As “Stranger Things” marches toward its conclusion in its fifth and final season, audiences can expect to see the return of one of the series’ biggest threats: Vecna. After being introduced in “Stranger Things 4,” Vecna quickly became a big bad of the horror/fantasy/sci-fi series.
But with such a long gap between Season 4 and Season 5, it can be hard to remember where Vecna came from, what power he holds, and where he was seen last. Before you watch the first part of “Stranger Things 5,” here’s everything you need to know about Vecna.
Who is Vecna?
The central residents of Hawkins gradually gained a greater understanding of what danger they faced from the Upside Down throughout “Stranger Things.” While the first season of the show saw the main characters primarily occupied by a single Demogorgon (a quaint threat, in hindsight, that felt impossible to overcome at the time), their enemies have snowballed across the five seasons, becoming larger and more pronounced over time.
In “Stranger Things 4,” a string-pulling face was finally put to the relatively amorphous Upside Down danger that threatened Hawkins for four seasons: Vecna. Played by Jamie Campbell Bower, Vecna (named, like so many other villains, after a Dungeons & Dragons character by the Hawkins children) is a pink, humanoid monster from the Upside Down whose body has protrusions resembling the strange realm’s vines.
Vecna has several abilities, including telepathy and telekinesis. Throughout “Stranger Things 4,” the demonic villain opened several gates to the Upside Down with a curse power that left his victims suffering, mutilated and deceased. Vecna can give his victims powerful hallucinations, and he has a hive mind connection to the creatures of the Upside Down.
Who is Henry Creel?
Before Vecna became the monstrous general of the Upside Down that fans are familiar with, he was a normal boy named Henry Creel (played as a child in the series by Raphael Luce). When he was young, Henry wandered into a cave and came across equipment from U.S. government experimentation, leading to him being temporarily stranded in another dimension. Here, Henry came into contact with the Mind Flayer, influencing his psyche and leading to the development of his telepathic and telekinetic powers.
Henry became progressively corrupted by the Mind Flayer and his new powers, eventually killing his mother and sister (blaming their murder on his father, Victor). After failing to kill his father, Henry was taken into the care of Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine).
Who is 001?
001 is Henry is Vecna. When Dr. Brenner took Henry in, he dubbed him 001 (or One), the first of more than a dozen children monitored due to their similar abilities. Henry served as an orderly among this group, which included Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). Henry took a liking to Eleven and, eventually, convinced her to help remove a device inhibiting his powers. Henry then killed everyone in the facility aside from Dr. Brenner and Eleven, who banished him to the Upside Down, leading to his transformation into Vecna.
Where did we last see Vecna?
The main cast of “Stranger Things” characters faced off against Vecna throughout Season 4, with a final confrontation taking place in two fronts: Eleven fought Vecna in Max’s (Sadie Sink) mind, while Steve (Joe Keery), Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Robin (Maya Hawke) battled Henry’s physical form in the Upside Down. Vecna ultimately succeeded in opening a massive gate between Hawkins and the Upside Down after temporarily killing a now-comatose Max.
The last we saw of Vecna, he had been shot and set on fire by Steve, Nancy and Robin in the Upside Down, falling out the attic window of the Upside Down’s Creel House. When the group looked out the window, however, they could see no body below — a clear homage to Michael Myers’ disappearance in “Halloween.” Now, they’ll have to face off against the demonic threat again in the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things.”
