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 ...
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.
Stranger Things Deaths by Vecna
Vecna seeks four victims in total. His first three victims — Chrissy Cunningham, Patrick McKinney, and Fred Benson — are all peers of The Party, people they know from school, which makes Vecna's terror all the more real.
However, Nancy is freed by Vecna within the first five minutes of volume 2, with instructions for her to tell Eleven what he has planned for Hawkins. Nancy wakes up to see Steve and is never affected by the curse again, despite Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) escaping Vecna only to again be attacked by him later on.
Vecna's powers allow him to form psychic connections with people in reality, especially teenagers dealing with trauma and mental health issues. Vecna develops these connections with young and vulnerable teens so that he can get out of the Upside Down and gain access to the real world by opening four gates or portals.
School newspaper reporter Fred Benson (Logan Riley Bruner) fled from a deadly car accident that continues to haunt him. Patrick was targeted due to his father's abuse of him. Finally, Vecna targets Max for her trauma from witnessing Billy's death and uses Barb's (Shannon Purser) death as a way to use Nancy.
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.
While caught in Vecna's grip, a tear in the dark dimension reveals her friends on the other side, desperately trying to save her from Vecna's curse. Of course, it's "Running Up That Hill," blasted into Max's headphones that breaks Vecna's hold on her.
However, within the red smoke of Vecna's Mind Lair, it wasn't the song itself that saved her, but the memories it conjured up. What broke through to Max was the happy, loving memories of her friends, particularly Lucas and Eleven, and these were what truly allowed her to break free of Vecna's grasp and escape.
After learning how Victor Creel was able to evade death back in 1959, Robin and Nancy deduce that playing the victim's favorite song can help them escape the trance that Vecna places them in, with music and happy memories being the only way to keep Vecna's fatal curse at bay.
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.
As Vecna, he uses these mental abilities as a way to psychologically weaken and lure in his victims – much in a way that Pennywise, Freddie Kruger, and Pinhead do. (All of which have been cited by show creators the Duffer brothers as inspirations for the villain.) But he does have a surprising weakness: music.
In the visions of her trauma induced by Vecna, Chrissy's mother appeared both mentally and emotionally abusive towards her daughter - and it's implied her comments about Chrissy's figure caused her daughter to develop her eating disorder.
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.
Related Stories. But even the Hawkins crew's four-phase plan of attack and Eleven's revived telekinetic blasts are not enough. Vecna holds off Eleven long enough to brutally attack Max in his signature style—she levitates, her eyes go white and bleed, and he snaps her limbs.
So, Max was nearly murdered like Vecna's three previous victims. Just before Max died, Eleven rallied her strength, defeated Vecna and freed Max -- but the damage had already been done. Even though Max was free from Vecna, she died in Lucas' arms.
Stranger Things' season 4 introduced the vicious Vecna, who kills people by infiltrating their minds and killing them from the inside. He can be stopped, however, if his victim listens to their favorite song.
This ultimately destroyed Vecna. Though they're clouded with cataracts, Vecna in Stranger Things has both of his eyes.
Physically, yes. Lucas tells his friends that Max is in a coma, and we see her wearing casts on her arms and legs. The Duffer brothers have also confirmed that at the end of Season 4, Max is alive yet "brain dead, blind, and all of her bones are broken." The big mystery is where the redhead is mentally.
In the final moments, Max is in a coma. With that said, if Max were to make a full recovery, would she be blind? Well, based on the injuries she sustained, it's likely Max will be blind going forward.
What is the significance of 4 for Vecna? The new season shows that the four chimes of the grandfather clock symbolize the four victims Vecna needs to claim in order to enter our dimension and take over humanity.
The theory predicts that Vecna wants to regain his human form, and he will use Will to do so in Season 5. Knowing that Vecna singled out Will in Season 1, it's a reasonable theory, but it might go too far. After all, Vecna already has a human form, and he has vowed to eliminate humanity.
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.