All the NEW Vecna Reveals in Stranger Things 5, Volume 1

Be warned: this article contains significant spoilers for the first part of Stranger Things Season 5, including major reveals about Vecna. If you haven’t watched the episodes yet and want to avoid spoilers, watch them first! Then, you can read our spoiler-free review of Stranger Things Season 5 instead.

The finale of Stranger Things 4 revealed that Vecna hadn’t been defeated, and warned Eleven and her friends that their victory was only a temporary setback. This proved true when Max’s brief death allowed Vecna to create massive rifts throughout Hawkins. At the start of Stranger Things 5, Volume 1, Vecna was missing, leading some to wonder if he had survived. The answer came when he reappeared within the MAC-Z facility.

We already knew a great deal about Vecna – his history, his plans, and what he might do next – even before the latest events unfolded. While the first part of Stranger Things 5 saved many revelations for the very end, the four episodes were packed with new details, flashbacks, and backstory about Henry Creel, Vecna, and his origins. Ironically, despite everything we’ve learned throughout Stranger Things, the first volume of the final season might actually leave us with more questions about Vecna than answers.

Who Is Mr. Whatsit in Stranger Things 5, Volume 1, and What Does He Have to do with Vecna?

The first part of Stranger Things 5 showed that Holly Wheeler, along with eleven other children in Hawkins around nine to ten years old, had been talking to what they thought was an imaginary friend. However, this ‘friend’ was actually Henry Creel, also known as Vecna. He appeared to them as a normal, well-dressed man from the 1950s—visible only to the children. Vecna was friendly and polite, and he told them monsters were coming to Hawkins, claiming he was the only one who could protect them. All the children, including Holly, believed and trusted him.

Anyone familiar with the book A Wrinkle in Time would have easily believed in the goodness of the name Henry Creel, but in Stranger Things 5, the character known as Vecna proved to be the complete opposite of the source material.

What is Mr. Whatsit’s Connection to A Wrinkle in Time?

Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, a beloved science fiction novel for young adults published in 1962, tells a creative and imaginative story of the struggle between good and evil throughout the universe. Interestingly, the character of Vecna (also known as Henry Creel) in season five of Stranger Things borrows the name “Mr. Whatsit” from the kind character Mrs. Whatsit in A Wrinkle in Time.

In the novel, Mrs. Whatsit appears as an eccentric elderly neighbor, but she’s actually a powerful, immortal being. Along with Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which, she guides three children on a quest to find Meg’s father, who disappeared while working on a groundbreaking invention called a tesseract. Their journey reveals a looming darkness – the Black Thing – that threatens the universe. They eventually arrive on Camazotz, a chilling planet devoid of individuality, which also appears in Stranger Things 5, Volume 1. This planet is ruled by IT, a powerful, telepathic brain, but IT is actually controlled by the Black Thing. While Henry Creel/Vecna might see himself as a Mrs./Mr. Whatsit figure, he more closely resembles IT in the world of Stranger Things 5.

It’s not just the overall vibe – the parallels to Stranger Things keep hitting me! When Meg goes back to Camazotz to rescue Charles, who’s trapped under IT’s control, it reminded me so much of Max’s friends saving her from the Upside Down. It’s like love is the key to breaking those hypnotic holds, and that’s just so powerful to see.

Where Did Vecna Physically Take Holly in the Upside Down?

In the first part of Stranger Things 5, Vecna, while disguised as Mr. Whatsit, tricked Holly Wheeler and took her to the Upside Down, repeating what he did to Will Byers years before. The following night, he used his monsters to kidnap three other children he’d previously targeted in his Mr. Whatsit disguise. These kidnappings prompted the military to enact a plan to protect all nine and ten-year-old children in Hawkins by placing them in the MAC-Z facility.

In the first part of Stranger Things 5, Vecna captured Holly and took her into a horrifying, fleshy structure filled with vines and strange, organic growths within the Upside Down, securing her to a spire. Dustin realized, through some clever calculations, that this structure is a huge circle encompassing all of Hawkins in the Upside Down. The center of this circle is the Hawkins National Laboratory – the same place where Eleven first encountered a demogorgon and opened the initial gateway between worlds.

Okay, so when Will briefly saw things through Vecna’s eyes during that intense barn attack, it confirmed something I’d been thinking about. He saw all four of Vecna’s victims… basically inside this fleshy wall in the Upside Down. It made sense, because we already knew Vecna took Holly Wheeler and trapped her there – Eleven even found her boot stuck to the outside of it! But it’s still frustrating to remember that Eleven and Hopper couldn’t break through that wall, or even get inside, when they tried. It really highlights how powerful Vecna is and how trapped those victims were.

What Is the Upside Down’s Flesh Wall in Stranger Things 5?

Vecna has complete control over the Upside Down, and it appears his own mind functions as its central consciousness. Recent discoveries suggest he didn’t just discover the Upside Down – he actually created it, building a separate world distinct from the one Eleven banished Henry Creel to years ago in Stranger Things. This means the strange, fleshy walls of the Upside Down likely define its boundaries. It’s unclear if these walls are meant to keep something out, contain everything within, or both. Even after watching Volume 1 of Stranger Things 5, we still don’t fully understand Vecna’s flesh wall, except that it’s impossible for anyone to penetrate unless they’re Vecna himself or under his control. We also know Vecna is bringing his victims into this space and connecting them to the wall using spire-like structures.

The inner section of the flesh wall is crucial to Vecna; it’s where he’s holding Holly and the other children he plans to use for his spires. Only Vecna and his demogorgons are allowed inside, and he’s determined to keep its existence a secret from everyone.

However, the soldiers don’t seem bothered by the wall. One was even seen casually urinating on it, and Dr. Kay examined one of its strange, bulbous growths.

Where Did Mr. Whatsit/Vecna Leave Holly’s Mind in Stranger Things 5, Volume 1?

Holly is unaware that her physical body is trapped within the wall of the Upside Down. Currently, she exists within a dreamlike world constructed from the memories of Henry Creel. A mysterious figure, seemingly benevolent, left her there, content and oblivious, while he pursued his larger scheme. She’s experiencing a vision of the Creel family home as it was in 1959, before the tragic events that took place there.

She finds Max in this peaceful, dreamlike place, though in reality, he’s still unconscious in a coma.

Why Is Max Locked Inside Vecna’s Memory Prison?

Max explained to Holly that they’re trapped inside a “memory,” which is part of a larger world made up of countless memories. Although Holly believed they were in a comfortable home, Max revealed the entire place is actually a prison – specifically, a prison created by Henry (Vecna). In the first part of Stranger Things 5, Holly and Max’s minds are held captive within Vecna’s memories. Physically, Holly is located within the fleshy walls of Vecna’s creation, while Max’s body remains in the real world.

Max later explains how she got trapped in Vecna’s world. She says Vecna’s curse is permanent and can’t be escaped. Each person Vecna killed opened a new gateway, and when Max briefly died, it opened the fourth and final one, which caused the massive split in Hawkins.

Max believes she should still be dead, and doesn’t seem to realize Eleven revived her. Time felt strange and unclear after her death and return – almost like time doesn’t function normally in the Upside Down or within Henry’s mental prison. She doesn’t know how long she was gone, but felt a pull that led her to wake up in Brenner’s lab, in the Rainbow Room, surrounded by the other children Vecna had killed.

She walked down a hall and entered a memory from Vecna’s past. She found herself watching a 1959 high school, where a young Joyce (voiced by Winona Ryder) was advertising the school play, Oklahoma. The play was scheduled for November 6th – the same date Vecna abducted Will Byers many years later in the first season of Stranger Things.

The play’s cast included James Hopper Jr., Karen Wheeler (who played the Wheeler mom), Patty Newby (Bob Newby’s sister), Alan Munson (Eddie’s dad), Ted Wheeler, and Henry Creel.

It was so intense watching Max try to break free from Vecna’s mental trap! She was bouncing around inside his memories, totally disoriented, and kept ending up back where she started. Then, out of nowhere, Kate Bush’s music started playing. Max remembered telling Holly that the music could pull you out of the darkness, so she literally punched her way through the rainbow room to follow it. It brought her right back into Vecna’s world – the same nightmare realm she thought she’d escaped in Stranger Things 5. It was a huge shock, because she, and even Will earlier this season, believed she was never supposed to see that place again.

She suddenly saw a vision – a scene from the first part of Stranger Things 5 showing Lucas at her hospital bedside. The scene ended with the monitor showing her heart rate rapidly increase.

Just as Max started heading back through the portal to escape, the cassette tape ended, and the portal slammed shut. That’s when Vecna showed up. Max desperately ran back into the memory world, with One – wearing his clean, white clothes – pursuing her. However, Vecna, also known as Henry or One, stopped chasing her when she disappeared into a rock wall within the same woods Mr. Whatsit had previously cautioned Holly about in Stranger Things 5.

Why Won’t Henry Enter Max’s Cave in Stranger Things 5, Volume 1? What is Henry’s Worst Memory?

Vecna, formerly known as Henry and One, refused to follow Max into the rocky space where she’s been hiding. In Volume 1 of Stranger Things 5, Max explained to Holly what happened when Vecna found the entrance to her shelter. She said, “He was afraid. Really afraid. Something about this cave… this memory… keeps him away. I’m safe in here.”

Henry, or Vecna, has one particularly awful memory – so disturbing it almost made even him cry. While the fifth season of Stranger Things didn’t hint at what makes this memory so painful for him, the Stranger Things stage production may already offer a clue.

What Did the Stranger Things Stage Play The First Shadow Reveal About Vecna?

The stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, written with a story from the creators of the show, the Duffer Brothers, delved deeper into the history of Henry Creel. It also explained how Dr. Brenner used Henry’s unique bloodline to develop children with special abilities, like Eleven.

Back in 1943, a U.S. warship mysteriously traveled to another dimension, labeled Dimension X. The crew faced terrifying creatures, and only one man – the father of Dr. Martin Brenner – made it back alive. He returned with an unusual blood type. Years later, Brenner launched the “Nevada Experiment” hoping to reopen the gateway to Dimension X. However, a Soviet spy working in Brenner’s lab stole the technology and fled to a local cave, never to be seen again. Sometime after, a young boy exploring the caves with a telescope stumbled upon the stolen technology and vanished into Dimension X for twelve hours. While there, he met a mysterious, shadowy figure. Just like Brenner’s father, the boy returned with a new blood type, but he also came back changed, with a much darker personality.

Brenner was able to locate the child because he’d forgotten a spyglass in the cave – a spyglass identical to the one Holly used in Stranger Things 5, which had been given to her by Vecna. This wasn’t accidental. The boy who disappeared into another dimension from the Nevada cave for twelve hours was actually Henry Creel, the one who would eventually become Vecna.

Okay, so this story really got under my skin. It centers around a mother, absolutely terrified for her son Henry, who makes a terrible decision – she allows a really shady doctor to experiment on him. And that’s where things get weird. It’s through these experiments that Henry discovers he can tap into this…other place, a kind of nothingness. Honestly, it felt like the groundwork for something I’d seen before – it reminded me a lot of how Eleven eventually learns to access a similar space. It’s a chilling origin story, and it sets a really unsettling tone.

Initially, Henry struggled against the unseen force controlling him and making him do terrible things – this force was the Mind Flayer. His connection with Patty Newby briefly gave him strength to resist, but he wasn’t able to fight back when he tragically killed his mother and sister.

In Stranger Things, Henry’s descent into darkness wasn’t solely caused by the Mind Flayer. Dr. Brenner actively encouraged Henry to harm others, believing it would strengthen his abilities. Brenner also used Henry’s blood, injecting it into pregnant women in an attempt to create more children with similar powers. Eleven’s powers originated from this blood, and Will’s connection to the Upside Down and Vecna similarly granted him some abilities.

The play within the show also revealed a surprising detail: Henry and his drama club – a group closely tied to the events in 1980s Hawkins – didn’t perform Oklahoma as originally planned. Instead, they put on The Dark of the Moon. More importantly, it appears Vecna’s most terrifying memory – the one that truly haunts him in Stranger Things 5 – happened during that play, specifically in the Nevada cave featured in The First Shadow. This memory centers around the day Vecna traveled to Dimension X and the Mind Flayer first entered his mind. It’s such a traumatic experience for him that Max has been able to find refuge within it in Stranger Things 5.

Is the Upside Down Different from Dimension X?

The dimension young Henry escaped to after discovering Brenner’s technology in a Nevada cave isn’t the same as the Upside Down in Stranger Things. It’s also likely that Eleven later sent One back to this dimension. This raises the question of why Henry wouldn’t remember his initial trip – Brenner may have been able to erase traumatic memories from his children, as Eleven herself forgot the events at the Rainbow Room for many years.

Eleven discovered another dimension, similar to the Upside Down, filled with the same creatures, but completely separate from Earth and never visited by people. This dimension had a yellow sky and lacked the red lightning of the Upside Down. It appears the Upside Down was created by Henry, and while it may have originated from Dimension X, it exists as its own unique place.

Okay, so it all makes sense now! That huge, fleshy wall in the Upside Down? It explains why Vecna has control over everything there, and why it’s basically a twisted version of Hawkins. It also explains why he even built it in the first place. Remember how Henry Creel was controlled by the Mind Flayer from Dimension X? Well, when he went back there after all those years, it looks like he actually took over the Mind Flayer using his new powers – we saw hints of this in Vecna/Henry/One’s backstory during season 4 of Stranger Things.

It’s possible Henry Creel was never truly in charge, but instead a pawn of the Mind Flayer from the moment he left the cave. Holly drew parallels between the memory prison and the worlds of Camazotz and the influence of IT, but pointed out that even IT, like Vecna, was ultimately controlled by a greater darkness – the Black Thing. Henry was an ordinary child until he encountered the original Mind Flayer, an event that continues to haunt him. The first part of Stranger Things 5, especially when combined with the Stranger Things play, suggests that the Mind Flayer is the ultimate evil, potentially controlling Vecna or at least being a more powerful and sinister force.

Before investigating the possibility of an even greater evil pulling the strings behind Vecna, the group needs to confront Henry Creel. Luckily, Vecna’s overconfidence might be what ultimately leads to his downfall in Stranger Things 5. Rather than creating followers to help him change the world, he may inadvertently be assembling the force that will defeat him.

How Did Will Byers See Through Vecna’s Eyes in Stranger Things 5, Volume 1?

The season began with a look back to how Vecna first connected Will to the Upside Down – by forcing a vine down his throat. Vecna essentially controls everything in the Upside Down as a single, connected consciousness, and Will has been linked to that since the very beginning, as we first discovered at the end of the first season.

In the first part of Stranger Things 5, Will’s link to the Hive Mind and Vecna became much stronger. He was able to access the Hive Mind, which also gave him a connection to Vecna’s thoughts. At times, Will could even see through the eyes of the demogorgons, just like Vecna, who was controlling them. He also experienced visions through Vecna’s perspective as Vecna explored the minds of Holly and other children.

In the first part of Stranger Things 5, Vecna underestimated Will’s ability to tap into his own abilities through their connection. This overconfidence could be a problem for Vecna if his new victims discover what Will did in the final scene of Volume 1—that Vecna has also given them powers, linked to their physical connection with him and the Upside Down. With so many new victims, this realization could be particularly dangerous for Vecna.

Why Does Vecna Want Exactly 12 Kids on Stranger Things 5?

At the end of the first part of Stranger Things 5, Will had a vision of something Vecna clearly wanted to keep hidden. The vision featured a Boy Scout logo that spread out into twelve sections, each representing a child. Will described it as looking like his painting of the strange, fleshy wall. This wall seems very important to Vecna, who is determined to prevent others from seeing it.

In Stranger Things 5, Vecna’s lair is circular and built around the original gateway to the Upside Down. He’s also fixated on time and clocks, specifically those with twelve numbers. It seems unlikely this is a coincidence, and like Lucas, we’re starting to think there are no coincidences when it comes to Vecna, the Upside Down, and what’s happening in Hawkins.

What is his plan for those twelve children? And how will he use them to change the world? We’ll get answers when Stranger Things 5, Volumes 2 and 3 are released.

Stranger Things 5, Volume 1 is now streaming on Netflix.

Mikey Walsh writes for TopMob. He’s a big fan of Weezer’s “In the Garage Playing” – he says he’d even use it to escape a dangerous situation! You can find him on Bluesky at @burgermike, and he’s always interested in discussions about the Targaryen kings.

2025-11-27 11:44