The Mind Flayer Explained | Stranger Things 4 Explained

The Mind Flayer from Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 2 (2022) Explained.

In this analysis, I go over the history and origins of The Mind Flayer in part 1 of Stranger Things 4. As well as analyze Vecna/The Mind Flayer/ 001/ Henry Creel's journey throughout the series, from his time at Hawkins Lab to the Upside Down.

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This video was made by Bryce Edward Brown

[Cutter-jshw]

Eddie's death is even sadder when you realize he just played one of the hardest guitar riffs Metallica made while under stress in the most metal way possible and only one person got to hear and see it. He is a super hero just for that...

[KoBxElucidator]

FYI the reason Vecna was able to connect to his victims without gates in S4 was because he took some of Eleven's power in S3 when the giant spider monster bit her.

[Whispurer]

I refuse to accept that Vecna and The Mind Flayer are one in the same. I've always just taken it that Mind Flayer was given form and fully freed by Vecna, they're associates and dependant on one another

[THEDADLY]

Saddest thing about Will is that no one cares about him anymore expect for his brother but even the writers forgot his birthday and had to change it. Will deserved so much more.

[gregeth]

The mindflayer was already in the upside down when vecna got there. All he did was give him a physical body and they share a hive mind. But the mindflayer has motivations of its own.

[dietotaku]

eddie's death reminds me of the saying "you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." the duffer brothers pointed out that even if eddie had survived the upside down, there was no redemption waiting for him in hawkins. the whole town still believed he was a satan-worshipping child-sacrificing monster, and odds are even if they had all personally witnessed vecna claiming a victim, a good number of them would still believe it was eddie pulling the strings. so better for him to choose to die a hero, saving hawkins even if he doesn't get the credit, than to come back and be vilified and persecuted for the rest of his life.

[heymikey]

What's crazy to me is that everyone is mentioning Vecna's hand, but no one is mentioning Vecna's eye which is a man part of his Character in D&D. I feel like it's going to be intricate in defeating him in the final season. His eye is how he sees into his victims mind and his hand is how he takes hold of them.. just something to think about!!!

[igipop]

Here is my interpretation:
Vecna is NOT Mindflayer. Vecna was "banished" to upside down which already existed by 11, where he was disfigured (kind of a punishment for his misdeeds) where he roams endlessly and eventually comes across an ever present entity (intelligent and malicious floating particles/smoke) which we are led to believe is the main ruler/antagonist of the upside down (while demogorgons and such are just soldiers). Being born with powers (such as telekinesis and many others) Vecna had the ability to communicate/control the particles and learn about making it work for him and in his enhanced rage and lunacy he uses it to wreak havoc on Hawkins with global domination plans.
I'll go as far as guess that there is a possibility that the Mindflayer is in fact controlling Vecna and his abilities for its own purposes. Mindfflayer may be allowing Vecna to believe he is in control, while he is just being a puppet.
Of course I could be way off on all of these and we might get surprised once again.

[Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

I don't think they are the same. The Mindflayer seemed to already exist. It is an eldritch being/power governed the Upsidedown. Vecna made some sort or deal with it that resulted in hime entering the hive mind and entering a symbiotic relationship. Vecra gets greater power and the Mind Flayer gets a new world.

I don't think anything her indicates that Vecna is controlling the Mindflayer and it would be really weird for the Mindflayer to suddenly be presented as a minion when it has always been portrayed as the big bad prior.

I think Dustin's theory was correct, Vecna is a general but he's not the leader. I know that in-universe it's totally plausible that Dustin could be wrong but that wouldn't make much sense from a storytelling perspective. Presenting a theory that seems right and then blatantly yet ambiguously proving it wrong would only confuse the audience. I don't think the writers would have had Dustin say that line if it wasn't actually how the power structure is.

[brandonlashley]

Can we just clear up that Billy’s line “all this time we’ve been building it, we’ve been building it… for you” is soooo incredibly done, love it❤️

[pthibault]

To answer your question, yes... Kali (Eight) escaped before the events of The Massacre at Hawkins Lab. I would be really surprised if Kali isn't brought back for Season 5. Team Hawkins is going to need all the help they can get... and Kali's power could be instrumental in defeating Vecna. She can show people things that aren't really there. If they can keep her hidden from Vecna and use her as a secret weapon... she can convince him that he's won... and then hit him with everything they've got when his guard is down.

[xaoc]

I kind of like the DnD analogy that Vecna is a Warlock and his Patron is the Mindflayer/Darkness which would be reminiscent of DnD's The Great Old One. It would also be quite the dichotomy as Eleven is said to be the groups mage, which a warlock is similar to but is more dark in nature.

[flecks_piano]

Henry actually mentions 8 in one of his dialogues with Eleven. He mentions the moment her mother came to see her when "8 was still there", or something like that. So she definitely still is cannon but they don't quite mention how she escaped or why she was sent away.

[gladiusexe]

The Mind Flayer should’ve been the main villain. It feels more scary and intimidating because of its lovecraftian aesthetic.

[rebeltug]

Eddie's death actually felt really untimely. They gave a lot of layers to his character but never really gave us the chance to explore them. I'm sad because of his death, but more so because I won't get to see him become a real member of the group. I don't know, it just kinda sucks and I somewhat wish they would've re-written him to die in Season 5 so we could see him graduate and make new friends. I think it would've also been a more impactful death.

But I'm no story writer, so maybe I should just shut up lol :P

[jimcecil]

I don't really think they are the same. Mind Flayer was in the upside before Vecna arrived. Vecna gave Mind flayer shape. But I think Mind Flayer gave Vecna a boost. Together they would destroy the world. A symbiosis if you will.

Maybe 8 was ones first ill help you you help me. Unlike Eleven ahe actually escaped and he was like darn oh well ill find another

[omogoloontefetse]

I still refuse to believe Vecna and the Mind Flayer are one thing.

[ThePandaWarrior]

They did address the absence of 008, when Henry says tells 011 about her Mother showing up one day, he mentions that was when 008 was still here

[mridlon]

It looks like the “Mind Flayer” always existed, it just didn’t have shape, form, or even a motive. And so it took on a manifestation and motivation that Henry Creel could relate to. And both The “Mind Flayer”, and the “Upside down” are manifestations of Lovecraftian Outer Gods.

[Quagsire_rl]

Honestly I want a twist where the mind flayer becomes its own character and betrays vecna, taking control of him and using him to kill eleven on it’s own like a ai that betrayed it’s inventor