"Stranger Things" and Axe-Wielding, Mama Bears

'Rightful Rage' in the Upside-Down and the Right-Side-Up

by Bryce Morgan

In the season five, series finale of the Netflix show, "Stranger Things", there is a particularly disturbing scene in which the arch-villain, Vecna, struggles for survival after being impaled inside a monstrous, extra-dimensional creature. Immediately after being impaled (and seemingly defeated by Millie Bobby Brown's powerful telekinetic, Eleven) it appears the villain is dead. But once the show's band of heroes regroup, he regains consciousness, gurgling and writhing as he looks upon his stunned opponents.

But here's where things take an interesting turn. Closest to the creature stands Joyce Byers, whose son, Will, had been particularly tormented by Vecna. As she remembers how much pain and suffering the villain visited upon her, she is driven to take the axe she is carrying and chop off his head. And yet, this gruesome task requires not one swing, but many. And blow after blow (until the creature is decapitated), each of the characters assembled similarly remembers Vecna's heinous sins against them.

No one is gleeful about this violent action. No one is cheering. There are no signs of bloodlust. Instead, every character seems resolutely supportive that justice is being accomplished. Of course, not many scenes before the axe is swung, Will had made a compassionate plea to Vecna's humanity. Having learned that Vecna was once a boy named Henry, and that he had been infected and influenced by an alien the group calls the Mind Flayer (a name taken from "Dungeons and Dragons" lore), Will pleads with Henry to change course, nobly trying to persuade him that he has a choice. Henry/Vecna acknowledges this fact, but chooses once again to serve the Mind Flayer and its destructive designs.

What's instructive about this scene is the way in which it shows a kind of 'rightful rage' against evil. It isn't dispassionate. It isn't antiseptic. It isn't easy to watch. But it's right. This isn't simply revenge. In this untamed, alien world, Joyce Byers serves as a servant of justice. Everyone there knows Vecna's guilt all too well, and therefore, all stand in support of the verdict. 

Millenia before "Stranger Things", Hebrew Scripture also spoke of this 'rightful rage'. When the prophet Samuel hacked the wicked king Agag to pieces (1 Samuel 15:33), and David chopped off the head of the giant Goliath (1 Samuel 17:51), they too functioned as servants of justice; divine justice. In Christian Scripture, Jesus himself shared a parable that depicts faithless and cruel servants being "cut [into] pieces" after being justly judged by their master (Matthew 24:45-51). This wasn't Jesus' way of endorsing extreme disciplinary measures for dissatisfied employers. It was one of the sobering ways he described ultimate, divine justice; justice that all of us will face one day, at the end of this age. Why? Because like Vecna, we too have been infected by an 'alien' contagion. But like Vecna, we too have a choice. And because we so often choose the wrong, we are also agents of pain and suffering. Though no one today can function in this role, like that axe-wielding, 'mama bear' in a world beyond the Upside-Down, one day, God (in an age beyond this one) really will demonstrate his rightful rage against what the Bible calls sin. It won't be cold. It won't be easy to watch. But it will be perfectly just. It will be right. 

Thankfully, the same Jesus who spoke about divine punishment, also spoke about divine love. In one sense, the 'strangest thing' about this divine love is how it was expressed through Jesus, who died for us that we might receive the exact opposite of what each of us actually deserves. He bore the 'axe' of divine punishment, that we, like the heroes in Hawkins, might experience a new and happy ending in the 'Right-Side-Up'. Please trust him today for that forgiveness. 

Critics have and continue to use depictions of a wrathful God against the veracity of the Christian faith. But in doing so, they fail to acknowledge the deep hunger in all of us for a rightful rage against the painful and poisonous reality of human evil. It's why scenes like this one from "Stranger Things", while not easy to watch, depict the kind of otherworldly justice of which most of us can be resolutely supportive.

Bryce Morgan is a husband and father, and the founder of Pop Eternal. He's also the creator of the Captain Sun adventures, as well as the author of "Confessions of a Secret Santa".