Brenner's words make it seem like Vecna subjugated the entire Upside Down and, thereby, created the realm's hive mind. In other words, the Upside Down's hive mind is actually Vecna's mind because everything that he dominates becomes a part of him.
The history of the Upside Down remains mysterious. Exactly how and why it came into existence is unclear. Dustin theorised the Upside Down had existed for thousands, if not millions of years.
Millie Bobby Brown spoke about this in an interview with Variety in 2022. When the actress was asked if the Duffer Brothers explained that Eleven creates the Upside Down when she interacts with 001, she said, "They did tell me. She does. She opens the rift."
Stranger Things' Vecna sought to bring the Upside Down into a spectacular collision with Hawkins, and he achieved this through a series of apparently supernatural murders. Each one of Vecna's victims was tortured psychologically until he finally killed them, and their deaths tore open small gates into the Upside Down.
Eleven may not have created the Upside Down, but she did direct its fire. Stranger Things 4 left fans with some enormous revelations. The monstrous Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) is eventually revealed to be One, a person with the same potential for untold supernatural abilities as Eleven.
In a fit of rage, Henry used his restored powers to brutally murder the other test subjects and workers, and attempted to do the same to Eleven. However, Eleven stood her ground and ultimately overpowered him, sending him through a gate to the Upside Down; there, he gradually transformed into the being known as Vecna.
Yeah, Bower says Brown was crying real tears during that scene. “She was terrified and freaked out. And Caleb [Heymann], our DP, was very smart and saw that she was having this reaction in the beginning of rehearsal and decided to shoot her first. It's so pure and beautiful,” Bower said.
One theory -- such as the Screen Rant article -- has suggested that the Upside Down was hive minded before Vecna got there. So, when he took over the Mind Flayer, he took over the entire dimension.
Vecna has seemingly ultimate control over the Upside Down, having been its sole human resident since he was first banished to the wasteland by Eleven. With his family's old house as his home base, Vecna established control over the Upside Down, using the hivemind to remotely execute the residents of Hawkins.
In the final episode of Stranger Things 4 Volume 1, it's revealed that Vecna isn't native to the Upside Down, but was banished there by Eleven after he gruesomely massacred the Hawkins National Lab. Vecna was the original child studied by Dr. Brenner and the son of Victor Creel.
He gets punished with electrocution after telling Eleven that Dr. Brenner lied to her about her mother dying during childbirth. He's smart enough to use an ostensibly harmless game of chess with Eleven to inform her Dr.
The orderly, who befriended Eleven because she was the most powerful subject, tricks her into removing a chip in his skin. It turns out that the orderly is the mysterious Number One, a man named Henry Creel who came under Brenner's care after killing his parents.
As well as befriending Eleven in order to gain her trust so she would remove his Soteria implant, we learn in the final episode that 001 initially spared El because he wanted her to join him. He viewed her as an ally rather than an enemy because they were "alike".
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.
Vecna is the primary leader of The Upside Down Hive Mind. The Mind Flayer seemed to have been connected to this Hive Mind and was possibly the leader of the Hive Mind before Vecna came and connected to himself making The Mind Flayer's Hive Mind into Vecna's Hive Mind.
While the source of Vecna's powers is never explained, there are some Stranger Things hints leading to the theory that Hawkins had a big part in awakening them. Vecna is revealed in season 4 to be the base cause behind all of Hawkins' unfortunate happenings for the past three years.
Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 ending explained
When Vecna consumes four victims with his ritual and opens four gates, it creates enough instability to break the wall between worlds, merging them together. The finale revolves around his pursuit of the final victim, Max.
Together, their powers combined are the exact powers of 001/Henry. Fans are now theorising that the powers of both 011 and 008, who have the combined power of 001, is what is needed to finally match and defeat Vecna. To put it simply, 011 + 008 + [with the combined power of] 001 = 020, a.k.a. Erica's critical hit.
His method of killing is ritualized. Vecna started twisting bodies and removing eyes before imprisonment in the UD to fuel its own individual power. It takes the eyes to help hold the souls in darkness and because it did not wish to be observed.
Kind-hearted cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien) is the first character to be cursed by Vecna, and she dies in season 4, episode 1, "Chapter One: The Hellfire Club." After feeling ill, Chrissy sees the clock and begins picturing her mother, who has always been cruel, saying harsh things about her physical ...
Eleven Was Taught To Access Her Powers Using Lessons Learned From Vecna. Eleven was raised at Hawkins Lab, one of several children granted powers as a result of Dr. Brenner's twisted experiments.
Vecna was born as a human, centuries ago as a member of the untouchable caste in the Flan city of Fleeth on Oerth. He was initially trained by his mother, Mazzel, in the art of magic, before she was executed by the government of Fleeth for practicing witchcraft.
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. He offers her his path as a sort of freedom, as they reshaped the world in their image.
And while his usual modus operandi is to embody his victims' negative self-talk (another very real psychological phenomenon), this time he is telling Nancy his plans and then releasing her so she can report back to everybody—Eleven included—that the end is nigh, with the goal of discouraging and disempowering them.
He is terrifying because he has access to secrets and the guilt that accompanies those secrets. Vecna's use of his victims' guilty conscious to terrorize his prey is an obvious tool in his arsenal.