Who really calls the shots in The Upside Down? Vecna? The Mind Flayer? Who came first? Let's take a look at how these two otherworldly monsters are tied to each other and what it means for the heroes of Netflix's "Stranger Things."
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00:00Who really calls the shots in The Upside Down?
00:03Vekna?
00:04The Mind Flayer?
00:05Who came first?
00:06Let's take a look at how these two otherworldly monsters are tied to each other, and what
00:09it means for the heroes of Netflix's Stranger Things.
00:21Season 4 serves as the penultimate chapter of Stranger Things.
00:24With the end on the horizon, the unexplained chaos known as The Upside Down has just started
00:28to make a bit more sense.
00:30As the monstrous, tentacle-wrapped muscle man known as Vekna unleashed a teenage killing
00:34spree across Hawkins, it was up to our favorites, spread across the globe, to figure out his
00:38origins and put a stop to him before he destroyed the world as we know it.
00:51We learn that Vekna was born Henry Creel, the son of infamous familicide killer Victor
00:56Creel, who was revealed to have been falsely convicted of killing his family.
00:59In reality, it was Henry that killed his family, harnessing his supernatural powers and later
01:04becoming One, as part of Dr. Brenner's research at Hawkins Laboratory.
01:08After a confrontation with Eleven back at the lab, One was banished to The Upside Down,
01:13where he became the source of all of the horrors unleashed upon Hawkins over the course of
01:16Stranger Things.
01:21As the group began to figure out the origins of Vekna and the extent of his power, Dustin
01:25Henderson hypothesized that Vekna served as the second-in-command, or five-star general,
01:30to the Mind Flayer they first encountered in Season 2.
01:33Unfortunately, Dustin was quite a bit off the mark with his prediction.
01:36He was correct in believing there to be a connection between Vekna and the Mind Flayer,
01:40but how the two relate to another is sure to bring a new level of danger to the community
01:43of Hawkins, and especially those who try to fight it.
01:46Eleven learned the truth of Vekna's connection to the Mind Flayer during her attempt to save
01:50Max by reaching her through the void as Vekna targeted her for his fourth and final kill.
01:55After Vekna successfully captured Eleven and pinned her up using his vine-like tentacles,
01:59he delivered a monologue that answered some of the biggest burning questions.
02:12After Eleven used her powers against One, she inadvertently opened a rift between our
02:16world and the Upside Down, sending him into the Netherrealm and charring his flesh as
02:20he dropped between worlds.
02:21Eleven believed it to be a form of purgatory, but soon realized he had been dropped into
02:25what he called a realm unspoiled by mankind.
02:29One came across demodogs and other sinister creatures, viewing them as small predators
02:33in need of protection, the same way he felt toward household spiders as a human on Earth.
02:38Given his supernatural ability to connect and manipulate the minds of others, One approached
02:42a massive, swirling, cloud-like mass and ultimately transformed it into the Mind Flayer, an impossibly
02:47large cosmic beast resembling one of his childhood drawings.
02:51As it turns out, Vekna was not here to do the bidding of the Mind Flayer.
02:54The Mind Flayer appeared in Season 2 to do the bidding of Vekna by helping him realize
02:59his potential as a multidimensional apex predator.
03:07Henry Creel was fascinated with spiders as a child, viewing the Black Widow as the ultimate
03:12alpha predator and only looked down upon due to its size.
03:15By coming in contact with the form that would become the Mind Flayer, One was able to manipulate
03:19its power for his own benefit.
03:21By using the Mind Flayer, he could attempt to reset humanity, using the powerful entity
03:25as an extension of his power.
03:27In doing this, Vekna turned all of the inhabitants of the Upside Down into a hive mind.
03:32It's why all of the Demobats, Demodogs, and Demogorgons act in sync, and why they can
03:37be destroyed if the host is incapacitated.
03:39Vekna sent out the Demogorgon, the Mind Flayer, and other assorted Upside Down creatures to
03:44weaken the barrier between the two worlds, eventually making it so America and Russia
03:48could open their own gates, allowing Vekna to walk right through.
03:51He says,
03:52All I needed was someone to open the door.
03:56By saying this, he's implying that all of this would have been avoided had she not banished
03:59him to the Upside Down, blaming her for all of the death and destruction that has plagued
04:03Hawkins.
04:04He knew he couldn't make it through without Eleven's power, and after the Battle of
04:07Starcourt Mall, he got his wish.
04:10Vekna first tried to attack our world by possessing will-buyers, but wasn't strong enough to
04:14make it happen.
04:15He again tried with Billy, but his plan was foiled yet again by Eleven.
04:19He attacked her yet again in Season 3 through the Mind Flayer, who bit her and implanted
04:23a worm in her leg.
04:24After she removes the worm from her body, she discovers her powers are gone, but unbeknownst
04:29to her, it's because Vekna sucked her power out through the worm.
04:33Now in possession of her power, Vekna was finally strong enough to enter the minds of
04:36his victims, and created the necessary four gates to bring the Upside Down to our world.
04:41Unfortunately, whether Vekna knows it or not, will-buyers is still connected to his
04:45hive mind, having felt his presence in the final moments of Season 4.
04:49With Max in a coma but still alive, there's a good chance she'll also be connected to
04:53Vekna, if slash when she finally wakes up.
04:56No matter what Vekna has in store for Season 5, we can take solace in knowing Eleven, Will,
05:01and the rest of the gang are going to be ready to take him down once and for all.