How did Vecna kill Chrissy?
Her death is gruesome — Vecna kills his victims by pulling their consciousness into the Upside Down, while in the real world their bodies levitate and contort as their bones snap.
Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) clarifies that Vecna "consumes" his victims, as he isn't interested in simply killing them - meaning Vecna takes everything about and from a person. By being in the Mindscape, Vecna can do what he will with his victims outside their physical bodies, including the opening of the giant Gate.
After a certain period of time, Vecna will finally kill the victim by placing them into a comatose-like state, in which they will be unable to respond to outside stimuli.
But we quickly discover that there's something sinister going on with Chrissy. Her mother is verbally abusive, a trauma that Vecna capitalizes on to haunt her. Those scary visions make her seek out Eddie Munson, the leader of the Hellfire Club, to score drugs that will presumably help quell her issues.
Ultimately, it is revealed in Stranger Things season 4's finale that the reason why Vecna was killing Hawkins teenagers was to create a massive gate that merges the Right Side Up with the Upside Down - and he specifically needed four bodies to do so.
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).
Once he takes control of the mind, he traumatizes them by showing the visions of their dark past. He takes them to unknown places and gives them a glimpse of himself. The pain of his victims doesn't end here. Every single one of his victims experiences nose bleeding and severe headaches as well.
The monster curses its victims, making them relive their trauma in progressively more gruesome ways until it violently kills them. (And we mean, like, really violently.) Vecna slaughters its targets by levitating them in the air, breaking all their bones, and making their eyes and skull implode.
Vecna may be the scariest thing on two legs in the final season of Stranger Things, but inside that costume is still an actor who occasionally had to pee.
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.
Why did Vecna target Chrissy?
Why does Vecna target Chrissy? But in Episode 6, "The Dive," the group concludes that Vecna targets people who have been exposed to trauma. Chrissy's trauma is the verbal abuse experienced at the hands of her mother, while other victims are targeted due to accidental car crashes and parental abuse.
The fan-favorite character ended the season in a coma with her bones broken and eyes blinded at the hands of Vecna. Max technically died for one whole minute before Eleven revived her friend, but Eleven's powers weren't enough to bring Max fully back to life.
Vecna kills Chrissy in the first episode, causing her to levitate and snapping her bones one by one ending with her neck and jaw, and finally pulling out her eyes. He does the same to Fred, leaving a pattern of murders in his wake that poor Eddie Munson gets blamed for.
Personality. Laura was abusive and domineering to her daughter, forcing her to have a perfect figure and image, and would get short-tempered if her daughter got upset with her commands. With Chrissy's hallucinations, it's possible this abuse extended through her husband, silencing him when he objected to her abuse.
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.
What Does Vecna Want? Vecna's goal is to open as many gates to the Upside Down as he can, in order to help the Mind Flayer. The Mind Flayer, is, of course, the ULTIMATE big bad, and he's looking to take over the world.
Eddie Munson became the hero that viewers already knew he was when he stood up Vecna's bat creatures in the Upside Down and provided the perfect distraction.
Vecna notably targets Max (Sadie Sink), and the Hawkins gang discovers that the only way for her to avoid being killed by his curse is to play Max her favorite song, which happens to be "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" by Kate Bush.
Creel family murders
The police thought the father of the family, Victor Creel (played by Nightmare on Elm Street's Robert Englund), killed his wife, son and daughter. Nancy and Robin go to the asylum where a now elderly Victor is being held, and realize he didn't kill his family, the season's Big Bad, Vecna, did.
Of course, the real reason Max became Vecna's victim was because creators the Duffer brothers and producer/director Shawn Levy wanted to showcase Sink's talent and really allow her to get some meaty material to work with this season.
Who was Vecna's second victim?
2) Alice Creel
That same night, Henry killed his younger sister Alice. He attempted to kill his father Victor, but he grew too weak to complete the job.
But he does have a surprising weakness: music. Max was drawn away from his grasp thanks to her favorite song, Kate Bush's “Running Up That Hill,” and plays it on repeat as a sort of mental shield. Vecna also appears to have a connection with his victims in their deaths.
Vecna has human-like arms and legs, referencing the human he was thousands of years ago (although his left hand is missing and is a powerful magical artifact in the game), but his head is a frightening skull, and he's missing his left eye.
Whenever victims become entranced or possessed by Vecna, their eyes form a milky glaze, until they meet their demise as Vecna plucks their eyeballs out.
Originally appearing in the Greyhawk campaign setting, Vecna was described as a powerful wizard who became a lich. He was eventually destroyed, and his left hand and left eye were the only parts of his body to survive.
The clock's prominence in Stranger Things 4 has to do with its connection to Vecna. Time is an importance aspect of his character. That's why the sound of a ticking clock can be heard when he starts to haunt his intended victims. It's why they see the clock.
Clocks represent a passing of time, which can represent the fact that Vecna's victims' time has nearly run out — it is no coincidence that many of the clocks are set to midnight. Throughout the series, we learn that Vecna is a human who found himself trapped in the Upside Down for years thanks to our girl, Eleven.
They found it in Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), a terrifying creature crafted by prosthetics and makeup designer Barrie Gower, who also worked on the Night King for “Game of Thrones.” Here, he takes us through the making of the Upside Down's newest (and scariest) nightmare.
The final scene of Volume 1 shows a shot of Vecna, and a close up of the 001 tattoo on his arm, confirming that Henry Creel, a.k.a. Number One, became Vecna.
Jamie Campbell Bower's performance as Vecna is so powerful and terrifying that even in real life, on-set, the actor actually made his co-stars afraid of him. In fact, per Netflix Life, Millie Bobby Brown cried the first time she saw Bower as Vecna.
What does Vecna want with Will?
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.
The episode culminates in Eleven unknowingly freeing One from Brenner's control, allowing him to unleash his true power on the staff and children in the lab, killing everyone except for Eleven and Dr. Brenner, who is only knocked unconscious.
Vecna's '86 victims include Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien), who suffered from her mother's body-shaming abuse. 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.
The reason that Eleven couldn't find Max is actually pretty simple -- Max had already died. That means her soul had already been absorbed into Vecna's consciousness. So, while Eleven restarted Max's heart and brought her body back to life, she was trapped inside of Vecna's hive mind.
Vecna's first known target was Chrissy Cunningham, a popular student and head cheerleader at Hawkins High School. Despite Chrissy's popularity and outward cheerfulness, she was secretly suffering at home; Chrissy's mother would frequently verbally abuse her and make hurtful comments about her weight.
Why did Vecna need 4 sacrifices? Turns out, he needs exactly four dead kids, like the four chimes of his signature clock, as they are his necessary sacrifices in order to open enough small gates in Hawkins, so that he can create that earth-shattering gate in the final episode.
What did Vecna do to Max? At the end of Stranger Things season 4, Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) is briefly killed by Vecna after he breaks her limbs and takes her eyes. However, Eleven resurrects Max using her powers, which still leaves her broken, blind, and in a braindead coma heading into Stranger Things season 5.
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.
In the finale, Vecna begins to kill Max, only for Eleven to help save her in the last second, leaving her with grave injuries and dying in Lucas' arms. However, El somehow manages to bring her back - only for her to be in a coma with even El not being able to reach her.
Eddie starts looking for what Chrissy has asked for, but unfortunately, Chrissy then gets possessed by Vecna.
Why was Chrissy throwing up in Stranger Things?
She suffers from an eating disorder called “Bulimia.” Her mother seems to be the root of her body image. She was the former head cheerleader at Hawkins High. Chrissy attended counseling at Hawkins for her struggles at home.
The final scene of Volume 1 shows a shot of Vecna, and a close up of the 001 tattoo on his arm, confirming that Henry Creel, a.k.a. Number One, became Vecna.
The fan-favorite character ended the season in a coma with her bones broken and eyes blinded at the hands of Vecna. Max technically died for one whole minute before Eleven revived her friend, but Eleven's powers weren't enough to bring Max fully back to life.
Clocks represent a passing of time, which can represent the fact that Vecna's victims' time has nearly run out — it is no coincidence that many of the clocks are set to midnight. Throughout the series, we learn that Vecna is a human who found himself trapped in the Upside Down for years thanks to our girl, Eleven.
Vecna chooses which memories he would like to have in his subconscious, and it's only by chance that the victims he wishes to absorb are all Hawkins High students. It's odd that all of his victims are teenagers, but there could be a deeper purpose for them going into Stranger Things season 5.
Instead of being stricken by the death of a loved one like Max was, Chrissy's trauma stems from her troubled home life. She endures constant body shaming and emotional abuse from her mother Laura, which eventually drives Chrissy to bulimia—a development revealed when Max crosses paths with her in the bathroom.
In the real world, the victim's body floats into the air, as Vecna snaps their bones and devours their innards, leaving them mutilated and looking like a shrivelled husk. He does this as all his attacks mimic his first telepathic kill, his own mother, back when he was a human child.