What is the Flanger Things Stranger Monster spirit and how does it work?

Warning: major Strange things 3 spoilers to come.

Strange things viewers had several questions after the heartbreaking finale of season 3: what really happened to Hopper? Who is "American"? And … did that fucking disgusting monster run trying to kill Eleven and the rest of humanity as we know it? Even after two seasons of terror, the Mind Flayer, named after a monster of Dungeons and Dragons with supernatural powers, is naturally a bit tricky to understand.

After the Flayer spirit took possession of Will's body and used it to spy on the gang and Hawkins, Season 2 ended with Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) who banished the monster in the background and closed the gate.

This season, Will pretty quickly recognizes his presence in Hawkins via a tingling neck. And even if he ignores it for a few episodes, obviously not wanting to relive the trauma caused by a supernatural force that resides in his body and mind, the Flayer of the Mind manages to work on his devilish plan in episode 1 of the third season.

Here's all we know about Strange things creature that ruined the lives of our Hawkins friends.

What is the flayer spirit?

First, this crazy evil thing with giant tentacles resembling spiders in season 3 is a new monstrous incarnation of Mind Flayer, the Upside Down thing that took over Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) 's body in season 2 and surpassed the Demogorgon as main Strange things monster.

Unlike Demogogons and Demodogs, who make their choices, Mind Flayer is smart and can develop strategies. Co-creator Ross Duffer explained an episode of Beyond the strange things starting in 2017, the authors wanted to find "something of this really sensitive world": "We talked about keeping this story, we talked about Voldemort. You need a threat that is not just a shark. You need a threat that has plans, goals and thoughts. "

Is the Mind Flayer monster of Season 3 the same as Mind Flayer of Season 2?

A little, but not quite. After Mind Flayer was exorcised from poor Will in Season 2 (do you remember that scary scene with poker?), A small part of it stayed on the ground. From there, Mind Flayer infected a group of rats in the city, causing them to gather in the abandoned Brimborn Metallurgy. Inhabited rats feast on fertilizers and other chemicals before exploding into fleshy bony flesh. (That's that evil post-rat Mind Flayer that hits Billy's car in Episode 1. More about this later!) When these goo balls all come together, they take the form of the monster Mind Flayer at the heart of season 3.

What does the flayer mind want?

According to what Flayed Billy (Dacre Montgomery) revealed during her final clash at the end of Season 3, Mind Flayer's current plan is to kill Eleven as she is his only real enemy and the only force capable of destroying him. From there, he probably wants to destroy the rest of humanity, because it is generally thus that the perverse forces with alternative dimensions tend to function.

What does the mental flayer do?

Back in Season 2, we learned that the Flayer spirit uses its hosts to spy on the world in general. That's what he did when he lived in Will.

In Season 3, we see Billy grabbing Billy in the same way and forcing him to do what he wants in Hawkins. One by one, Billy brings new townspeople to be infected by the Flayer of the Spirit, who is gradually building a huge army of people. Killing one of these Flayed does not seem to harm the Flayer's mind itself – to defeat him, you have to kill his original body.

While the door to Upside Down is not yet fully open in Season 3, the coin of the flayer-wit that has found itself trapped in Hawkins when Eleven shut the door at the end of season 2 can no longer send Demogogons or Demodogs to their bad business. . Instead, it relies on creatures readily available in the city, such as these rats. Do you remember when Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) had the good news in the newspaper that the fertilizer was going to go away and that she was investigating with Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton)? These rats are beginning to be compromised.

When the couple comes back a second time and finds Mrs. Driscoll (Peggy Miley) in the middle of what his editor Tom Holloway (Michael Park) – Heather's father – said that the hospital had been considered an episode of schizophrenia, it was the unconscious who seized his body too.

Unfortunately, the bodies supported by the mind flayer tend to explode into a slimy and sensitive substance that drags around the city. It's a bit of that post-flawed puff, Flayed, that falls on Billy's car in the first episode, spinning it past Brimborn Steel Works and becoming a human host for Mind Flayer.

Flayed Billy first sacrifices Heather Holloway (Francesca Reale); The two men then take it to his parents, and so on, until finally a complete lair of zombie-shaped hosts gets to attention below you from the abandoned steel mill in a scene reminiscent of Westworld hosts waiting to see the light of day.

How does the mental flayer communicate with the monster and the vanquished and control it?

The flayer mind seems to be able to telepathically communicate with Billy, asking him to gather more human hosts for him. This seems to be the case for all Flayed, and probably for the monster too, which seems to be an extension of the flayer of the mind itself.

Why that … does it look like that?

It's disgusting! Polygon says that the monster of the flayer mind "looks like both a severely waterlogged skin, a hard vomit and a purulent wound". This is exactly right. Season 3's Mind Flayer comes in the form of a gelatinous mound of decomposed bones, flesh and bad intentions, as well as spider's legs and sprawling mouths. It sounds like what you could imagine to be fatbergs before becoming a solid, embarrassing mass. (Do not throw your wipes in the buttocks!) It also looks like Will's visions of Will Flayer. So we can assume that its Upside Down form is very similar.

Once Mind Flayer takes control of his hosts, the bodies fall to the ground and decompose into a sticky substance that gets closer to joining the Mind Flayer monster and making it ever larger. It's a sight to behold, although we really do not prefer it.

Is the Flayer spirit dead?

This time, the Duffer brothers said they did not want the season to end with Eleven standing up to save the world. So they asked Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) to turn the keys of the Russian underground laboratory to prevent this machine from pumping energy into the void, thus closing the Upside Down door. Mind Flayer's access to our world was also cut, the monster he created dies in the mall Starcourt Mall (where he tried to end the life of Eleven).

It seems that all is well and maybe we are done with the Mind Flayer for the moment. But as with all questions in Stranger thingseverything is not what seems.