The fourth season of Stranger Things fundamentally changed the series’ mythology by finally unmasking its ultimate antagonist. The show revealed that every threat the heroes had faced, from the Demogorgon to the Mind Flayer, was orchestrated by the malevolent entity Vecna. Formerly known as Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower), aka test subject 001, Vecna was a powerful psychic whose banishment to another dimension by Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) created the Upside Down as it exists today. His goal in Season 4 was to murder four victims to create gates between worlds, initiating an invasion of Hawkins. While Vecna was wounded in his final confrontation with Eleven and the Hawkins crew, he succeeded in opening the rifts and plunging the town into chaos. Season 5 of Stranger Things reveals that Vecna spent 20 months biding his time before he returned with a new plan to achieve his apocalyptic ambitions.
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Warning: Spoilers below for Stranger Things 5, Volume 1
Following the devastating events of the Season 4 finale, nearly two years have passed in a state of uneasy calm. With Hawkins under military quarantine and a massive portal to the Upside Down in the center of the town, the heroes have settled into a grim routine. Vecna has been completely dormant, with no monster activity and no psychic presence for Eleven to track. In an effort to proactively hunt their enemy, Hopper (David Harbour) has been leading dangerous reconnaissance missions, or “crawls,” into the Upside Down, searching for any sign of Vecna’s whereabouts. These repeated incursions have yielded nothing, creating a false sense of security that the villain might be permanently weakened. That changes abruptly when Vecna makes his move.
What Does Vecna Want in Stranger Things Season 5?
Vecna’s new plan is to gather 12 children from Hawkins for a mysterious purpose. He initiates his plot by psychically contacting them, appearing in his human form as Henry Creel. He also adopts the comforting persona of “Mr. Whatsit” and preys on the fears of children like Mike Wheeler’s (Finn Wolfhard) younger sister Holly (Nell Fisher), promising to protect them from the monsters plaguing their town. Once he gains their trust, Vecna dispatches a Demogorgon into the real world to kidnap them.
The horrifying truth of Vecna’s intentions is uncovered through Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), whose connection to the hive mind has been reawakened. During a Demogorgon attack, Will suffers a seizure and experiences a terrifying vision. He sees Holly and other captured children bound to pillars deep within the Upside Down, with fleshy vines from the hive mind being forced into their mouths. This vision makes it clear that Vecna is actively transforming them into psychic vessels, similarly to what he did to Will many years prior. This grotesque process is central to his endgame, but the reason for it remains a mystery until Vecna reveals it himself in a climactic confrontation.
During the season’s midpoint, Vecna personally explains his motivation to Will. He states that he chooses children because their young minds and bodies are weak, making them easy to break and reshape for his own purposes. In a horrifying admission, Vecna claims that Will himself was the inspiration for this entire plan. His survival and transformation after being taken to the Upside Down in 1983 demonstrated the potential of using a human host. This revelation reframes Will’s trauma as the unintentional blueprint for Vecna’s current apocalyptic strategy.
While Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 still doesn’t reveal Vecna’s endgame, his elaborate scheme appears to be a direct response to a significant limitation on the Upside Down. Throughout the first half of the season, the heroes discover a massive, regenerating wall that forms a perfect circle around the Upside Down’s version of Hawkins, blocking Eleven’s ability to track Vecna down. At the same time, Max (Sadie Sink), who is trapped within Vecna’s mind, finds a similar rock wall in Henry’s memories that he is visibly terrified of and cannot cross. These two barriers, one physical and one mental, seem to deter psychic powers somehow.
It is likely that the twelve kidnapped children are the key to shattering these constraints. By turning them into vessels, Vecna may be planning to channel their combined energy to destroy the walls, potentially unleashing his full power and merging the Upside Down with the human world once and for all.
Volume 1 of Stranger Things 5 is currently streaming on Netflix. Volume 2 arrives on December 25th, with the final episode following on December 31st.
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