Purser also said that she didn't know that Barb would die at first. She explained, "there was this secrecy about Episode 7, which is the episode where [Chief Hopper] finds Barb's body.
Surely fans will be disappointed that we don't get any actual scenes of the beloved version of Barb, but it does add some depth to the overall series by connecting the most recent episodes to some of the earliest deaths from back in Season 1.
Barb's death implied that whatever the slug does didn't take, so the Mind Flayer reached out to Will instead. It could be that the Mind Flayer needed a younger host, or Barb may have simply died while the Demogorgon was attempting to infect her.
Vecna's first big credited kill was Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien). He followed that murder with canonically terrible driver Fred Benson (Logan Riley Bruner) and basketball star Patrick McKinney (Myles Truitt). But wait, there's more.
Barb Dies In Stranger Things Season 1 When She's Trapped By A Demogorgon In The Upside Down.
For starters, she's a girl, one of the few teen girl characters in the first season. And many LGBTQ+ viewers saw Barb as a closeted queer character with an unrequited crush on Nancy.
Using past traumas to break down his victims, Vecna brought Nancy to the pool where Barb was killed by the Demogorgon and revealed her mangled corpse. Vecna then taunted Nancy with her own feelings of guilt - that she was responsible for Barb's death and had forgotten about her.
Of course, we've known this for a while—she was killed in season one by The Monster/Demogorgon in the Upside Down pool—but that doesn't make our grief less real.
Seeing as Barb served as a symbol of innocence, viewers were upset about her sudden death. A "Justice for Barb" movement came together after the character was killed, and seemingly forgotten by the town by the end of Stranger Things season 1.
In episode 7, Vecna is revealed to be Henry Creel (played as a youngster by Raphael Luce), the son of Victor Creel (Robert Englund) and his wife Virginia (Tyner Rushing) shown in the 1950s flashbacks.
Trivia. The Demogorgon Dungeons & Dragons figure, used by Eleven to symbolize the Monster. The Demogorgon received its nickname from Eleven using the Demogorgon game piece from a Dungeons & Dragons set to show that Will was hiding from the creature in her vision of The Upside Down.
While intending to get his revenge on Eleven and Brenner, Vecna also goes after victims who have dealt with traumatizing experiences in the past (reminiscent of his childhood and his time at the Hawkins lab).
Many theorized she was—spoiler alert—still alive and would make it out of the Upside Down, and they had pretty convincing evidence to back the idea up. But unfortunately, Justice for Barb isn't going to happen.
At his empire's height, Vecna was betrayed and destroyed by his most trusted lieutenant, a vampire called Kas the Bloody-Handed, using a magical sword that Vecna himself had crafted for him, now known as the Sword of Kas.
Barb cries out for Nancy - flash to the regular world, where Nancy and Steve are kissing passionately on Steve's bed to Foreigner's "I've Been Waiting For a Girl Like You" (ugh that's a great song), clearly a moment away from The Deed - and for a moment, Nancy hesitates, as if she heard the cry.
Nancy Cared About Steve More
Nancy chose to remain with Steve rather than accompanying Barb home, despite her friend having hurt herself. It could be argued that Nancy cared about her boyfriend more, as she disregarded the feelings of her friend. Barb promises to chaperone Nancy when they go to Steve's party.
Many fans didn't like how Nancy abandoned her best friend to hook up with Steve, which resulted in the Demogorgon ambushing and abducting her.
After getting pushed around by Steve (who is clearly threatened by Jonathan's obvious crush on Nancy), Nancy sees the Demogorgon in the photo with Barb. Together the teenagers start their own hunt for whatever took both Barb and Will.
Stranger Things season 4 introduced viewers to Vecna, a powerful psychic revealed to be the show's true villain all along.
Did the series bring back the actress? Unfortunately, no, and what a miss that is! I would have loved to see Purser reprise her role in a memory, just like Montgomery. Instead, we got CGI and we can barely make out that it's Barb.
Vecna draws power from sad and angry memories and that is the main reason he targets traumatized teens. Those teens are a well of power just there to be absorbed. This is not just a theory, Vecna himself told Eleven about the power that angry and sad memories hold.
Realizing he had tremendous psychic power, he haunted his family with visions before ultimately killing most of them. His father was framed for the murders and locked away in a mental hospital as a disturbed serial killer. Henry then found himself in the care of Brenner, who decided he wanted more kids like the boy.
What was Chrissy's Trauma? Chrissy's life appears to be free from flaws on the surface, but in reality, she is struggling terribly to conceal her depression and self-image stemming. She was struggling with these issues, which resulted in her developing an eating disorder due to her mother's verbally abusive comments.
Sharing more about Eleven's real father Andrew Rich could be a great way to wrap up the story.
I saw a means to realize my potential, to transcend my human form, to become the predator I was always born to be. Vecna reached out to the Mind Flayer, seemingly using his powers to reshape it into the spider-legged monster he had doodled as a child.