His name is Henry Creel and you should not call him Peter. You can, but it's weird." The shock twist in episode 7 of Stranger Things 4 revealed that Eleven and Vecna (aka Henry Creel or 'One') have a long history with each other, which could well come to a head in the plus-sized final episodes next month.
In a huge plot twist, Vecna is revealed to be Peter Ballard (played by Jamie Campbell). Peter is One – or 001 – the original subject of Dr Brenner's (Matthew Modine) telekinetic experiments, of which Eleven was also part.
One powerful reveal shows that Vecna was a boy called Henry Creel, who discovered he had powers such as telekinesis and a form of mind control, which he used to kill his family. His father, Victor Creel (played by horror icon Robert Englund), was blamed.
Peter was a fake name I believe the Duffers created for him, since they couldn't really refer to him as either Vecna, 001, or Henry Creel without pretty majorly spoiling a part of Season 4.
His first victim was Chrissy Cunningham. Vecna targeted Chrissy by using her depression and eating disorder against her in his visions. Chrissy was killed in Eddie Munson's trailer, and the first gate was opened on the ceiling.
In the D&D realm, a defining feature of Vecna is that he's missing his left hand and left eye. This is because his trusted accomplice, Kas the Bloody-Handed, betrayed him and used the sword Vecna created himself to chop off his left hand and remove his left eye. This ultimately destroyed Vecna.
Next up, the viewers go on to theorise that One/Vecna is actually Eleven's dad. Yep, told you it was wild. The theory claims that Brenner wanted to create a child with stronger powers, so he waited until One was old enough to become a father.
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.
As D&D lore goes, Vecna was born over a hundred thousand years ago in the Greyhawk world of Oerth, the son of a hedge witch who was exiled for practising necromancy. Over time, he learned that and other kinds of dark magic for himself.
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).
Eleven has a memory during this episode and realizes that 001/Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower) wants her to join him on his evil journey, and she banished him to the Upside Down. 001 then transformed into Vecna, the horrifying Stranger Things villain.
This is a reference to the D&D character Vecna, for whom this Vecna is named; the D&D Vecna has a monstrous hand infused with dark magic. The design of Vecna's hand is also a nod to Freddy Krueger, the Nightmare on Elm Street villain who had a huge influence on this season in general.
Played by Jamie Campbell Bower, each prosthetic was glued to his skin with medical adhesive by prosthetics designer Barrie Gower and his team. For the finishing touch, Vecna was covered in "glossy slime to make him really, really glossy and wet looking," according to Gower.
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.
He didn't name himself Vecna, the kids did. They named him after a DnD character who's a wizard, since Vecna's curse sounds like something a dark wizard would do.
The episode then cuts to Vecna in 1980s Upside Down, zooming in on his arm, where a tentacle slides away to uncover 001 tattooed on his wrist. So Vecna is 001, who is also Victor Creel's son.
Vecna's early life was clouded in legend and contradiction. Most accounts stated that he was originally a human wizard from Oerth, although some reports claimed that he was a Half-Elf.
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.
After taunting her with incessant chiming from a grandfather clock and appearing before her in hallucinations, Vecna eventually kills her in an incredibly gruesome way. First, she went into a trance with her eyes rolling into her head, then she began to levitate before her eyes were removed and bones were snapped.
The theory is that Karen Wheeler might be Vecna's sister, Alice Creel. As we know, Vecna is actually a man of many names, including 001, Peter Ballard and Henry Creel. We saw Henry and Alice together as children briefly in a flashback and it is believed that Henry killed his sister along with his mother.
Arkhan grappled the Hand. Percy had considered shooting it off, but it couldn't be done. When the party defeated Vecna and banished him, the Hand once again remained. Arkhan pretended to prepare to destroy the Hand, cut off his own left hand, somehow attuned to the artifact in an instant, and used it to Teleport away.
What Does Vecna Want? Vecna's goal is to open as many gates to the Upside Down as he can, in order to help the Mind Flayer.
One such rival, Kas, accepted vampirism in exchange for fealty as a Vecna's chief lieutenant. Vecna forged for him a relic blade with a fraction of Kas's consciousness. In the months of terrorizing Vecna's enemies that followed, he became Kas the Bloody-Handed.