**This article contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 and Stranger Things: The First Shadow**
The first four chapters of the final Stranger Things season have been released, and suffice to say, fans only have more questions. How do Will’s powers work? What ships are endgame? Which characters aren’t making it out? Where exactly are Max and Holly? The most daunting question, though — what’s going on with Henry?
He’s still just as terrifying as ever… that death with his hand shooting through in the final minutes of Chapter Four made my whole watch party gasp (IYKYK). But with the arrival of his alter-ego, Mr. Whatsit, and the reveal that Max has been walking through his memories, fans have questions about Henry’s true motivations and past.
It’s here that we might turn to Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the acclaimed Broadway and West End play that serves as the official canon prequel to Henry’s transformation into Vecna.
What Happens in The First Shadow?
With some of the most technically stunning effects live theatre can produce, Stranger Things: The First Shadow immerses its audience into the world of 1959 Hawkins, Indiana. Not before a terrifying prologue, however.
It starts in 1943, with the United States running a secret experiment attempting to use force fields to turn the USS Elridge invisible. This is in reference to the real-world alleged hoax, the Philadelphia Experiment. The experiment doesn’t go as expected; instead, it transports the ship and its inhabitants into Dimension X, where they’re attacked and killed by monsters that appear to be Demogorgons.
We then cut to 1959 Hawkins, where the Creel family has just moved into their new home. Yes, that home. It’s established through these first few scenes that Henry has psychokinetic abilities, ones that only add to the mental torment he seems to experience, making him feel disconnected from those he finds himself near.
As he starts attending Hawkins High School, Henry struggles to make friends despite the wide array of characters, including several names that might sound familiar to fans, such as Joyce Maldonado, James Hopper Jr., Bob Newby, Lonnie Byers, Karen Childress, Ted Wheeler, Charles Sinclair, and Alan Munson.
Bob’s adopted sister, Patty, welcomes Henry, though, convincing him that his powers aren’t evil and that he can instead find a way to control them. Henry and Patty begin to form a romantic connection following this.
On a night when he’s overcome by the shadows in his mind, however, Henry enters what he soon calls “the battlefield” and proceeds to kill several animals, including Prancer, the pet cat of Claudia Yount. Upon realizing that his actions here also happen in the real world, Henry becomes haunted by visions that suggest he’ll kill Patty.
Meanwhile, Joyce is attempting to put on a production of Oklahoma!. As the animal killings continue, however, Joyce, Bob, and Hopper join together to investigate what, or who, might be causing them.
Henry and Patty eventually decide to use Henry’s powers to try to locate Patty’s birth mother, but while he’s inside the void, the shadowy monsters that haunt him cause him to lose control. Patty’s father discovers them and is attacked by Henry. Patty encourages Henry to fight back, telling him she loves him, which gives him the strength to regain control, but not before Patty’s father is blinded and injured.
Not long after, however, Henry’s mother sends him to Dr. Martin Brenner, who, as it’s later revealed, learned everything about Henry after supplying his mother with drugs. As this happens, Patty sees her father in the hospital, who tells her that Henry saved her from the monster, which is revealed to be the Mind Flayer.
The second act of the play details Henry’s experiences in the Hawkins National Laboratory, where his powers only seem to grow. It’s revealed that Brenner’s father is the sole survivor of the USS Elridge incident from the show’s prologue. Upon surviving the incident, he returned with a unique blood type and several injuries that have haunted him since. Brenner, in an attempt to recreate the USS Elridge incident, established the Nevada Experiment.
However, a defective scientist took Brenner’s technology into a cave, where a young Henry was exploring with a spyglass. Henry stumbled upon the technology, accidentally transporting both him and the scientist into Dimension X.
Though Henry was officially missing for 12 hours, this is when he first encountered the Mind Flayer. Upon returning, he had the same unique blood type that Brenner’s father had, and a noticeably different personality than before.
After being put through several experiments in which Brenner tries to get Henry to kill, Henry escapes and goes to find his family and Patty. It’s here that Henry uses his powers to listen to his family’s thoughts, which say that they want to send him back to Brenner. Falling under the influence of the shadows, Henry kills his family.
He then goes to find Patty at the school play, only to be interrupted by Brenner. As the two try to convince Henry of what to do and where to go, Henry once again loses control, nearly killing Patty. As she’s taken to the hospital, Brenner takes Henry back to the lab.
In the epilogue of the show, we see an older Henry first being introduced to Eleven.
How Does it Connect?
There are a few key points to consider from the play as the final season of Stranger Things continues to be released.
The first is that the Mind Flayer seems to have more control over Henry than some fans originally thought. This has led some to suggest that Henry is secretly working against the Mind Flayer and that we might see him team up with our protagonists.
I’m not entirely sure how convinced I am of this theory yet; if anything, I think that Henry might be seeking control over the Mind Flayer, which could align him with the protagonists for a brief moment. Considering everything he’s done as Vecna, though, I don’t see a full-on team-up happening anytime soon.
Secondly, it’s clear that Henry’s memories will have some kind of importance this season. Why, after all, is he so frightened by the cave that Max is hiding in? Some have suggested that this cave is the very cave where Henry first made contact with the Mind Flayer, leading it to be a source of the very trauma that started Henry’s journey.
It’s also significant that Dr. Brenner tracked Henry down because of the dropped spyglass in the cave. Remind you of anything? It certainly reminded me of the same spyglass that Holly took from Henry’s belongings, then dropped outside the cave as Max appeared. Is it possible that Henry might notice the missing spyglass and realize that Holly went into the wounds, which was against his instructions?
With the play’s events officially being confirmed as canon, only time will tell how they connect to the final season of the show. No matter what happens, though, fans certainly can’t wait to see how such a behemoth of a show concludes.
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Pinterest!