Stranger Things: Episode 32

32. The Massacre at Hawkins Lab

Joyce and Murray get into the prison and manage to fool the head warden, making it just in time for Hopper and Dmitri’s gladiator battle with the Upside Down monster. Steve, Nancy, Robin, and Eddie fend for themselves in the Upside Down and find a way to communicate with Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Erica. They figure out that a portal opens at each Vecna murder site. They all head to Eddie’s trailer on either side and use the portal there, but Nancy slips into a trance when it’s her turn to jump. She is welcomed by Vecna in his abode and is given a glimpse of his history growing up as Victor Creel’s murderous telekinetic son Henry who kills his mom and sister before ending up with Brenner who experiments on him to replicate his psychic abilities. Becoming 001 (Jamie Campbell Bower), he tricks 011 into freeing him. He then massacres everyone in the lab and asks her to join him. She refuses and they have a duel, her powers besting his and opening a portal banishing him in the Upside Down where he becomes Vecna.

OMFG, 001. YOU’RE SUCH A MOOD. I want to join your cult. LOL. Seriously, though. Guys! Solid storytelling much? You know how hard I’m beating myself with a stick right now for not seeing all of this coming? From Victor Creel’s creepy Alfalfa lookalike son to 001 to Vecna. Again, OMFG. No words. I’ve always asked where 011’s other lab siblings are. So far the only other one we’ve met was Kali who managed to escape a season or two ago. Now we finally know what happened to them. I’ve had my suspicions about 001 since he first appeared but it’s always cathartic when those doubts are confirmed to be true. I still have a lot of questions basically about the Upside Down and the mechanics of that universe. Has it always been there? I suppose 011 did not create it through sheer will? Is Vecna the biggest big bad master puppeteer pulling all the supernatural strings or does he just happen to be one who ended up linking the lab and Upside Down subplot? Can’t wait until July!!!

"You see, humans are a unique type of pest, multiplying and poisoning our world all while enforcing a structure of their own. A deeply unnatural structure. Where others saw order, I saw a straightjacket. A cruel oppressive world dictated by made-up rules. Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Days. Weeks. Months. Years. Decades. Each life a faded, lesser copy of the one before. Wake up. Eat. Work. Sleep. Reproduce. And die. Everyone is just waiting. Waiting for it all to be over. All while performing in a silly, terrible play day after day." –001

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