‘Stranger Things’ fan theory suggests wild connection between Vecna, Mind Flayer and spiders in season 4

Charlie Herbert

Stranger Things fan theory about Vecna and the Mind Flayer

Spoilers ahead

Stranger Things 4 has been out for more than a week now, and many have reached the end of the current batch of episodes ahead of the final two episodes to be released on July 1.

This means one thing: the fan theories are in overdrive. In particular, many are trying to establish who the main villain of the piece is.

For the last three seasons, the Mind Flayer has been the source of all of Hawkins’ problems. And time and time again, Eleven and co have thwarted its plans to break through from the Upside Down into our reality.

But this season, a new player has been thrown into the mix – Vecna.

Throughout the first few episodes of season four, the terrifying Vecna has been running the show, murdering a number of students from Hawkins High School in a quite horrific manner.

So far, we’ve neither seen or heard anything from the Mind Flayer.

In episode seven, the mid-season finale of Stranger Things 4, we finally get Vecna’s origin story. If you’re still reading by this point, we’re assuming you’re up to speed with, so we don’t need to go into the details. If you don’t know what we’re on about, then honestly, why are you still here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If_fIg-tyaU

Anyway, this leads us to the Stranger Things version of ‘the chicken or the egg.’ The question is this: which came first – Vecna or the Mind Flayer?

One fan on Reddit, Johnnysokoll, has carefully weighed up the arguments on each side, and whilst most of the evidence points to the Mind Flayer still being the top dog of the Upside Down, one factor suggests that perhaps Vecna is the one in charge – spiders.

Johnnysokoll writes: “It’s pretty evident that there is some confusion on who is running the show here, Vecna, or the Mind Flayer.

“I believe there are supporting pieces for both villains, however the answer is still unknown for sure.”

In the case for the Mind Flayer, the Reddit user points out Dustin’s theory in the show that the Upside Down has probably been in existence for “thousands, maybe millions of years.”

This means it would predate Vecna a.k.a Henry Creel/001. We see in episode seven that he only enters the Upside Down when he’s defeated by Eleven in Hawkins lab, when he’s around 30 years old.

And the amount of injuries he sustains whilst hurtling through the underworld doesn’t suggest it’s a place he is familiar with or may have created. This all suggests he was launched into the Mind Flayer’s world and, as Dustin theorises, became the Mind Flayer’s “five star general.”

The fan theory admits there’s not a huge amount of evidence in Vecna’s case for being the one in charge, apart from one interesting point about the spiders.

The young Henry Creel was fascinated by spiders, in particular the black widows in his childhood home. And Johnnysokoll points out that the Mind Flayer’s appearance often looks a lot like a spider.

The form the Mind Flayer took throughout season three was very spider-esque, and perhaps he was made in this image by Vecna, because of his fascination with the arachnids.

There’s certainly a hint of spider about the Mind Flayer’s appearance… (Netflix)

We wouldn’t rule it out.

Another fan suggested in the comments that perhaps the Mind Flayer was around before Vecna, but wasn’t fully conscious. They wondered whether Vecna “found a way to control it”, explaining why the Mind Flayer looks like a spider.

Whatever the answers, it won’t be too long before we get them. The final two episodes of Stranger Things 4 come out on July 1, including a bumper 2 hours and 19 minute long final episode.