The Mind Flayer Lore Scene

**This is based on the same scene from Stranger Things 2x08. Got this from the now defunct Transcript Wiki. More context is provided for writing some of the pages that are linked. (Text highlighted in blue or red, for those interested in editing.) Enjoy.**

Mike: Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?

Lucas: Really?

Mike: He petitioned the school to start it and everything. Then he had a fundraiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?

Dustin and Lucas: Yeah.

Mike: We can't let him die in vain.

Dustin: What do you want to do, Mike? The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own.

Max: Demo-dogs?

Dustin: Demogorgon dogs. Demo-dogs. It's like a compound. It's like a play on words-

Max: Okay.

Katniss: Is there any way to stop them? Dustin?!

Dustin: I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe...

Lucas: But there's an army now.

Dustin: Precisely.

Regina: Well, now you have us. Now, you have me.

Dustin: No offense, Regina. But-

Regina: Okay. You’re right. Probably not the best idea.

Clara: You’d definitely get carried away.

Regina: Don’t I have a right to get carried away with killing those things? I mean, they killed Bob. Sweet, innocent, funny Bob!

Mike: Hold on…

Katniss: What?

Mike: His army.

Katniss: Oh my god. Mike, you’re a genius.

Mike: Thanks, Katniss.

Steve: What do you mean?

Clara: Oh. Of course!

Steve: “Of course” what?

Harry VO, Earpieces: You mean…

Mike: His army. Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too.

[Mike takes them to Will's room and shows them the drawing]

Dustin: The shadow monster.

Mike: It got Will and Naomi that day on the field. The doctor- not our Doctor, the other one-

Hermione VO, in Earpieces: Doctor Owens?

Mike: Thanks, Hermione. I really mean that. Doctor Owens said it was like a virus, it infected them.

Katniss: And it took away their memories-

Clara: - to make room for itself.

Regina: Like a parasite.

The Doctor VO, Earpieces: The perfect parasite.

Dorothy VO, Earpieces: Jeez. I hate it. I hate it even more.

Max: And so this virus, it's connecting them to the tunnels?

Mike: To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything.

Rey VO, Earpieces: Naomi was already infected by the monster and she was still in the TARDIS. Do you think there’s a-

The Doctor VO, Earpieces: No. It’s not possible-

Steve: Whoa. Slow down. Slow down.

The Doctor VO, Earpieces: It isn’t possible, Steve! I’ve put the TARDIS in a-

Steve: Sorry, Doctor. But slow down!

Mike: Okay, so, the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will, and so does Naomi.

Lucas: And so does Dart.

Mike: Yeah. Like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind.

Steve: Hive mind?

Dustin: A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism.

Clara: Like the Great Intelligence.

Amy VO, in Earpieces: Or the Headless Monks.

Mike: Yeah. Just like that. Perfect examples. And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain.

Dustin: Like the mind flayer.

[Lucas snaps his fingers]

Max: The what?

Steve: What?

Katniss: Mind Flayer?

[Dustin grabs a monster manual for D&D]

Dustin: The mind flayer.

Hopper: What the hell is that?

Dustin: It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home.

Regina: Sounds like someone we know.

The Doctor VO, in Earpieces: Blimey, Regina.

Clara: Not you, Doctor.

Dustin: Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers.

Hopper: Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kids' game.

Katniss: Well, that’s debatable. Turns out, a lot of things that we thought weren’t real are.

Hopper: No. It’s not debatable-

Dustin: No, no, no. You know what it is? It's a manual. And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor-

Lucas: Analogy.

Dustin: Analogy? That's what you're worried about?

Hermione VO, in Earpieces: It is an analogy, Dustin.

Ron VO, Earpieces: I’m gonna have to go with Hermione on this one.

Dustin: OKAY! Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is.

Nancy: Okay, so this mind flamer thing-

Dustin: Flayer. Mind flayer.

Nancy: [sighs] What does it want?

Dustin: To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race.

Steve: [stammers] Like the Germans?

Dustin: Uh, the Nazis?

Steve: Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis.

Dustin: Uh... If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself.

Clara: Like the Daleks.

Dustin: Exactly like the Daleks… if the Daleks came from another dimension.

The Doctor VO, in Earpieces: I sealed some Daleks away in another dimension. That dimension doesn’t exist anymore though. It-

Dustin: Not the time, Doctor. Anyway, it wants to spread, take over other dimensions.

Lucas: We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it.

Steve: That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!

Regina: Steve. You have to have a little faith.

Steve: Peter, am I allowed to feel terrified for my life?

Peter VO, Earpieces: Don’t involve me in this right now.

Nancy: Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it...

Mike: We kill everything it controls.

Dustin: We win.

Lucas: Theoretically.

Katniss: Wouldn’t that also kill Naomi and Will?

Dustin: Ummm… I have no idea.

Hopper: Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with Fireballs or something?

Dustin: [chuckles] No. No, no Fire- No Fireballs. Uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because... [stammering] ...because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the mind flayer, it... it... It likes brains. It's just a game. It's a game. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. What’s the point?

Hopper: What the hell are we doing here?

Dustin: I thought we were waiting for your military backup.

Hopper: We are!

Mike: Even if they come, how are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns. Or arrows. Sorry, Katniss.

Katniss: No, I get it.

Hopper: You don't know that! We don't know anything!

Mike: We know it's already killed everybody in that lab.

Lucas: And we know the monsters are gonna molt again.

Dustin: And we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town.

Joyce: They're right. We have to kill it. I want to kill it.

Hopper: Me, too.

Joyce: Doctor, what do you think?

The Doctor VO, Earpieces: It’s the only option you have, Hop.

Hopper: Guys-

Joyce: I- I want to kill it. And I just got permission that I didn’t need-

Hopper: Me, too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here.

Mike: No. But they do. If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will and Naomi. They’re connected to it. They'll know its weakness.

Max: I thought we couldn't trust them anymore. That they're spies for the mind flayer now.

Mike: Yeah, but they can't spy if they don’t know where they are.