Throughout the majority of Stranger Things season 5, Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) and Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) have been languishing within a psychic labyrinth constructed from the fractured memories of Henry Creel, also known as Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). In episode 6, titled “Escape from Camazotz,” their desperate search for an exit brings them face-to-face with a foundational trauma in Henry’s life—a moment that might just expose his Achilles’ heel. However, truly deciphering this vision requires knowledge of a Stranger Things narrative that exists beyond the confines of the streaming platform.
[Note: The following contains significant spoilers for Stranger Things season 5, volume 2]When Holly encounters Max in the mental dimension she identifies as Camazotz, she finds Max taking refuge in a cavern that Henry seemingly refuses to enter. By examining a spyglass recovered from the Creel residence, Holly realizes that Henry’s dread isn’t directed at the cave itself, but at a specific event occurring right outside it. After aligning the perspective through a specialized lens cap, the duo is pulled into the memory of a dark mine shaft.
In this flashback, an eight-year-old Henry (Maksim Blatt) meets a wounded, paranoid man clutching a briefcase. When Henry attempts to offer assistance, the stranger panics and shoots the boy in the hand. In a visceral reaction, Henry kills the man with a rock. A devastated Holly wonders if this violence is what “made Henry bad.” The answer is affirmative, though the transformation involves more than just the psychological scars of self-defense.
Much of this season’s intricate mythology is rooted in the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow. That story begins in 1943 with the infamous Philadelphia Experiment, which accidentally sent a naval vessel into a terrifying dimension known as the Abyss. The only survivor, the ship’s captain, returned in a catatonic state with fundamentally altered biology.
The captain’s son, Martin Brenner, later attempted to recreate these results at a clandestine site in Nevada, near where the Creel family lived. During these experiments, a double agent stole lab materials intended for Soviet hands. It is this spy whom Henry encounters in the mine. The briefcase likely contained samples of Captain Brenner’s “Abyss-altered” blood. Since Henry was already bleeding from a gunshot wound, he was likely exposed to this substance, sparking the latent psychic abilities he would eventually pass on to Brenner’s test subjects.
An alternative theory suggests the briefcase held “exotic matter”—the same reality-warping substance used to stabilize the Upside Down in Hawkins. The First Shadow reveals that Henry vanished into the Abyss for twelve hours, returning with a shadow-infected personality. This “dark entity” influenced him much like the Mind Flayer dominated Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) in season 2. The presence of dark matter in the mine would explain how Henry was first pulled into the void and irrevocably changed.
Henry’s visceral aversion to the cave indicates that, despite his god-like posturing, he remains haunted by this incident. While he maneuvers the Hive Mind to merge the Abyss with Hawkins, a part of him is still that terrified child in the mine. Vecna utilizes fear as his primary tool, but the series is positioning Will Byers—who has recently conquered his own deepest terrors—as his ultimate foil. By understanding what Vecna himself fears, Will gains a crucial tactical advantage for their final confrontation.
The initial seven episodes of Stranger Things season 5 are currently streaming on Netflix; the series conclusion is set to premiere on New Year’s Eve.
Source: Polygon
