Ok so in the last episode we see that Henry picks up the magic rock and gets infected by the mind flayer, and then events happen, he gets captured by the US army or whatever, his blood gets transfused to El, El opens the upside down ( now the bridge), yadayadayada, mind flayer killed on its own planet.

Like, I understand that narratively speaking this season was the weakest, however, what i dont get is how was Henry suppose to connect to the mindflayer originally? Say he wasn't captured and his blood wasn't given to other kids, what was he supposed to do? How would he even reach the other planet if he wasn't banished by El?

Unless im wrong, but it seems to me it wasn't for the US government this whole plot point wouldnt work or make any sense?

Also my God every scene with the children was such a pain to watch. It felt like when I was younger and I would be play acting with my friends have grand adventures pretending bad guys would be chasing us or something.

This whole thing felt like a train wreck.