, torches, and a couple of iron golems wandering between the players. A voice explains they are not naturally spawned ones. "I'm pushing him forward," one voice says, and another reports, "he's resisting big time." Before going any farther, someone asks if everybody wants to "just do the tree lighting real quick," and they head back out.
The tree lighting
A huge Christmas tree stands on the mesa near spawn. A voice reads the sign at its base: "Feel free to add blocks to the tree." Basket hides the HUD and watches from a distance while a player builds a tall dark red column beside it. "I have put the first ornament," a voice announces. "It is a netherrack." The figure on top is "supposed to be a Santa."
The sky goes black, comes back to day, and then night falls for real. Small lights come on all over the tree, with a thin beam rising from its peak. "That's a bright tree," a voice says, and the voices cheer.
Across the Nether and a mesa
Back in the Nether hub the group follows a rail tunnel to another portal. rekozma joins the game, and the chat fills up: Virii333 asks "are you joining us Rekozma?", PsychoSFK adds "Come on and join us", and rekozma answers "no thank you" and "not going to be any fun for me now." The rest come out on a mesa at sunset, walk to the edge of an ocean and climb down into the dark. A voice realizes too late: "You know what I didn't bring? Torches!"
Inside the stronghold
The tunnels below are mossy stone brick, with skeletons, zombies and lava pools in the rooms. Basket has a water bucket on the hotbar and a Potion of Strength II in the inventory. The group finds the portal room, and someone sets a bed beside the portal. Basket tries it and gets "You can only sleep at night" over and over, so they wait and poke around the rest of the stronghold instead.
A photo on the portal
The group lines up on the portal frame for a picture while Basket hides the HUD to frame the shot. An enderman wanders into the room soon after, and a voice asks, "Anybody need a pumpkin?" Basket ends up wearing one. A voice asks if anyone has another potion of healing, another confirms "spawn set," and the last eye of ender goes in. The portal lights. The episode ends with the players standing around it, nobody through yet, before the end card rolls.
