Stranger Things season 5 is officially doubling down on the show’s massive retcon, rewriting the entire show’s history. The end of Stranger Things season 4 revealed that Jamie Campbell Bower’s Vecna had been the true villain all along; a twisted mirror image of Eleven, this powerful psychic had created the Mind Flayer and wrested control over the Upside-Down. But just how much control did Vecna have, and how many of Hawkins’ crises was he personally responsible for?
That question has just been answered. Netflix has released the full opening scene of Stranger Things season 5, and it features a shocking flashback to season 1. It shows a de-aged Will (Noah Schnapp) during his time in the Upside Down, finally revealing what happened to him after he was finally captured by the Demogorgon. It seems even that Demogorgon was a servant of Vecna, and that Will was deliberately exposed to the Mind Flayer. This revelation completes season 4’s retcon, with a staggering effect on the show’s overarching story.
“It was you,” Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven realized as she confronted Vecna in season 4. “It was always you.” It seems she was right; Stranger Things has always been the story of Vecna’s war on Hawkins, as the monstrous being who has taken over the Upside Down attempts to expand his sphere of influence. The Demogorgon back in season 1 wasn’t just a predator, obeying its animal instincts. Rather, it was always under Vecna’s control, doing his bidding, acting on his behalf.
This makes a chilling sense. We first saw the Demogorgon attacking Hawkins Lab, which must have meant it was operating as a scout. It further attempted to kill all those who would threaten Vecna most, namely Doctor Brenner and Eleven herself. Meanwhile, this Demogorgon was tasked with finding a human who would be absorbed into the Mind Flayer’s network, a permanent bridgehead on Hawkins.
There are still several unanswered questions about this, of course. The Demogorgon got to Barb first, and yet Vecna did not choose her as his agent – instead allowing her to die in the Upside Down. It’s reasonable to assume Stranger Things season 5 will reveal there’s something special about Will, something that made him far more interesting to Vecna. Whatever the truth may be, though, the pattern is set; Vecna chose Will as his cat’s paw, his bridgehead, his spy.
The Demogorgon died at the end of Stranger Things season 1, but it was a single agent, and its death meant nothing to Vecna. More importantly, Will was rescued from the Upside Down – and it’s now likely Vecna always intended that to happen, instructing his creatures to let Hopper and Joyce get him back to Hawkins. As far as Vecna was concerned, everything had taken place as he had hoped; he then began to expand his influence into Hawkins, using the Mind Flayer to control Demodogs and Will to gain insight into his enemies’ actions.
Vecna suffered a setback, though; Eleven returned, more powerful than ever, and she managed to close the Hawkins gate. The Russians opened another one, and Vecna now decided to target Eleven as the only real threat to his plans. Stranger Things season 3 is best seen as an assassination mission, one that fails in its primary objective but nonetheless ended with Eleven stripped of her powers (surely no coincidence). With Eleven defeated, Vecna finally began his invasion in earnest in season 4.
Stranger Things season 4 ended with Vecna opening his new gates to Hawkins, preparing to launch his invasion of Earth. But one thing has gone badly wrong; Eleven is back, her powers restored by the now-deceased Doctor Brenner. Footage and interviews have suggested Eleven has had an upgrade, too – one hinted at by Brenner in season 4, who hoped his training would refine her abilities. Eleven has been the greatest obstacle to Vecna’s plans all along, and she’s back.
This may well explain some of the oddities about season 5, which is set 18 months after Vecna opened his gates – and yet before he has really committed to the invasion. It’s entirely possible Vecna has decided to take a step back, to wait and see what Eleven does before sending his forces through the Hawkins gates. Vecna has given the military time to “quarantine” the Upside Down, but that’s simply because he views their actions as an irrelevance; he has an army of almost unlimited size, meaning he isn’t worried about anything they can do. Eleven is the one he’s worried about.
According to the latest issue of SFX Magazine, Stranger Things season 5 opens with an all-action episode in which Eleven and her friends launch their own plan to take down Vecna. If that’s the case, then their mission is the trigger to everything that follows, because Vecna pulls the trigger on his invasion in response… and the Upside Down breaks loose at last.
