The Stranger Things series finale is now streaming on Netflix, and it’s all about the Hawkins gang’s last battle against defeating Vecna/Henry Creel. But while fans are focused on the climactic showdown, the final episode also reveals more about the terrifying events that shaped Vecna/Henry’s fear of the cave.
In the first batch of episodes of Stranger Things 5, we learn that Max’s consciousness is trapped inside Henry’s mind and memories while her physical body remains in a comatose state in Hawkins Memorial Hospital. While inside Henry’s mind, Max hides in a cave that Henry himself fears. However, it’s not until the second batch of episodes that we get more information and details that help us understand the reason behind his fear.
While trying to find a way to escape Henry’s mindspace in “Escape from Camazots,” Max and Holly eventually come across a mine shaft underground, where they uncover a horrifying memory from Henry’s childhood. When Henry was a kid, he wandered off and stumbled into the cave. What he ended up discovering was an injured, mysterious man with a briefcase. Believing that someone sent Henry to capture him, the man points his gun at Henry. A nervous Henry then tells him that he was just in the cave and heard a scream, but the man doesn’t believe him and shoots him in the hand.
This leads to a physical altercation where Henry gets the upper hand and brutally strikes the man with a rock until he’s dead. He then takes the briefcase and opens it. All that is shown next is black smoke coming out of it. That’s the last we see of this memory in Stranger Things 5 part 2. Obviously, killing a man was triggering enough to scare Henry and keep him away from the cave. But the Stranger Things series finale reveals there’s more to the story. We find out exactly what happened to Henry after he opened up the briefcase.
Major spoilers are ahead from the Stranger Things series finale!
Jamie Campbell Bower as Henry Creel in Stranger Things season 5 | Netflix
Those who went and saw the prequel Broadway play Stranger Things: The First Shadow will already know the identity of the man and what was in the briefcase, but we’re about to explain how the show brings that backstory to life on screen.
In the series finale, Henry’s plan to merge Hawkins with the Abyss is ultimately foiled when Eleven, Kali, and Max confront him inside his memory of the Creel house and interrupt his ritual with the 12 children. Max is able to get Holly and the other kids out of the house and into the woods, but she’s forced to leave them behind when she, Eleven, and Kali are pulled back into the real world. Before she disappears, however, Max tells Holly and the others to head for the cave.
Henry eventually catches up to them and hesitates at the cave’s entrance, clearly afraid to go inside, but he forces himself forward anyway. Once inside, he almost immediately begins reliving the traumatic memory. This time, however, the memory doesn’t stop at the black smoke pouring from the briefcase. It continues. Young Henry opens the case and finds a strange black stone inside, threaded with glowing red veins, and he reaches out to pick it up.
As Henry stares at the stone, black smoke begins to seep from it. His eyes suddenly widen, and the point of view shifts through them. We’re transported to the Abyss, where a massive gray cloud looms in the distance as a voice whispers, “Find me.” It’s the Mind Flayer. The scene then snaps back to the memory, where the black stone vanishes into young Henry’s hand. He becomes possessed by the Mind Flayer, and when he looks back at the mysterious man, the man desperately warns him to resist it or it will consume everything. Instead, the possessed Henry uses his newfound powers to kill the man, blasting out his eyes.
So, the reason Henry was afraid to go into the cave was because that’s when he had his first encounter with the Abyss/Dimension X and Mind Flayer. That black stone he found is what first connected him to the creature, awakening his powers and setting him on the dark path that would eventually turn him into Vecna. In The First Shadow, the mysterious man is revealed to be a rogue Russian scientist who stole advanced experimental technology from a secret U.S. program that Dr. Brenner ran. That experimental technology was the black stone shown in the series, which basically allowed the Mind Flayer to connect with Henry.
In the Stranger Things series finale, Henry reveals to Will that he could’ve resisted the Mind Flayer’s hold over him but instead he chose to join it because he believes the world is broken. This then leads to an epic battle between the Hawkins gang, the Mind Flayer, and Henry in the Abyss.
All eight episodes of Stranger Things 5 are now available to stream on Netflix.