#idk how they are going to explain 3ish years of nothing happening in the apocalypse but I'm excited

[woadisme]

st5 theory: el finds vecna in will’s mind!

This is a theory for how El will enter Will’s mind to find Vecna at the beginning of st5, and how that might play out with Will’s powers getting revealed. I’m not sure if it will make total sense but hopefully enough sense for other people to weigh in!

Recently I’ve seen some videos (from @_stfaves on tiktok go check it out fr!!) about how they have already filmed part of s5 in which Will gets cursed. The highlights from those videos is that Noah was filming in his finale outfit at Rink-O-Mania, Lonnie’s actor was at s4 table reads, and ofc the infamous picture Noah posted wearing a harness with his finale outfit. This points to him getting cursed and reliving the events at Rink-O-Mania and the abuse from his father, before the time jump. In fact, it would have to occur on the same day that the Cali gang returns to Hawkins, because of his attire.

However, when we left off in s4, Vecna’s base of operations was pretty badly destroyed, he was badly burned, and Will said that he was “hurting.” Basically, Vecna is wounded and the place from which he attacks is unusable. Plus, he wouldn’t have any apparent reason to curse Will like that, since the purpose of cursing the other victims was to open gates. Or, at least, it doesn’t seem as though he will strike again just 2 days later, while he is wounded.

Now that our team knows that Vecna is still around but he is badly hurt, I think that they will want to strike back as soon as possible, to prevent Vecna from rebounding at all. That is when Will or El proposes that she looks for the piece of the Mindflayer/Vecna that is in Will. We have already seen El do this with Billy in s3. (Bonus if we get protective Mike again, this time not wanting to put Will in danger, plus worried that Vecna will be able to find them like Billy did.)

So I imagine that El’s search in Will’s mind plays out very similarly to what we saw with Billy. I was rewatching that episode recently, and it really reminded me of what we know of Vecna’s mind from s4. I couldn’t find screenshots of when he was skimming through various people’s trauma before Patrick gets a nosebleed, so just look at the scene with Max compared Billy’s mind.

It’s the red and the darkness and the smoke and the lightning… Plus, now we know the reason that El had to encounter these moments of trauma for Billy. That is where Vecna thrives, how he targets his victims. Max says herself that he uses people’s memories against them, but only their darkest ones. She says, “It’s like he only sees the darkness in us.” So, as El goes to find him in Will, it makes sense for her to witness some of his past trauma, likely from his dad.

However, this does not explain Will’s finale outfit at Rink-O-Mania. This is where my theory might get a little bit sloppy but hear me out. Will gets Vecna’d from within his own mind. This will take a lot of exposition to explain.

This relies on the assumption that Will has had powers from the beginning. I think they must have occurred spontaneously, or however 001’s happened. That is, his powers didn’t come from 001 like El’s did. He is special, but his powers (if he has them) are obviously dormant. There were some weird things going on in s1 during his time in the Upside Down, but it’s not clear what his powers actually are. I think that Vecna knows, or has suspicions, so he formed an incredibly strong psychic connection with Will when he took him and kept him in the Upside Down. I think his goal with the Mindflayer was to control Will without killing him. Vecna says that all of his victims are still in his mind, but he wanted El’s power externally. He wanted her to join him, so he probably needs her strength. If he could get that from Will without having to convince him, by simply taking over his mind, that would be ideal. And, although the Mindflayer was exorcized at the end of s2, Will still shares a psychic connection with Vecna.

Thus, the manifestation of Vecna in his mind, I assume, will be a bit different. It doesn’t have a hold on Will’s behavior, but I think it could be actively suppressing his powers. When El finds it, she will see the red smoke, the traumatic memories, but the eye of the storm will not be a location, like Brimborn Steelworks in Billy’s mind. I’m not sure what it would be exactly, but I think it is a perfect opportunity to draw another parallel with this scene!

The key of this part is that El’s interaction with the Demogorgon was the catalyst for the gate opening. So I think that El interacting with whatever exists inside Will will be a catalyst for Will having his Vecna moment. Suddenly he is thrust into his own worst memories, rises from the ground like Max did, is literally suffocated by his own trauma until something breaks. Not his bones, but whatever is suppressing his powers. Remember that focusing on a memory that makes someone angry and sad is what strengthened the power and control of 001 and El? I think that Will’s powers are tangled up in all that mess and El disturbing that releases Will’s powers. Just like her disturbing the Demogorgon created a path between the Upside Down and Hawkins.