INDOMINUS REX VS. MIND FLAYER

MIND FLAYER (Season 3)

Mind Flayer or Spider Monster

Biographical information

Status: Deceased

Died: July 4, 1985

Aliases: The Mind Flayer

Forms: The Mind Flayer (true body)

Relations: Hospital Monster, "The Flayed" :, Billy Hargrove, Heather Holloway, Bruce Lowe, Tom Holloway, Janet Holloway, Doris Driscoll and others

Physical information

Height: 30 ft tall

Portrayal

Appears in episodes: 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

The Spider Monster was the main antagonist of third season of Stranger Things.

It was created from the melted remains of the Flayed to serve as a physical body for the part of the Mind Flayer that had been trapped in Hawkins following the closure of the Gate. The monstrosity was essentially an enormous weapon the Mind Flayer had created to kill El Hopper and eventually her friends, and therefore eliminate the only thing standing in his way from annihilating the human race and taking over the Earth.

History

1984

A year following Will Byers' rescue from the Upside Down, the Mind Flayer began stalking him in a series of visions, culminating in him possessing Will through attaching a part of himself to the boy. This particulate served as a link between the Mind Flayer and Will, making him a part of the entity's Hive Mind. The Mind Flayer then began using Will as a means to spy on Hawkins National Laboratory so that he could eradicate the scientists who were keeping the Upside Down's biological growth at bay. However, this connection also allowed Will to learn the entity's weakness. When it was discovered the Mind Flayer was vulnerable to heat, Joyce, Jonathan, and Nancy strapped Will down and surrounded him with numerous space heaters, exorcising the particulate from Will's body which subsequently flew up into the sky. When Eleven closed the Gate, the particulate did not die like the Demodogs and other hosts, but rather entered a dormant state.

1985

In the summer of 1985, a secret Russian operation located beneath Hawkins' newly-built Starcourt Mall successfully re-opened the Gate into the Upside Down using the Key. The particulate's link with the Mind Flayer was re-established, reviving in Brimborn Steel Works where it immediately began to possess a horde of rats. The Mind Flayer then began constructing a physical body for himself out of the rats' remains, with the ultimate goal to kill the Party as revenge for closing the Gate the year prior. To achieve this, he realized he needed to find larger victims, particularly humans. His first host was Billy Hargrove, whom he then used to kidnap Heather Holloway, possessing her as well. Over the span of three days, several more Hawkins residents became hosts to the Mind Flayer, among them being Heather's parents, Tom and Janet Holloway, as well as Doris Driscoll and Bruce Lowe. These hosts would later be dubbed "the Flayed".

After discovering that the Mind Flayer had returned, the Party along with Nancy and Jonathan decided to use Doris as a way to find the location where the creature's victims were being flayed. When Nancy and Jonathan went to see Doris at the hospital, they were instead met by Tom and Bruce, who proceeded to attack them. After they had been killed in the ensuing fight, Bruce's and Tom's bodies melted and combined to form a grotesque monster. After the creature had been thrown out of a window by Eleven, it escaped into the sewers where it was absorbed into the Spider Monster's body.