‘Stranger Things’ Season 2, Episode 8 Review: “The Mind Flayer”

After Eleven’s side-quest adventure in “The Lost Sister,” we’re back in Stranger Things Season 2’s main narrative: the one that’s turning the Hawkins National Laboratory into Jurassic Park, or at least Attack the Block. “The Mind Flayer” (Stranger Things Season 2, Episode 8) asks its heroes to find their limits: of bravery, of friendship, of love, of cleverness, and the episode finds the best in all of them. As dark as “The Mind Flayer” gets, and it goes all the way down, there’s an optimism in its humanity.

But the demogorgon raptor pack climbing the lab’s elevator shaft is strictly alien, and they crash into the lab looking for blood as Dr. Owens pounds an emergency signal.

“Those are gun shots!” says Bob, ever helpful.

Mike realizes Will’s been compromised by the Shadow Monster: they need to put him to sleep to stop his spying, a plot device Netflix sci-fi fans will remember from Sense8. Owens leads the whole group—Mike, Will, Bob, Joyce, and Hopper—to a control room with surveillance footage, and with this plus not letting his colleagues kill Will, it seems there’s hope for the government to have hired at least one non-heartless scientist. The growing demogorgons are everywhere, but at least they’re on camera—until the power goes out.

Billy is still at home, minding his business and blissfully unaware his step-sister is out chasing trans-dimensional monsters. He’s getting ready for a date: blasting metal, smoking, spraying his hair (like Steve!), and reaching down to put cologne on his junk. (Was this really a move in the ‘80s? Did I miss this scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?) But with Max missing, he’s the one to blame, and his father becomes apparent as the source of Billy’s constant anger.

In short order, Billy’s dad calls him a homophobic slur, pushes him against the wall, and smacks him in the face, as Billy’s step-mom cringes in the doorway.

“What did we talk about?” he says.

“Respect, and responsibility,” Billy answers, and if his father’s abusive rigidity was born in a Vietnam deployment, we’re left to make the connection.

As Billy’s left crying, the nerd squad’s new lineup—Steve, Dustin, Lucas, and Max—shake off the terror of their monster encounter. Steve accidentally unveils Dustin’s lie about keeping Dart, and Lucas and Dustin squabble: Dustin lied but Lucas told Max the Upside Down truth, so both have broken their party’s Dungeons & Dragons-inspired “rule of law.” There’s a roar in the distance, and resolution will have to wait. The monsters have gone back home to the lab. Max walks toward the blue light, the Upside Down’s menace awaiting.

In the lab, Owens maps their way to the exit, but with the power out, they’ll have to reboot the computers. They’re going to need Bob, the only person in the room who knows the computer language Basic. Bob, who was just happy to be here, Bob, the sweet and simple man who offered to take the Byers family away from all this and brought Will brain-teasers when he was sick and really loves Kenny Rogers.

“Remember Bob Newby, superhero,” he tells Joyce, and the demogorgons are absolutely going to eat him.

He heads down the stairs as Nancy and Jonathan arrive at the lab, hoping to find Will and catching the gate closed and the power out instead. Rustling in the woods, they hear… Steve and the nerd squad. It’s funny, until the united group hears the roaring.

Super Bob makes his way into the foggy muck of the lower floors, blanching at the dead bodies in the computer room. He saves the day, flipping the power back on and restarting the doors, even setting off a sprinkler as distraction. You got this, Bob! But he exits without the gun Hopper gave him, which is the kind of mistake you make when you’re about to be eaten by monsters.

Over walkie-talkies, Owens leads Bob toward the exit, having him hide in a closet for a long trembling moment as a medium-sized demogorgon pauses outside and heads down the hall. As Bob steps out, a broom handle falls and knocks against the ground in slow motion. That’s Bob’s cue: he races for the exit and sees Joyce at the doors, the monster locked behind him. He gets one final smile before another one jumps him from off-camera. Hopper tries to shoot it down, but there are too many now, gorging on Bob in a gruesome crane shot that adds extra heartbreak. Bob Newby didn’t deserve this, but he died a hero.

At the Byers house, Hopper calls in a back-up request to someone but it doesn’t sound like he’s being taken seriously. Joyce is crushed, empty, huddled in a blanket unable to muster more. It’s the way she sat next to the bathtub after Will showed his flash of monster possession: helpless. Hopper goes to sit with her, no words required.

Bob gets a eulogy from Mike, carrying the brain-teasers. Bob was the original founder of their beloved Hawkins A.V. club, he reveals, and they have to avenge him. Dustin comes up with a name for the growing demogorgons—demo-dogs—and the group puts the plot pieces together. The Shadow Monster is the mind part of the Upside Down hive mind, and if they can stop him, they can stop his army. He’s like the Mind Flayer—another beast from their Dungeons & Dragons universe, an ancient creature which crosses dimensions to conquer other races “by taking over their brains,” Dustin explains.

Hopper’s distrustful, but as Dustin points out, “This is the best metaphor—“ (“Analogy,” Lucas corrects) “—for understanding whatever the hell this is.”

Close enough. Joyce finds her emotions again, this time, anger.

“We have to kill it,” she says. “I want to kill it.”

To do that, they need Will the spy back on their team. They empty out the Byers’ shed, the place Will once vanished from, and cover the walls up to obscure its location. In the break in the action, the personal drama subsides. Nancy and Steve have a moment, and Dustin apologizes about Dart: he realizes he’s lost his shot with Max to Lucas. Max tries to connect with Mike, but he’s still furious about Bob, and Eleven—he can’t let go of her, or let Max be a replacement.

Will’s tied down and woken with ammonia: his family and Mike try to guide him back with his memories. There was the birthday where he drew a spaceship, the day his father left, the day Mike asked him to be friends: it all comes pouring out, and Mike starts crying as he speaks. It’s the most poignant sequence of the season. Will stares back at them, visibly trying to push back to control, but he can’t.

“Let me go,” he says, or the Shadow Monster says for him. But Will’s still in there—Hopper sees him tapping out Morse code, and he gets a message through: “CLOSEGATE.”

That’s if they can survive their way back to the gate and the lab. The phone rings, and suddenly Will knows where he is: the Shadow Monster calls in its troops. There’s roaring in the distance again, and the demo-dogs reach the house. The tension rises until a monster crashes through the window, dead.

It’s Eleven, superhero. Back at last.

David Greenwald is a critic and cat owner in Portland who has written for The Oregonian, Billboard, and the Los Angeles Times. He has opinions on Twitter (@davidegreenwald).

Watch Stranger Things 2, Episode 8 ("The Mind Flayer") on Netflix