WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Stranger Things season 4 volume 1.

Stranger Things season 4 volume 1 ended with a shocking twist - revealing the season's real villain, Vecna, is actually Henry Creel. Stranger Things has always dined out on horror tropes, and so viewers were delighted when they heard Robert Englund would join Stranger Things season 4. The celebrated horror actor is best known for playing Freddy Krueger, the creepy villain of the Nightmare On Elm Street slasher series, but now he's headed to Hawkins.

Ironically, though, Stranger Things season 4 subverts expectations in that Englund isn't a major character at all. He's playing the part of Victor Creel, an inmate at the Pennhurst Mental Hospital who was imprisoned after the brutal murders of his family in 1959. Nancy notices strange parallels between these deaths and the spate of murders in 1986, and she and Robin manage to slip into the hospital and speak to Victor. There, they learn his backstory, and it's immediately clear he was indeed dealing with the same kind of quasi-supernatural horror they're facing. His information is key to helping them figure out how to rescue Max from Stranger Things season 4's real villain, Vecna.

Related: Stranger Things Season 4 Cast & Character Guide

Stranger Things season 4 volume 1 ends with Nancy's mind captured by Vecna, and he seems amused to realize how close she was to discovering his true identity. Victor Creel's family were indeed Vecna's first victims, but not from the Upside Down. In a shocking twist, Vecna reveals he is exactly Victor's son Henry Creel, played by Jamie Campbell Bower.

How Does Henry Creel Have Powers?

Vecna staring in Stranger Things 4

According to Stranger Things season 4 episode 7, Henry Creel was born with the same kind of powers Eleven possesses. They had presumably begun to develop before his family moved to Hawkins in 1959, because he was already reclusive and introverted, likely a reaction to his being able to sense others' reactions towards him. Henry took advantage of his isolation at Hawkins to experiment with his powers around the Creel House, using telekinesis to tear animals apart. He soon developed powerful telepathic powers, entering into the minds of his parents and his sister; he wasn't impressed at what he saw there, and ultimately decided to kill them all.

It's unclear where Henry Creel's powers come from. Until season 4, super-powers in Stranger Things had been the result of experiments conducted on pregnant women who were subjected to psychedelic drugs while fetuses were developing within their womb. There's no evidence Henry's mother ever experimented with LSD, however, meaning Henry's powers appear to be natural. Stranger Things has often paid homage to the X-Men comics, and the origin story for Stranger Things' Henry Creel dovetails with the idea of mutants in the Marvel Universe. Just like Marvel's mutants, his powers activated around puberty. Telepathy and telekinesis are common mutant powers - in fact, Stan Lee originally imagined all mutants possessing telepathy as a base powerset, explaining why Magneto took an astral stroll in one early issue. Later lore established that telepaths often suffer from a sort of "God Complex," viewing themselves as superior to others because they can peer into their minds and manipulate them with ease. All this corresponds well with Stranger Things season 4's Henry Creel.

Henry Creel's Number 1 History Explained

Number One AKA Henry in the lab in Stranger Things

Victor Creel had never realized the power haunting the Creel House was in fact his own son; he'd put it all down to a demon. But Henry's mother had known something was wrong, reaching out to a scientist named Dr. Martin Brenner - and this was what prompted Henry to lash out. He overextended himself killing his family, however, and fell into a coma. When he awoke, he was in Dr. Brenner's care, and the scientist had already figured out how to restrain him. Brenner was likely already involved in Project MKUltra, a secret CIA project effectively focused on creating superhuman assets for the Cold War. Naturally, Henry Creel - with his unusual brain patterns and remarkable powers - was of great interest. Henry became Dr. Brenner's Number One, as he experimented upon the teenager to figure out how his powers worked. As the years passed, though, Dr. Brenner realized Henry was beyond control, though, and his attention moved elsewhere.

Related: How Old Stranger Things' Characters Are In Season 4

How Dr. Brenner Used Henry Creel To Start Hawkins Lab's Program

Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) and Patient 010 at Hawkins Lab.

Dr. Brenner could not control Henry, so he decided to recreate him. This led to Brenner's experiments at Hawkins Lab, as he attempted to reproduce Number One's powers. He presumably recognized which parts of Henry's brain were active when he used his powers courtesy of ECG scans, and noticed similar parts of the brain were active in children whose development in the womb was influenced by psychedelics. This led to Brenner trying out different combinations on pregnant women, and he took the babies born into his own care for experimentation. Brenner's experiments were a success, because these children did indeed possess similar powers to Henry Creel.

According to Stranger Things season 4, most of Brenner's test subjects had a basic power set incorporating telepathy, telekinesis, astral projection and remote viewing. At least one subject, Number One, possessed different abilities. As seen in season 2, Eight - Eleven's so-called "Lost Sister" - cast illusions. This too was based on a power Henry possessed - flashbacks in Stranger Things season 4 episode 7 show him projecting illusions into the minds of his parents - but it seems to have been more unusual, more difficult for Dr. Brenner to duplicate. This would explain why Eight was able to escape; the guards weren't used to that particular ability, and she was able to slip away.

Unfortunately, the Hawkins experiments ended in tragedy. Dr. Brenner unwisely allowed Number One to serve as an orderly on the ward, and Henry was able to build a friendship with Eleven. He took advantage of her naïveté to manipulate her into helping him break free of Dr. Brenner's control, and massacred all the other children. Henry Creel was only defeated when Eleven confronted him, and triumphed against him in a battle of minds - telekinetically blasting him into the Upside Down. This, it seems, is the true origin story of Stranger Things - because this led to Hawkins and the Upside Down being bound together.

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