Diksha Sundriyal
The fifth season of Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’ reveals the long-awaited answers that have been lingering since Will Byers disappeared in the first season in 2016. At the same time, it also raises several questions, particularly in the context of its villain, Vecna. In the first half of Season 5, it is revealed that Max, who went comatose last season, is trapped in Vecna’s memories, and to escape him, she hides in the caves that he seems too afraid to enter. The caves become her haven, and later, when Mike’s sister Holly is also trapped in the villain’s mind, Max takes her there to keep her safe. To escape the monster, they must navigate his memories, which take them further beyond the caves, eventually leading them to a significant moment where Holly notices a mysterious briefcase. The episode doesn’t answer the questions about the cave or the briefcase, but the show’s creators have already addressed them. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Vecna’s Fear of the Caves Relates to His Origin Story
While ‘Stranger Things’ went on a three-year break after the release of the fourth season in 2022, the show’s creators, the Duffer brothers, continued to work on Vecna’s story. With Kate Trefry and Jack Thorne, they created a play called ‘The First Shadow,’ which details the backstory of Henry Creel and his eventual transformation into Vecna. With that, the play also reveals the true origin of the supernatural powers possessed by the likes of Henry, Eleven, and Kali. It turns out that long before the kidnapping of Will, the birth of Eleven, and the creation of the Upside Down, there was a ship called the USS Eldridge. In 1943, the United States conducted experiments on the ship in an attempt to turn it invisible. The idea was to create a force field that would prevent the enemy from detecting it with their eyes or their electrical equipment.
However, the experiment took a shocking turn when the ship disappeared without a trace. Eventually, its captain returned, battered with grievous injuries, and seemed to have developed a unique blood type that did not exist in any other human on Earth. Turns out that the ship had crossed the threshold of space and time and entered another dimension, which Justin later calls the Abyss. It was the home of terrible monsters, later named the Demogorgons by Will’s friends, who killed most of the crew. Somehow, the captain found a way back, but he never shared the truth with anyone. It was too traumatic for him to discuss it, but on his deathbed, he confessed everything to his son, Martin, aka Dr. Brenner, who was fascinated by the idea of a different world.
Brenner dedicated his life to finding a way to return to that world. He established the Nevada Experiment, trying to recreate what had happened to USS Eldridge by accident. He came close to it, and a technology was developed to make that travel. However, one of the scientists in his team decided to defect for some reason and ran away with the tech, preventing Brenner from achieving his lifelong dream. This scientist was chased, and having sustained a wound, he hid in the caves. Incidentally, Brenner’s experiment was taking place in the desert in Nevada, which was close to a town where the Creel family lived. Their young son, Henry, would often go exploring in the caves. One day, he happened upon the injured scientist, which changed the course of his life.
The Caves Hint at Vecna’s Repressed Memories
While trying to find a way out of Vecna’s memories, Holly decides to explore the desert that lies beyond the caves. At first, Max tells her that she has already tried finding something, but Holly believes her fresh eyes can deliver the answers that have escaped them for so long. After realising that the caves are actually pointing towards something, she discovers a hole in the ground. Inside it, they find the injured scientist and a young Henry. On seeing the boy, the scientist becomes agitated, believing that someone has sent him to retrieve the briefcase, which contains the tech he’d stolen from Brenner’s experiment. He points a gun at Henry, who tries to calm him down, but when the man doesn’t listen, Henry bashes his head with a stone until the man is dead. Then, he opens the briefcase, but before Holly can see what’s in the briefcase, Max tells her that they’ve found a way out, and the duo leaves.
What happened next is that when Henry opens the briefcase, he is transported to the Abyss, where he has to fight off monsters to survive. If killing a man hadn’t already traumatised him, surviving in a dimension full of monsters would have done the trick. As shown in ‘The First Shadow,’ this is also where he first comes in contact with the Mind Flayer. The monster takes hold of Henry’s mind, allowing him to control the boy even when he is back in his own world, mainly because Henry is a child and it is easier to gain access to his mind than it would be to control someone like Captain Brenner. This is also why Henry, as Vecna, kidnaps only children. Henry stays in the Abyss for 12 hours, and when he returns, he has acquired the unique blood type, similar to Brenner’s father’s, which grants him his powers. However, the whole day has been so traumatic for him that he represses these memories.
As Henry grows older, his powers become stronger, and so does the Mind Flayer’s control over him. It leads him to do tragic things like killing his family, and later, injuring his only friend, Patty Newby. His mind, however, refuses to dredge up the memories of the day when he lost his innocence, his childhood, and in some ways, his free will. It’s much like what happened to Eleven, as revealed in Season 4. Her memories of Henry and the massacre that happened in Hawkins Lab were in her mind, but she had repressed them to the point that she didn’t even know they existed. The same happened to Henry regarding the Abyss, but trauma leaves its mark, and for Henry, it stayed in the form of a crippling fear that would prevent him from ever entering the caves again.
Read More: Will Eleven Die in Stranger Things? Theories
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