Vecna, the seasonal villain of Stranger Things, became the subject of debate during the opening weekend of the new season of the series. He, too, is a disturbing point of interest within the show’s plot.

Bigger, darker, and more sinister, the latest installment of Stranger Things showed considerable maturity. At the same time, a narrative ambition that seemed lost in its past chapters. This, of course, is a plus point for the whole fresh plot of the Netflix series.

The first seven chapters of the fourth season of Stranger Things surprised the audience. Especially after a third that garnered mixed reviews and a three-year hiatus. There were serious questions about what the show could do to make up for the lost time. Even more on how he could delve into new themes and characters. So the new installment and its clever script have been a welcome surprise for fans. Also, causing speculation about the places to which the series is headed and its plot. But in addition to showing the maturity of its main characters, the series also showed that it plays hard on the plot. One such point of interest of considerable substance has been the way the series introduced the villain. Vecna, a creature that inhabits The Other Side and exerts a pernicious influence on reality, was amazed at her power. But specifically, it was also the bridge that Stranger Things established with its entire history.

The show’s mythology grew. And also, he took a clever step to interconnect with all the elements of the previous seasons. Vecna, with its complicated history, is the central point of all the intersecting lines of a more mature narrative. At its core, it’s both how Stranger Things will try to pave the way for its fifth and final season. Quite a narrative audacity that showed that the series remains one of the most substantial narrative experiments in streaming in the last decade.

What is Vecna’s relationship with The Other Side?

As the series narrates in episodes six and seven of the season, Vecna is not, as one might imagine, a product of The Other Side. In a surprising revelation, the story ends by showing that the monster has a direct relationship with Eleven. The reason? The girl freed him by accident from the Hawkins Laboratory where he was being held captive and under investigation, like herself.

But more curious, is that Vecna’s story is already told throughout the season in a kind of formidable careful subtext. Vecna begins as Henry Creel, son of Victor Creel and inhabitant of the dismal haunted house of Hawkins. Author of animal mutilations and the murder of his family, Henry ends up in a coma. He will then be held for investigation in the Hawkins lab. Becoming Test Subject 001, he will also be the origin of the project that includes Eleven.

Later in 1979, Creel, now part of the laboratory staff, ends up manipulating Eleven to free him from the mechanisms that control his power. Once he succeeds, he slaughters all the children in the lab and confronts Eleven, who manages to defeat him and send him to The Other Side. Trapped in the dimension, Henry sublimated his powers and became a parasitic creature that can also ravenously consume the lives of others. When the fourth season begins in the year ’86, Henry/001/Vecna has already been on The Other Side for seven years.

What are the most immediate references to Vecna?

Like much of the plot of Stranger Things, Vecna has considerable parallels to horror movies. From the scenes that show him walking through the dark with his claws open — an homage to A Nightmare on Elm Street — to his grotesque appearance. The season’s vilest creature is also an ingenious combination of signs and codes that can show where the season is headed.

Vecna could very well be a reinvention of Freddy Krueger. With the character, he shares omniscience about fears and emotional pain. Also the ability to use them as a sophisticated weapon against their victims. The fearsome aspect of him, which links him physically to the Other Side, is related to the way Clive Barker conceives of his creatures in Hellraiser.
As if that weren’t enough, this gigantic and grotesque giant parasite looks like something out of several Stephen King stories. From the pages of the novel It and the recent book After. In both cases, the creature can use the fear of its victims to attack. The same as Pennywise and a good number of creatures that the master of horror has imagined over the last four decades.

Where does the revelation about the new villain lead?

Season four made it clear that Vecna is in control of the hive mind of The Other Side. This is to say that in some way or another, she managed to bond with or manipulate the power of the Mind Flayer. So all indications are that Vecna can use his will to attack using the Other Side’s creatures.

More interesting still. If the Mind Flayer disappeared, Vecna may replace him as the center of power. Already season four made it clear that the monster is capable of opening portals in every place he killed. So the chances of leaving him locked up, or isolated on The Other Side, are slim. So is the idea of attacking by dragging him out of his domain.

For now, the creature has shown that it is capable of killing using its powers through the minds of its victims. So most likely, the remaining two season episodes will feature Elven and his crew on The Other Side. Will there be a confrontation with a villain who has complete control of his surroundings?