Okay my minds brewing, Iâm pondering my orb. Hear me out: The Henry timeline
Basic ideas below:
Henry creel is not in full control of himself, and this isnât some lame bs excuse for why he killed people, I think itâs a real plot point.
I havenât seen the first shadow, but from what hints and bits and pieces of information Iâve learned, it seems obvious that Henry loses control, but the shadow part of himself, that is not Henry Creel but the mind flayer.
The Creel House - 1959
Okay, Henry moves to new house, is unaware of his supernatural abilities. Why does he have supernatural abilities? He just so happened to be born with them, like kali (008). (Might have a theory about the powers origins for later) The mind flayer at this point is an interdimensional being, it took over the world that was previously the upside down, and killed it, leaving the creatures already there, under its control. The world is dying, the creatures have no food, butâsomething happens.
The tether between the upside down and Hawkins is strong, the mind flayer senses power, senses something that it could latch onto, and itâs then, when Henry activates his powers in 1959 that he gives the mind flayer access to not only him, but the world.
Now, the mindflayer latches onto Henry, but unlike Will Byers, is not able to fully control him, at least, not all of the time. How? Henryâs powers give him the mental strength to keep the mind flayer as a back seat passenger in his mind, but that doesnât mean Henry sees the mind flayer as a total threat yet, or even understands what it is.
This doesnât mean that the mind flayers influence is mute however. Over the course of 1959, darker thoughts are planted into Henryâs mind, ones about society and order, and destroying the order. These arenât things 12 year olds typically think of, or even fathom, especially in the 1950sâŠ.unless? Unless something is either feeding him these thoughts, or his own childish thoughts are being twisted, darkened, deepened by the Eldridge entity .
Of course, we see where this dark path leads Henry down. He begins to kill, practicing on weak prey animals and moving onto neighborhood pets.
Then it moves onto his own family members, Henry mentally torturing them after learning about the bad things heâd found from snooping in their minds and memories.
I present a line of reasoning: Henry has lived with his family his entire life, they all appear pretty happy, loving even, so why is Henry so quick to turn on them? Well, I donât think thatâs natural: the corruption from the mind flayer at this point has caused Henry to distrust his own family, and now had begun seeding the ideas that he is alone, that he is misunderstood, that he doesnât belong.
Okay, so i know this is taking awhile, but thereâs many layers to unravel.
Henry comes from a loving family, so we can definitely suspect that like will, when he was possessed by the mind flayer, Henryâs family, more particularly, his mother, knew that something was wrong with her child and then decided that it was best to take him to a doctor.
At the time there couldâve been no solution to Henryâs problem, but that means Henry at some point, probably met Doctor Brenner, who somehow discovered Henryâs powers.
This event would most likely start a chain reaction, causing the mind flayer to panic, afraid its new vessel would be taken from him, which would lead to the Creel house massacre, the mind flayer taking over during this event, but not knowing Henryâs own limits, would cause Henry to collapse into unconsciousness.
The lab years - Before Soteria
Henry is captured by the lab, and his powers are fully realized, leading to years of experimentation by Doctor Brenner. However, the darkness inside of Henry becomes uncontrollable, the mind flayer acting out more and more as Henry becomes stronger. The mind flayer is angry, angry that his vessel, his spawn, is unable to open a gate, which has been its intentions all along, and Henry all the while has had the Mindflayer apart of him for so long that heâs been convinced by Doctor Brenner that this evilness inside of him is just that: that the shadow is himself, and not an entity.
Eventually, Soteria is invented to lock away Henry's powers, succeeding, but also unknowingly locking the Mindflayer inside of Henry's mind, but as a silent spectator, dormant, unable to control and act. How? Henry's powers and the Mindflayer at this point are so interwoven that neither can exist without the other.
The Child - Terry Ives, 1969
Terry Ives is a voluntary subject at Hawkins Laboratory in 1969 when she is revealed to be pregnant. The spinoff off novel, Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds details the events that lead up to her time at the lab, what happens, and what leads to the current events of the show.
Terry goes into the lab hoping to get money from doing drug experiments under project MK-ultra; during her time there she is personally tested on by Doctor Brenner, who shows a keen interest in her, believing her to be a person of 'higher value', a system shown through Brenner's exposition that ranks people based on their potential.
There are many other women being tested on by the lab, but doctor Brenner is most interested in her, something that goes beyond the value system. Terry doesn't exhibit any signs of supernatural powers, at least not until she learns she is pregnant, and overall she doesn't have any clear defining talents that draw Brenner in, but her potential is in measurable, and what did Brenner do with that potential? He fulfilled it.
Terry Ives did not mistakenly fall pregnant because of the trysts with her longtime boyfriend, Andrew Rich, who I might add, was very quickly sent off to war and killed. People still insist he is the father of eleven but the dates say otherwise! Eleven was supposedly concepted the night of the Nixon Protest that ended with his jailing and subsequent release. This was on November 3, 1969, and using the math, give or take some time, she would've been born 1970. Which in no way makes sense or matches up with her canonical birth in 1971.
So where am I leading this after debunking Elevens father? Its Henry, Its definitely Henry. Doctor Brenner specifically picked out Terry to carry an offspring that would replicate 001s powers, a child that could be stronger than the ones created just using his blood. This explains how Terry Ives developed telepathic powers of her own while being pregnant with eleven, a potent Lineage; this not only explains Doctor Brenner's total fascination with Eleven, but also shows a trend within Brenner's behavior, he doesn't just want subject with powers, no, the artificial ones don't cut it, He wants the subjects like Henry, like Kali, Like eleven, natural born, potent.
I've already talked about this in another post about Henry being Elevens father but I've got more details to point out and to theorize on: I don't believe this was a kind of secret romance or love situation, Terry probably never knew the child inside of her belonged to another man, and I doubt henry knew until much later on, that terry even existed, at least not until she was out of the picture. This seems like a situation connived by Doctor Brenner because I see neither party being willing in making a lab baby for papa's growing collection.
The escape- Kali and Henry
There is no doubt in my mind that Henry personally knows, and was the factor behind eight/kali's eventual escape.
In the flashbacks Kali is shown exclusively playing with eleven in the rainbow room, showing that they were very close, sisters, but what makes them different, closer than everyone else? We can assume that the other child subjects had been alive at this time, but why aren't they there? Its because eleven and Eight are both natural born, and its from this that we can begin to see that perhaps before Eights escape, Doctor Brenner intended to make a program much different for the two, Maybe a separate one for his own interests that included Henry, this Could explain How Henry personally knows about the events that took place When Terry Ives came to rescue Eleven, and terry's existence, but could also explain why Kali has such a strong remembrance of that situation even though she herself was a young child: Henry made sure she remembered.
Here are a list of quotes that I think are significant:
"Think of a memory, one that makes you Angry and sad" - Henry, s04e06
"The bad Men were trying to take you away again and that made you angry, Good. So find that Anger." - Kali, s02e07
Henry and Kali both talk about using bad memory's to fuel them, which i think is interesting because Doctor Brenner directly tells the subjects in the Nina Project flashback: not to allow emotion to interfere with their powers, despite the fact that Henry had encouraged her to use anger and sadness to win the spar against 002.
Which is a very very similar idea that Eight uses to encourage eleven to lift the old boxcar and train her powers.
How on earth would eight learn to use emotions specifically, if Doctor Brenner was telling the subjects to not allow emotion to interfere? Well, it seems like eight, along with eleven, was also taught things by Henry while she was still at the lab. Eventually, Like eleven, Henry saw Kali's growing potential and easily encouraged her to escape since kali was old enough to understand the brutality of the lab and strong enough to survive outside. We can surmise that she escaped through the very same pipe that henry tried to get eleven through in season 4, which explains eights easy disappearance from the lab.
Although this part isn't as detailed as the rest, a result of a lack of information on Kali, it paints a clearer picture of the gaps in Henrys story. He is inexorably connected to not only Eleven, But Kali as well, they are all tied together in some way or another.
The 1979 Massacre - unleashed
Of course, we all know the events leading to the massacre at Hawkins lab, and I myself feel as if I've beaten this topic to death, so I'm just gonna clarify some main points:
The staged attack on Eleven was not orchestrated by Henry, but was an act of control by Doctor Brenner; the intent was never to have El killed either, just to scare her back into her place so she would need to depend on Brenner, and perhaps push henry into leaving her alone. As Henry says 'all Brenner wants is control.'
2. Brenner punishes Henry not because he helped eleven cheat in the spar, but because Henry is getting too close to eleven, something Doctor Brenner fears because that will loosen his control and status as 'papa', especially if eleven finds out who her real 'papa' is.
3. Henrys original intentions to help El escape were honest and pure, shown by the fact he helped eight escape in the past, and because eleven is his daughter. However when the chip is removed, The Mindflayer, who was dormant, immediately started commanding Henry. Henry protecting El in the hallway was one of his last conscious decisions, as well as him putting her in the closet, but after that he was taken over and started to kill everything in sight. Which, I believe, was the Mindflayers attempt at trying to use the kills to open a gate, which wouldn't work, explaining why Henry killed everyone in the lab, even the nurses, doctors and kids, which he said were trapped like him. Its also an unnecessary waste of his powers, and I think him being a psychopath for 'no reason' is a stupid idea and we've been shown so much to go against that.
4. When El walks in on Henry killing 002, that's when the mindflayer loosens his control, allowing henry to essentially front for a moment, but not able to fully control himself, however henry does not realize this, he believes everything he does are his own actions. This is why Henry is able to recount his past, but things are being twisted by the mindflayer's perception, and by the end of Henry's monologue that is the mindflayer fully fronting. That is why when they fight, Henry is completely fine with killing his eight year old child, the one who he risked everything for to help escape. This now makes sense of Henrys odd personality shifts. (I'd also like to point out how JCB makes his face look so totally different from the massacre and the earlier lab scenes, you can see a visceral difference, as if they are two complete different beings inhabiting one body.)
The Mindflayer's plan - Henry
its obvious what the mindflayer wants: To invade the normal world, to gain control, to feed its army, and to take over. Its a parasite, that's what it does.
But how does Henry fit in beyond his usefulness?
I think Henry plays a very significant role in the mindflayer's ecosystem. Now, this is going to be A LOT of guessing, but I'm surmising based off the leaks we've seen and things that fit henrys character. Here it is: Henry is not alive; and in return for allowing the mindflayer to use his body and powers, Henry's consciousness is allowed to live in a dream world.
First, explaining Henrys death, or his physical bodys death.
There is no way in hell, that henry survived the upside down, there is just no way. When henry was sent there by El he was burnt to a literal crisp, his skin was melting off, he was blinded in one eye, and the wounds he must've suffered alone just from falling out of the sky should've just straight up killed him on impact.
Not to mention the fact that when henry first encounters the upside down, its a barren wasteland, there is no water, there definitely is no edible food, and nothing to heal his wounds unless the mindflayer could some heavy magical plot convivence. He should've died, and i think he did, but i believe this:
Henry's body died in the upside down, but his soul or essence was kept alive by the mindflayer, his brain remaining active, and his powers able to help sustain him, but now, because of the mindflayers control, he isn't the main front for the body, the body now belongs to the mindflayer, and henrys mind is apart of the hive. This explains how henry is able to exist being as rotted, decrepit as he is, he can't feel how he's rotting from the inside out. Also probably explains the weirdly big hand.
So where is henry?
Henry exists in his own world, partially created by his own mind, and somewhat propagated by the mindflayer. This place is a utopia, a model of Hawkins, and is where all of Vecna's/Mindflayers/Henry's victims go, this is why Henry tells eleven that all of the dead children are in his head, they are! Same with all of the other victims of his killings: Chrissy, Fred, Patrick and Max. Henry believes at this point that the killings, are for a purpose and that even though he's hurting them, he's bringing them to a better place; ergo, 'ending their pain.'
This is why El cannot find Max when she is revived by eleven, her essence is already inside of Henry, stored away and she will probably have to go there, into henry's utopia, to save her.
Henry is living out the life that was stolen from him, but in return, he's selfishly taken the lives from others in order to satisfy that fantasy; Perhaps believing that this is the safest place for them, for the people like him, the sad, angry, forgotten people, and that one day, the upside down will look like his picturesque utopia.
Furthermore, all of this explains why in the leaks, We see the Creel house painted a bright blue, and see Holly wheeler around the property, talking to a human henry. Her Mind/soul hasn't been taken yet, but this could henry convincing her to come with him, confirming that she will be the missing Wheeler.
The mindflayer allows henry to indulge in this fantasy, whether or not its true (Probably not) because it knows giving henry what he wants, will allow it to continue to use henrys body and to complete its plan.
Okay that's the end so far! -
On a side note: Sorry I couldn't get as detailed with Henrys backstory, I'm really hoping they release a recording of the first shadow to Netflix, I wanna over analyze his character so bad :(((
Also sorry if some things are a bit off, I wrote this in a frenzy at 2am.
