The first known human contact with the Upside Down was in 1979 during Eleven's fight with Vecna. During the match, Eleven was able to overpower Vecna, using her psychic abilities to keep him pinned to the Rainbow Room wall as his body disintegrated.
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.
Eleven demonstrated the ability to overpower Vecna when she piggybacked into Max's memory and again after Vecna took her hostage in the Upside Down. Eleven was the one who first opened the gate to the Upside Down, a skill at which Vecna was less adept.
Stranger Things - Eleven vs Vecna! - The Final Scene of Season 4, Part 1 (In Full) | Netflix.
Not only did she prove to be central to the final battle, but she was also the reason for how he became Vecna in the first place. The reveal that Number One was Vecna made it clear just how important Eleven was to Stranger Things season 4's overarching story.
"I walked up to her [as Vecna] and she burst into tears. She wouldn't look at me and she was visibly just disgusted by the whole thing... After she cried and I made it obvious that she knew it was me, one of the things she said was that, 'I knew it was you when I could smell cigarettes,' because I'm a smoker."
And he saw the possibility for escape when he realized the extent of Eleven's untapped potential. One manipulated Eleven into plotting her own escape, which also involved getting her to remove the device in his neck.
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).
There's been debate as to whether or not this scene implies that Eleven created the Upside Down or merely opened the first gate to it. But according to Millie Bobby Brown, the Upside Down existed before El ever meddled with it. “I don't think that she created the Upside Down,” Brown told Variety in June.
We find out in episode 7 that just like how everything in the Upside Down is connected, Vecna is also deeply connected to Hawkins and Eleven. Nancy (who is still in the Upside Down with Steve) ends up under Vecna's control, and she starts seeing visions about Barb's death.
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.
"Vecna seems to be actually intrigued by Nancy being able to figure him out, to be able to get this close to the truth... I think this is more Vecna's narcissistic traits that pull him to Nancy, why he wants to give her this information."
Vecna successfully stole Eleven's powers when controlling the Mind Flayer in Stranger Things' season 3 ending, which finally allowed him to emerge stronger than Eleven and enact his plan to take over Hawkins with the Upside Down.
What does Vecna want with El? In his twisted mind, Vecna believes that he his helping the world by wiping out humans, as a "predator, but for good." When Vecna asks for El to join him, it's because he also sees her as a predator, "better" than humans.
When Eleven realized what Henry had done, she summoned an enormous amount of power and defeated the older man. Her psionic abilities were so advanced (even at the age of about 7 years old) that she opened a gateway between dimensions and banished Henry into the Upside Down.
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.
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.
Sharing more about Eleven's real father Andrew Rich could be a great way to wrap up the story.
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).
In simple words, Vecna needs a total of four gates to take over Hawkins and rule it. Now, you must be thinking, why is Vecna killing people if he can take over the complete Hawkins? Well, in one of the previous episodes, it was revealed that with each person Vecna kills, he creates an opening to the real world.
Vecna's obsession with time appears to be linked to his hatred of humanity. He views time as a human imposition on the natural world; an attempt to impose order on nature.
Eleven literally raised the dead, an accomplishment beyond anything Vecna has ever achieved, a power beyond even Dr. Brenner's wildest dreams. And it was only possible because she allowed her love to serve as the fuel for her powers. Dr.
So, in Season 4, Stranger Things brought back the flesh and blood monsters by introducing the very-pratical Vecna, who was not only terrifying, but he was also more powerful than Eleven, hence why Dr. Brenner was so afraid of him.
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.