The Stranger Things Stage Play First Shadow May Hold The Key To Defeating Vecna

The following post contains spoilers for "Stranger Things: The First Shadow."

Ever since he was introduced, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) has been a formidable villain in "Stranger Things," a powerful, psychic serial killer who murdered his mom and sister — and that was before he turned into a horrifying skinless monster from another dimension.

Vecna is a great villain (even if he does pose a problem for the show), and he only gets better once you learn his entire backstory, which is not told in the Netflix show. That's because Vecna, aka Henry Creel's origin story, is explored in the stage play "Stranger Things: The First Shadow," which premiered in London back in 2023. The stage play shows how Henry and his family moved to Hawkins, and how the influence of the Mind Flayer drove Henry to commit a gruesome series of animal killings in the town before moving to kill people. Oh, and in between killings, Henry was also in a musical with the parents of every single main character of "Stranger Things."

That's right. Henry once hung out with everyone from Joyce Byers, née Maldonado (Winona Ryder), Ted Wheeler (Joe Chrest), and even Bob Newby (Sean Astin). This last one is important because Bob's sister (yes, he has a sister) may hold the key to saving Vecna before it's all over. Patty Newby is introduced in "The First Shadow," which was written by "Stranger Things" writer and co-executive producer Kate Trefry, as Bob's adoptive sister. Much like Bob, Patty is a nerd, and she is the only one at Hawkins who isn't immediately hostile toward new kid, Henry Creel. In fact, she quickly befriends him and even goes on to date him for a bit before tragedy separates them. 

Patty might just be the key to saving Henry.

You see, while everyone around him (especially his parents) treated Henry Creel as a freak, Patty saw the good in him. She treated him as a person and was even convinced that his powers could be used for good.

Of course, this ended in tragedy when the Mind Flayer all but took over Henry, and bodies started dropping around Hawkins. Still, for a while, Henry was free of this dark influence and could feel like a normal kid for once, one with friends and even a girl who liked him.

In the play, Patty survives and leaves Hawkins. Though we don't know where she is or if she's still alive in the '80s, she might hold the key to defeating the Mind Flayer. If Patty were to somehow return to Hawkins and encounter Henry, she might be the only one capable of breaking him free of the Mind Flayer's influence. If this happens, the Hawkins gang would gain yet another very powerful psychic ally, one with knowledge and a connection to the Mind Flayer that could destroy it once and for all.

However, bringing in a character who only appeared in a stage play that most "Stranger Things" fans have no access to and giving her a pivotal role in the final season may be unwise. Still, with how important she is to Henry's story, and considering how much of the stage play is already being incorporated in the new episodes, it isn't entirely impossible that Patty might cross over to the TV show and help save the day.