On May 27, the first batch of episodes (seven, to be specific) of the fourth season of the highly successful series Stranger Things premiered on Netflix, introducing us to the new adventures of our favorite group of eighties teenagers. And some of the aspects that have most dazzled the fans have been its more serious tone (compared to the previous two seasons) , the new characters introduced as Eddie Munson, a Dungeons and Dragons player who is inadvertently involved in the main plot of the series and, above all, the new villain of this batch of chapters: the fearsome Vecna.
Vecna, who is Vecna?
Before we get into the flour and break down who this sinister villain is, mention that there will be spoilers for this new fourth season, so if you haven’t seen all the episodes… we don’t take responsibility.
At the beginning of season four we witness a group of teenagers, including the captain of the cheer squad, the head of the school newspaper and a member of the basketball roster are brutally murdered by a mysterious force. Well, this demonic entity turns out to be the sinister and powerful Vecna, a being that is found and belongs to the Upside Down World.
However, unlike previous villains such as the Demogorgon or the Mind Flayer, Vecna is capable of attacking our dimension without needing to cross into our reality. Thus, the group made up of Dustin, Max, Lucas, Steve, Robin, Nancy and Eddie set themselves the task of putting an end to this chain of deaths by eliminating Vecna.
Where does this villain come from?
This villain’s name comes from the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game , just like previous antagonists in the series. Vecna is, within the lore of that franchise , a very powerful sorcerer who was able to extend his evil beyond death, a characteristic that he practically shares with his Netflix counterpart.
After a series of events, the villain ends up catching Nancy , forcing her to relive the trauma that torments her every day and makes her believe that she was the one who let her friend Barb die (during the first season).
At the same time, Eleven begins a super-secret government program with the aim of recovering the powers she lost at the end of the third season, accompanied by Doctor Brenner, the scientist who once helped her develop those superhuman abilities. The Nina project consists of our protagonist having to re-experience the memories of her past that helped her obtain those supernatural abilities…
Through these memories we will learn the story of how one of the caretakers of the facility in which she was found feels sorry for her and decides to help her escape from the laboratory. Eleven, as a sign of her gratitude, helps him remove a chip from her that, in theory, served to track him in case of her escape and that forced him to practically live like a prisoner.
That character, without his chip, begins to kill everyone in the secret base with the help of his own mental powers. That’s when we are told that this caretaker is 001 in the Doctor Brenner program. Then he will tell us that he had always possessed those abilities and that he was disowned by his family… until one day he decided to brutally murder his mother and his sister as revenge.
Due to his superpowers he ends up being instructed by Brenner within the program that gave life to Eleven. In a plot twist that few expected, it is revealed that this 001 would end up becoming Vecna after Eleven banished him to the Upside Down World. Shocking, right?
Now we just have to wait for July 1, 2022 to see how this exciting season of Stranger Things ends .