Stranger Things Season 2: What Exactly Is the Mind Flayer? 

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Warning: this post contains spoilers about Stranger Things Season 2.

redefined our collective nightmares when it introduced us to the Demogorgon, the terrifying monster that killed Barb and dragged Will into the Upside Down.

If you thought the Duffer Brothers had peaked at Demogorgon though, you are sorely mistaken. This year\'s main villain, the Shadow Monster, is next-level in every way. Here\'s what you need to know about it.

First of all, it\'s huge—like squash most of Hawkins under it\'s gigantic, tentacle-like legs huge. Will starts seeing it in his flashes to the Upside Down and it appears as a giant, black creature with four huge legs that split off into even more smaller (but still huge) legs. It\'s like the alien from

baby was experimented on and exposed to more gamma radiation than the Hulk. Also, it goes by the name Mind Flayer, which is an antagonist in Dungeons and Dragons.

TL;DR: It\'s a huge, scary spider-like monster that looks like it eats souls the way Gaston eats eggs.

To kill. We know this because Will tells us after the Shadow Monster possesses him.

Yeah, it can. After Bob gives Will some very well-intentioned advice about facing his fears, he tries to stand down the Shadow Monster during one of his flashes to the Upside Down. Instead of conquering his fears, Will merges with the monster and becomes its eyes, ears, and occasional mouthpiece in the human world.

The demodogs (essentially miniature Demogorgons that run around like dogs/the velociraptors from Jurassic Park), are basically the Shadow Monster\'s minions. Basically, the Shadow Monster powerful enough to take last year\'s single, main villain and copy it dozens of times into an army.

What makes the Shadow Monster so much worse than the Demogorgon?

Aside from having an army of minions, the ability to possess people, and being absolutely gargantuan? The Shadow Monster has a series of tunnels under Hawkins that are filled with living vines that can and

capture and consume humans if given the chance. The Demogorgon could cross over to the real world from the Upside Down, the Shadow Monster is literally able to put down roots in the real world from the Upside Down, suggesting a lot more power and control over inter-dimensional space than even the Demogorgon possessed. And as we saw in the very last scene of Season 2, it\'s not exactly dead.

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