Stranger Things – ‘The Mind Flayer’

‘The Mind Flayer’ is one of the most action-packed and memorable episodes of Stranger Things. The first half is a frightening and gruesome attack of ‘demo-dogs’ on Hawkins lab, which culminates with a tragic death. The second half is a slower build towards the finale and to Eleven’s grand entrance at the end of the episode.

The critic in me looks back at the episode’s first half and sees a somewhat typical sequence of running away from monsters that wouldn’t be out of place in your average zombie movie. In particular, the high survival rate for characters that we know is at odds with the massacre of every single character we don’t know who was in the lab. But this is really only a small niggle, which barely crossed my mind when I first watched the episode. By contrast, I was totally gripped, rooting for a successful escape and sharing in the characters’ fear.

Killing of the character we’ve known for the least amount of time is kind of the easy choice

In the end, it had to be that Bob was the one to fall. Even though his sacrifice was clearly built up to, I was still incredibly sad to see Bob fall to the floor and be mauled by a demo-dog as Hopper dragged Joyce away. It’s sad because Bob was such a wonderful character, and Sean Astin brought Bob to life so well. Bob was not obviously heroic, compared to the more brazen Hopper, but this actually made him even more of a hero (or, indeed, a ‘superhero’). Astin excellently played him as being obviously scared and well outside of his comfort zone. Bob ending up seeming so real and so human. That final smile he gives to Joyce, just before he’s lynched by the demo-dog from behind, sums him up so well. He never believed that someone as normal as himself would die like this.

But, unfortunately, I did believe it. Bob was the obvious choice to die, as the most recently introduced character. Killing of the character we’ve known for the least amount of time is kind of the easy choice, especially when you then realise that the character was probably created for that precise reason in the first place. Having one of the other characters die would have been bolder and much more of a game-changer. It would have hit harder on both the characters and the audience.

There is less to say about the second half of the episode, which finally sees all the main characters together in one place and moves the plot on ready for the finale. I rather like the scenes with Will in the shed. The memories which Joyce, Jonathon and Mike share with him are so mundane, but that is what makes them so touching. It reminds us that, a bit like Bob, Will was just an ordinary and innocent boy who didn’t ask for any of this. It also supports the point I made in an earlier review about what a genuinely sweet family Joyce and the boys are.

Eleven is back and will inevitably steal the limelight

The family set up for Max and Billy, however, is not nearly so sweet, as we get a glimpse at the violent father figure who’s made Billy the brute that he is. The trouble is Billy has been too far on the side-lines for this to have any impact by this point. As for Max, she is still being told she’s not in the boy’s party. I definitely expected her to have played a bigger role in the series than she has thus far, and I can’t really see much room for her in the finale now that Eleven is back and will inevitably steal the limelight.

I mean, seriously, Eleven’s entrance was incredibly melodramatic. Gathered in that room as the episode cuts to the credits, there were so many great characters who we’ve grown to love and care for across this season and the last one. But I get the feeling that the finale will be Eleven’s story.