Netflix has finally released the second volume of the fourth and penultimate season of the much-hyped series Stranger Things leaving the streaming service providers' servers with an outage. Brimming with darkness, emotions, suspense, and a myriad of thrills, creator Duffer Brothers have meticulously managed to bring a dire and gory touch to this supernatural coming-of-age story retaining the human values of love, friendship, trust, and faith in the greater good.
While the classical favorites Eleven, Hopper, Joyce, Dustin, Nancy, Steve, Max, Robin, Lucas, Mike, Will, and Jonathan with Murray bring along the classical Hawkins feeling Argyle, Dmitri and Eddie make the season more eventful. But overall, it was the primeval nemesis Vecna from the Upside Down that stole the show for everyone, probably because it is the first antagonist of the series with a mind and a voice that is enough to send shivers down the spine.
Inspired by the horror movies of the 80s and the fictional villain from the world of Dungeons & Dragons, Vecna is the humanoid monster from the Upside Down with a red skull and blackish-brown veins protruding from his body, he is an undead monster who curses teenagers through his mental capacities, wreaking havoc in the town of Hawkins, Indiana.
Vecna preys on peoples¡¯ trauma and guilt in the real world and curses them by reiterating their traumatic past continually until it kills them. Although he never physically leaves the Upside Down, his capabilities transcend the dark world like that of the Mind Flayer who we later learn was created by Vecna when he was banished to the Upside Down.
Vecna discovered the hive mind and mastered it to create the mind flayer, which in turn controlled the Demogorgons and demo dogs. With his psychoanalytic powers, Vecna aka Eleven or Henry Creel incorporated the mind flayer into himself, and that allowed him to break the connection into the real world.
Upside Down or the Dark Side is the alternate mirror world that exists below our world in the Stranger Things Universe, only darker, lifeless, and gory in every proportion we can imagine. The Upside Down reflects our world in every geographical and topographical scape with bats, reptiles and every dark symbolism one can imagine.?
The Upside Down is devoid of any living human or natural pasture, it has an eerie dead atmosphere with thunderstorms, dead plants, and vines all over the landscape. The Upside Down is first expected to be exposed to the real world in 1979, during Eleven¡¯s fight with One/Henry Creel in the Rainbow Room of the Hwakins Laboratory when Eleven unintentionally opened the gate while overpowering One, sending him to the dark world, where One became Vecna.
Season 4 answered a lot of questions that were hovering in our minds. When Eleven underwent the training to regain her powers through project Nina, Dr. Brenner and Dr. Owens attempted to explore Eleven¡¯s past comprising of her encounters with One. In the final episode of Season 4: Volume 1 Vecna revealed his identity and origins to Nancy when he catapulted her with his powers.?
At the Hawkins National Laboratory, where Dr. Brenner was conducting his experiments on kids to enhance their telekinetic powers, Eleven befriends an elderly assistant we later discover to be Dr. Brenner¡¯s first experiment ¨C One. One is actually, Henry Creel, Victor Creel¡¯s son who is the foremost victim of this demon. Henry creel develops psychic powers as a child and infiltrates other creatures¡¯ minds, he then kills his mother and sister and tries to kill his father as well, but loses his power in this attempt and falls into a coma, Victor Creel is falsely accused of the family¡¯s situation.
After waking from the coma, Henry finds himself in the hands of Dr. Brenner who tries to replicate Henry¡¯s powers. Unable to control Henry, Dr. Brenner implants a chip in henry to control his powers, which Henry removes from his body by tricking Eleven into believing him. Henry thus becoming Brenners¡¯ first experiment is named ¡®One¡¯. One was always disgusted by humans and thus killed everyone in the laboratory, he tried to get Eleven on his side in his mission to eradicate humanity, but then Eleven found out his reality and banishes him to the Upside Down as the two engage in combat in the laboratory. Thus, we learn that it was One and not Eleven who carried out the massacre at the Hawkins Laboratory.
After being banished to the Upside down, Henry is struck by electromagnetic lightning which doesn¡¯t kill him but disfigures him and then after discovering the hive particle and getting over the Mind Flayer, he tries to establish revenge with the real world through continual attacks we witness in previous seasons.
He is thus on a mission to create four gates to the real world by prying over four targets who are consumed by their guilt and he almost succeeds in his plan till Eleven saves Max, who is Vecna¡¯s fourth and final target of the curse but despite her best efforts, she couldn¡¯t stop Vecna from creating the four gates and entering the real world.
Vecna preys on human guilt and remorse and attacks his victims with hallucinations, headaches, nausea, and nightmares. Finally, he breaks into the victims¡¯ minds and kills them- levitating them into the air, disfiguring them, and gouging out their eyes.
First targeting cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham and then student journalist Fred Benson and Hawkins basketballer Patrick McKinney, Vecna achieves his three kills. He then targets Max Mayfield who is consumed by his stepbrother Billy¡¯s death, unsuccessful in his first attempt, Vecna almost kills him in the final attempt when Eleven and his friends set their bait to kill Vecna, he narrowly achieves the four gates and unleashes the fury on the town of Hawkins.
The story ends with Eddies¡¯ death and Max in a state of coma, the star cast is now united but the final minutes of the season reveal that the ultimate lord of the dark universe may not be dead yet. What still remains to unfold shall only be revealed in the fifth and final season of the show.