Stranger Things finale did one major thing right with the Mind Flayer after underutilising it throughout the show, details explored in-depth

The Stranger Things finale episode, Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up, which was released on Netflix on New Year’s Eve, has faced mixed reactions from fans so far. Some felt that the ending wasn’t fair, while some felt that all questions were not answered by the end. But irrespective of its faults, the show did do one major thing right with the Mind Flayer after underutilising it throughout the show.

The second and third seasons of the show heavily implied that the Mind Flayer, which looked like a demon version of a monster-sized spider, was the show’s main villain. But then Season 4 and most of Season 5 focused on how Vecna was behind it all, whether it was the Demogorgons or Billy Hargrove’s torment. The Stranger Things finale has finally used the Mind Flayer as the big bad villain that it is.

Stranger Things finale used the Mind Flayer well

While Stranger Things Season 1 introduced the Demogorgons as the villains of the season, the next two seasons introduced Demodogs, the shadow monster version of the Mind Flayer, and finally the Mind Flayer itself. Then in Season 4, we were introduced to Vecna, aka Henry Creel, aka 001, the very first person Dr. Brenner performed experiments on. Eleven’s powers were used and manipulated by Dr. Brenner, and she sent Henry to Dimension X when she was a child. Years in Dimension X, and then in the Upside Down, turned him into the monster Vecna.

Thus, while there were rumours that the Mind Flayer was still the big villain, the show hadn’t addressed it since Season 4. Finally, the Stranger Things finale, Chapter Eight: The Rightside Up, showed us how the Mind Flayer had taken over Henry when he was just a child. This happened after he came across an extradimensional object in a cave. Will tries to make Henry understand that the Mind Flayer simply used him as a vessel, just as it used Will, but it was too late. Henry believed that he and the Mind Flayer needed each other to sustain and were one and the same.

We then see that Henry isn’t entirely wrong because his den was inside the Mind Flayer, where he had kept the bodies of the twelve children he had kidnapped. The Stranger Things finale then finally uses the Mind Flayer as the villain it is. We slowly see Vecna’s den transform into the living entity of the Mind Flayer, which looks like a hungry, monstrous spider running after the Hawkins crew. It is huge, uses its legs to kill, and in the Stranger Things finale, we finally see it in action as the big bad villain it has always been.

While Eleven fights Vecna from inside the Mind Flayer, Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, Robin, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin fight it from the outside. In a moving twist, Will attacks Vecna from inside, twisting his arm, and thus they all kill him together. Killing Vecna also kills the Mind Flayer, and the children are finally rescued, and everyone heads back home through the Upside Down.

While the Mind Flayer and Vecna are finally dead now, the Stranger Things finale did one thing right by finally showing us the Mind Flayer in its real form and in action. It helped viewers understand how Henry really believed whatever the Mind Flayer showed him to be real and chose to let it use him. Thus, he became one and the same with it, each needing the other to sustain.

The Stranger Things finale is now streaming on Netflix.

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