Stranger Things is finally back with Season 4 of the Netflix show. However, the latest season will be split into two parts, with the first seven episodes arriving on May 27. In those seven episodes, everything is a bit upside down--pun intended--as the friends from Hawkins are pitted against a brand-new villain.
And the big baddie's name is Vecna, another Upside Down villain named after a Dungeons & Dragons monster. More than any other season of the show so far, this is the most complex and layered villain of the series. So we're giving a breakdown of who Vecna is and what he might want.
Warning: There are a lot of spoilers coming for Part 1 of Season 4 of Stranger Things.
Vecna ultimately met his demise by a sword he crafted for his most-trusted lieutenant, and in the end, only Vecna's eye and left hand were left--which became magical items in the world of D&D--but Vecna himself became trapped on another plane of existence. Eventually, Vecna came back as a demigod, thanks to the cult that rose up in his absence. And a team of adventurers dispatched him and reduced his powers.
Henry felt his family was living a lie, so he got into their minds, driving them mad. Virginia Creel--his mother--knew young Henry was behind this and wanted to get him some help from a doctor to "lock him away," according to Henry. So he decided to kill his mother. He then killed his sister and passed out into a coma. His father, Victor, was blamed for the two deaths. Henry later explains that the people he kill become part of him, making him stronger.
Years later and still imprisoned in the lab, an older Henry meets Eleven--or 011--and he becomes her mentor in developing her powers. He gains her trust enough to get Eleven to remove the Soreria chip from his neck while he was trying to help her escape. The chip is removed, but the two are cornered by the lab security. This is where Henry utilizes his powers to kill everyone he sees in the lab. Eleven feels completely betrayed by this, as she's the only other survivor from her program. Henry wants to work with Eleven to rule the world.
Eleven denies the proposal, and the two have a battle of the brains. And while it seems like Henry has the upper-hand, Eleven turns out to be stronger, and uses her powers to seemingly disintegrate Henry. What's left in his place is a portal to the Upside Down.
Brennen enters the room, sees Eleven standing there, and assumes that she killed everyone.
And while Vecna himself doesn't appear until Season 4, it's revealed that the monsters from the Upside Down are under his control. "Vecna is the puppetmaster of all these monsters, and the Demogorgon is like this wild, rabid dog that was attacking people," explained Charlie Heaton--who plays Jonathan Byers--during a press event. "Vecna is intelligent and smart and gets into your deepest fears and dreams, and he's part of the mythology of the whole show. He's our ultimate adversary--or Eleven's ultimate adversary, at least. He's also, I think, the scariest villain that we've faced. This is not a quick attack out of nowhere; he taunts his prey and hunts his prey and plays with them, and that's scary."
Vecna goes on the hunt from the Upside Down, invading people's minds in the real world. He kills the cheerleader Chrissy in Episode 1 and then the young boy Fred in Episode 2. He targets Max, but the gang finds that playing her favorite song opens a portal for her mind to return to the real world. Finally, in Episode 7, Nancy becomes a target of Vecna, and that's where things leave off until Part 2 debuts in July.
It seems like Vecna is working on extracting revenge on Eleven, but it's a slow process, inching closer and closer to her--killing people in order to access their memories/essence. And while Part 1 explains a lot about this character, there are still tons of missing pieces that won't be filled in for quite some time. And we won't know that until Episodes 8 and 9 arrive on July 1.
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