Stranger Things' Jamie Campbell Bower Teases Vecna's Mindset After Season 4's Final Battle
This article contains spoilers for "Stranger Things" Season 4.
Hawkins, Indiana, has been overrun by plenty of monsters from the Upside Down, the shadowy parallel dimension from "Stranger Things" that's constantly finding ways to wreak havoc on the small town. In Season 4, yet another denizen of the Upside Down made himself known. But as the show eventually revealed, this monster — the humanoid Vecna played by Jamie Campbell Bower — was more than he seemed.
While the Mind Flayer, Demogorgons, and other monsters that have menaced the citizens of Hawkins seemed to be acting out of pure evil, Vecna appeared to be motivated by much deeper grievances. By the end of Season 4, Volume 1, viewers learned that Vecna was actually Henry Creel, the first subject of Dr. Brenner's (Matthew Modine) experiments. He's also a powerful psychic who slaughtered his mother and sister as a child — and as an adult, all of Brenner's research subjects, with the exception of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown).
After Henry realizes El isn't the ally he thought she'd be and El sends him to the Upside Down, Henry morphs into Vecna and discovers he has the tools to reshape the world as he sees fit. Vecna comes shockingly close to completing his plan but is ultimately defeated by El along with Steve (Joe Keery), Nancy (Natalia Dyer), and Robin (Maya Hawke), who shoot and burn him in an effort to finish him off for good.
However, as the Season 4 finale comes to an end, there are hints that although Vecna's down, he's not yet out. What will his mindset be when he returns in Season 5? In an interview with Looper and other outlets, Bower shed light on how Vecna's feeling after his stunning defeat.
Bower offers unique insight into Vecna's journey
Jamie Campbell Bower has spent a great deal of time breaking down his character's journey from Henry to Number One to Vecna, and although he acknowledges they're all the same person, he notes that Henry's anger with the world has built over time. "Young Henry, when we first meet him, he goes through this journey of isolation," Bower explained, "of being removed from his own society and feeling lost in a strange way, growing up in a world that he sees as full of lies and misunderstood."
"Then he ends up in the care of Brenner," Bower continued, "whereby Brenner has to suppress this person because they're too powerful and they're not listening to him. But which one of us here on this planet wants to be told all the time what to do, how to behave? Nobody. Nobody wants that, particularly if you have a power. That resentment there is starting to build."
According to Bower, Henry's resentment reaches new heights when he tries to recruit El to his cause. "This box is unlocked. This grief and experience bubbles up to the surface," Bower observes. "He presents the truest version of himself [to El] ... and then [El] sends [Henry] to his demise at the end of [Season 4, Episode 7]. At that point, he's left alone again to stew in this fury, and that's all that's there. Everything that he believes now has been compounded ... That's all he's left with. Any hope, any dream that he had has died ... She's his target now."
Yet while El may have been Vecna's true target for much of the fourth season of "Stranger Things," his list of enemies has expanded greatly and his resentment has reached new heights by the conclusion of the final episode. Bower indicated that may mean that Vecna will become even more terrifying in Season 5, teasing, "If you thought he wasn't pissed before, he's pissed now."
Every episode of "Stranger Things" Season 4 is now available on Netflix.