Stranger Things season 2, episode 8: The Mind Flayer, recap: the new Barb?

Warning: this recap contains spoilers!

With the end in sight, Stranger Things has switched into greatest hits mode. Season two’s penultimate episode felt like a mash-up of everything audiences adored about the original series. Demogorgons! (sorry, Demodogs). Obscure Dungeons and Dragons references! Winona Ryder shouting and rolling her eyes! The previous instalment’s wrong-headed attempt to expand the world of the show by sending Eleven to Chicago was immediately forgotten as we rejoined the gang at the Laboratory and dived straight into the action. Here is the rest of what we learned...

1. Will Bob become the new Barb? 

Sean “stop calling me Samwise Gamgee” Astin was probably only ever on board for a single series anyway and as soon as that Demogorgon has him in his sights you know it’s the end. The old horror trick of pretending a character is out of danger only to suddenly kill him off is neatly deployed – ensuring, we hope, that Bob, with his heroic command of Basic, will live on as an internet meme. 

2. How much more suffering must Will endure?

He's been possessed by the shadow demon – and now his best friend and mother want to tranquillise Will (Noah Schnapp) to prevent him serving as the monster's eyes and ears. The boy’s memories are meanwhile fading fast – to the point where he barely recognises his nearest and dearest. By the end of the hour he’s tied up and people are yelling at him about the first time they made his acquaintance. Imprisonment in the Upside Down feels like a holiday compared to what Will has had to endure this year. 

3. Huzzah! Another Dungeons and Dragons reference

In D&D lore, a "Mind Flayer" is an alien-like beastie with terrifying psychic powers and an insatiable urge to control “lesser” beings. A decent metaphor – sorry "analogy" – for the shadow monster and its dark plans for Hawkins you might say (especially if you’re as big a nerd as Dustin). On the subject of references, Bob going into the basement to reset the power harks back to Jurassic Park – raising the alarming possibility that, having sucked the Eighties dry, Stranger Things is now mining the Nineties for inspiration. Elsewhere, the scene in which Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) argue as they walk the rail-tracks is presumably a wink towards Stand By Me (then the entirety of Stranger Things could be considered a wink onwards Stand By Me).

4. So now we know why Billy is so angry 

The bully's rage against the world is explained as his father and step-mother return home to find Max (Sadie Sink) has absconded. Billy's dad is a thug who slaps his son (Dacre Montgomery) around – and then sends him onto the streets in search for his stepsister. With a brute like that for a father, most of us would be angry too – though we probably would not chose to rebel, as Billy has, by cultivating early Bon Jovi hair. 

5. The episode is a valentine to nerds everywhere

With the chips very much down, the only person capable of saving Joyce (Winona Ryder) and the gang is bumbling Bob – who utilises his computer programming expertise to reset the power grid and allow our the crew escape the laboratory. Action movie heroes having nothing on an IT geek with a reasonable command of Basic. 

6. It's confirmed – we have a new kind of Demogorgon

"Demodogs" is Dustin's neat coinage for the latest variety of petal-faced monster– a Demogorgon… only more doglike. Where did they come from? Why do they differ from last year's Big Bad? Some more background lore would be appreciated. 

Stranger Things | Season 2 recaps

7. Why doesn’t the shadow monster realise Will is using morse code? 

There are still vestiges of the old Will inside the possessed boy – and Will-within-Will bravely taps a morse code message to the crew as they pretend to attempt to jog his memories. But would an extra-dimensional being with a vengeful streak really be that easily hoodwinked? We're saying “no”. 

8. Eleven is back – and still dressed as a goth

We knew Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) was returning and she duly swoops in right at the end to save Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and the gang from the Demodogs surrounding the Byers house. It is sure to be a tearful reunion – though her friends will presumably be concerned that she's attired like an extra from an early Eurythmics video.