Original subtitles

Hello everyone and welcome to the most

complete breakdown of Stranger Things:

The First Shadow stage play. For anyone

that's been living under a rock, The

First Shadow is currently running in New

York and London and is a Stranger Things

prequel that tells the story of Vecna.

Not only does it show us how he got his

powers as a child and the first time

humans ever interacted with the upside

down, but it also tells us how Eleven

got her powers. And one of the more

surprising things is it humanizes Henry

Creel. He is very much the protagonist

of this story that they want you to root

for, which is interesting because he's

the main villain of the actual show. It

intertwines very often with the live

action show. And we see what happens

leading up to the Creel murders and

learn the real reason why he killed his

family. We see Joyce, Hopper, and Bob

Newbie as they are seniors in high

school and take an investigative

approach to all these mystery murders

happening around Hawkins. All three of

them interact a lot with Henry all

around Hawkins, and it's just a really

interesting story considering they're

choosing not to film it and put it on

Netflix for all the fans to watch before

season 5. So, this video is for all the

fans that don't have the money to fly

across the world and pay for hotels and

food and tickets to watch the show in

person. Of course, if you have the

opportunity, I would highly recommend

watching the play in London. Shockingly

enough, the two plays are completely

different. They [music] only started on

Broadway earlier this year, whereas

they've been putting shows on in London

since the end of 2023. And since there

was so much time in between, they

changed a lot for the Broadway version.

While they did add important things to

VCNA's lore, tying it into season 5

better, they also decided to shorten it,

cutting so many lines from every single

scene, and some entire scenes are just

completely cut. Watching the Broadway

version unfortunately feels like the

Spark Notes version of the actual

original play. They make huge plot

changes and some of the characters have

completely different attitudes in the

American version. So, what I've done in

this video is taken the best version of

both. I've included all of the important

plot changes from Broadway and break

down everything from the current West

End version in London. I personally flew

out and watched the seventh early

screening a couple rows behind the

director Steven Daldry in London before

their grand opening. So, there's also

exclusive things that I saw in person

that they cut from both versions. So,

share this video with all of your

Stranger Things friends. I want to see

you and all the rest of the Stranger

Things community in the comments this

one last time before season 5. This will

be as condensed as I could possibly make

it while hitting all of the important

points and including some wholesome

interactions I thought you might

appreciate. But if you have any

questions, please put them in the

comments and me or someone else who has

seen the play can try to clarify things.

Now, the first scene of the play starts

in 1943, 16 years before the rest of the

play. We learn about a project rainbow

which was a secret military mission that

used electromagnetic energy to render an

entire ship invisible. This mission was

a success because for a moment the ship

was transported to Dimension X. A

demogorgan appears and kills everybody

on the ship except for the captain who

is Brener's father. The ship returned to

the real world and going to Dimension X

changed the captain. It changed his

blood type. He told Brener what really

happened before he died. And then Brener

dedicates his entire life to Project

Rainbow and joins the team continuing

research in Nevada. They eventually

uncover a Russian spy in the project who

escapes taking with him a container full

of mind flare particles that they

extracted from Brener's father.

Apparently, when he was in Dimension X,

the mind flare infected him and he

brought it back to the real world. A

couple days later, the Russian spy was

found dead near a cave system.

Apparently, Henry Creel was near that

cave system at the same time. He found

the container and the mind flare

particles went inside of him, changing

him and his blood type, leaving him with

no memory of what happened. Now, we jump

forward to October 1st, 1959. Bob Newbie

has a local radio show that he does.

Joyce is dating Lonnie and is running a

secret school play in hopes of getting a

theater scholarship to leave Hawkins.

Hopper is established to have an awful

relationship with his father. And we see

the Creels moving into their new house.

We go into the newbie household and are

introduced to Bob's father, Robert, who

is the principal of the high school. We

also learn that he has a sister, a new

character, Patty. Their father obviously

does not like her. He marks her tardy

for school because she hasn't left home

yet, and gives her detention for reading

a comic book. Patty's not normal. Henry

is using his radio to listen to Patty's

prayer before school, and Henry says,

"Amen." And Patty hears it over the

radio. We also learn that Bob is trying

to impress Joyce with his radio show

along with kind of everything else he

does. At Hawkins High, it's picture day.

They use this to introduce Henry to all

of the high schoolers that turn into the

adults we see on the show. Mike's

parents, Ted and Karen. Lucas's parents,

Sue and Charles. Dustin's parents, Walt

and Claudia. Even Eddie's father, Alan

Mson. Walt introduces Henry to everybody

and then asks Henry about himself,

saying that he heard he broke a kid's

arm at his last school in Nevada. Henry

gets upset and the lights flicker. Walt

keeps pressing him and then the

photographer's flashbulb explodes. Patty

walks in and defends Henry from Walt

bullying him. Walt bullies Patty for not

knowing where she's from and says they

found her in a dumpster, making fun of

the fact she was adopted. Patty helps

Henry open his locker and says her mom

is the famous singer Ella Fitzgerald.

This is the artist that sings the dream

song from the Creole flashback scenes in

season 4. Patty and Henry bond over

reading the same comic and have a

wholesome moment before going off to

class. We cut to Joyce at play tryyouts

announcing that instead of doing

Oklahoma like always, they will be

secretly doing Dark of the Moon in hopes

of getting that theater scholarship to a

college art program. Joyce describes

this play as being about a witch boy who

falls in love with a human woman and

sacrifices his powers in a bargain with

the devil so he can be with her only to

doom them both. She says it's a story

about the destructive power of fear and

asks the question, can love defeat fear?

This is basically representative of the

first shadow story and the entirety of

Stranger Things to some extent. The

themes of love saving you and being much

stronger than fear is constant

throughout the entire show. Patty ends

up trying out for the lead female role,

no one wants to read with her and as

Walt starts bullying her again, Henry

Krill comes in reading the other lines.

They finish the scene together, ending

with an awkward moment but displaying

obvious chemistry and Joyce casts both

of them as the leads. Later that night,

we see the Creel House. Victor in

Virginia noticed Henry hanging around

Patty and talk about if he should

actually be doing that. They think it's

too soon since the incident in Nevada

where he left a boy in a wheelchair. In

Broadway, they changed it to Henry

blinded the boy instead of breaking his

arm. Henry was listening to their

conversation through his radio and he

slips into the void. They show this in

the play by having these giant red

lasers drop down and rise up around the

stage. We hear a clock ticking in the

background and we see a white wisp

zooming around Henry right before we

hear a demogorgan growl. On Broadway,

they change it to him seeing Patty and

then opening his eyes and she

disappears. And this is how he learns

how the void works. As if this is his

first time understanding it. Then we see

Henry listening to Walter, the kid that

bullied him at school earlier. Walt is

looking for Claudia's cat, which is

Dustin's mother. Poor girl has lost so

many cats over the years. They find it

in the liquor store that Walt's family

owns and notice that the cat is scared.

The lights flicker. Then they leave the

cat to go watch a scary movie. Henry in

the void walks over to the cat to say

hi. He picks it up saying, "Good kitty.

Don't be scared." But his voice becomes

distorted and it sounds like Vecnes now.

The lights go crazy and the sound of

static gets louder and louder until

Henry lifts the cat into the air with

his powers, breaks its bones, and pops

out its eyes. Then we see Henry slip out

of the void. He notices blood coming

from his nose and he thinks it was just

a nightmare. And then his mother walks

in and tells him, "Come on, they're

leaving for church. It's almost 10:00

a.m." As if after Henry made the kill,

he passed out and his mom woke him up 9

hours later. We see the Creel family

show up to church and introduce

themselves to Mr. Newbie. Claudia rushes

in frantic, handing out flyers, offering

a $100 reward for anyone that can figure

out what killed her cat last night.

This, of course, catches the eye of

Hopper, who has been needing some cash

to fix up his car. Henry sees Claudia

and is struggling with himself, trying

to figure out if his nightmare was real,

and he ends up bumping into Patty. Her

dad makes her listen to confessions, so

she offers to listen to Henry's. He

tells her that he hears voices coming

out of his radio and that he has

nightmares, ones that he might be able

to make come true. Patty asks if he can

just make the nightmares happy dreams

since they're his dreams. and he has

Patty close her eyes and tells her to

sing and tells her to imagine what she

would want her dream to be. He covers

her eyes and is able to literally show

her her own dream. This turns into a

musical number because Patty wanted to

sing and dance on Broadway. They jump

forward in the script and she tells them

that she wants to find her mom and Henry

shows her her mother singing at her show

in Vegas. The entire dream sequence ends

with a song and when they come out of

it, Patty tells Henry she'll do the

school play if he does it with her and

they both agree. Patty leaves and

Virginia comes around the corner furious

at Henry for talking to another child

without adult supervision. She calls the

rest of the family to come immediately

and they leave the church. Then we skip

forward one week to Bob announcing on

his radio show that another pet was

found dead, bringing the total to five

dead animals in 9 days. People are

starting to wonder what's going on.

Hopper walks into Bob's room and has him

grab his camera and follow him into the

night. Hopper goes and digs up Claudia's

cat's dead, mangled body and has Bob

take a picture of it. It's here that

they discover its eyes are gone and

realize it wasn't a Lynx doing the

killings like some people thought. A

person did this. They also realized that

all the pets that were killed belong to

students who are in the school play,

which means it has to be a theater kid

who's doing this. And the next day at

play rehearsals, Hopper strolls in and

starts questioning the cast. Eventually,

he gets to Henry and starts asking him

questions that make him nervous, and all

the lights start flickering. Hopper

tells him he's a creepy guy, and Henry

runs off to the bathroom, obviously

upset. There, he tries to calm himself

down, and the lights flicker again, and

he sees a nightmare. The mirrors crack

and a smoky reflection appears of

himself. Patty walks in looking for him.

And since they were doing trust

exercises at rehearsal and telling each

other secrets, she brings up Henry's

secret, the cat, the one that he killed,

and the lights start flickering. She

says that she knows about all the pets

he's been killing, and she says there

will be more, that he's going to

continue to hurt things and that he

[music] will kill, that he's going to

kill her. Henry responds saying that he

would never hurt her. And Patty says,

"We're going to kill a lot of things."

as if this is the mind flare speaking to

him through this nightmare of Patty. She

starts pulling out her hair and the mind

flare tells Henry, "We can have her. She

can be with us." Henry and Patty

literally start wrestling back and forth

until the lights go out and the

nightmare stops. Now in Broadway, they

made it much more intense. After they

fight and the lights go out, they come

back on to reveal Patty dead on the

floor. And a second later, she snaps her

head to Henry and says, "Feels good,

doesn't it?" Tempting Henry with killing

her. Henry tries to stop it by offering

it more animals. It says that they want

the same thing. And then says, "Don't

you want to know what Patty's like on

the inside. Let me in and I can show

you. We can peel her open together."

This is way more psychotic and playing

into the sociopath vibes way more. The

West End had nothing this demented. But

after the nightmare ends, the real Patty

walks into the bathroom. Henry tries to

talk to her, but is interrupted by Joyce

calling them back to rehearsals to

finish the final kiss scene. In this

scene in the play, Patty's character is

supposed to die. And Patty, reading her

lines, says, "I'm scared of dying. Kiss

me." Which is a little foreshadowing, to

be honest. Henry erupts, still emotional

from the nightmare, and tells her that

if she stays with him, she will die. You

can hear his voice slowly distorting and

going in and out of sounding like VCNA.

Patty tells him that for the first time

in her life, she's finally felt

connected to someone, and that she's not

going to go anywhere. Henry is really

struggling and borderline crying at this

point, telling her that he's not normal.

And she says, "That's okay. Why does

that have to be wrong? What if this

curse you have is a blessing? It's not a

mistake, but a miracle." And she tells

him that she's not scared. Henry and

Patty slowly come together, and she

tells him to kiss her. They lean in and

have a slow, wholesome, romantic kiss,

and all of the lights explode. All the

while, Joyce thought they were improving

the scene the entire time and is so

ecstatic with their insane chemistry

that she says everyone needs to go

celebrate at Melvald's diner. In the

diner, Henry and Patty are hanging out,

and Patty wonders if this is what it's

like to be normal, hanging out and

having fun, just like everybody else.

Henry responds by telling her how all

these people are actually feeling,

nervous, depressed, bored, scared. And

Patty asks him how he knows what they're

feeling. He tells her that he can hear

them in his head all the time. He tells

her what she's thinking about her mother

and she asks if he thinks he could find

her. They agree to try to find Patty's

mother in Henry's attic one night and

even if it doesn't work, it'll just be a

date, which is kind of cute. Patty tells

Henry that he's a miracle and then they

lean in and share another kiss together.

John Melvald sees it and kicks them out

for PDA. Then we see Joyce and Bob

talking together and Hopper runs over

and interrupts telling Bob that Alan

Mson's dog was killed last night along

with Ted Wheeler's hedgehog. for the

first time. Two kills in one night. They

fill Joyce in on how they've been

tracking the animal killer. And then Bob

realizes that the killings happen at the

same time that his radio show has been

picking up large amounts of static, as

if they're related. Joyce considers

going to the cops, but decides on

joining Bob and Hopper to avoid having

her play shut down in case they're

related. Then she asks Bob if he can

make a homing device to find the source

of the interference, and he agrees.

Later that night, Bob announces over the

radio another two pets have been found

dead, and we cut to the Creel attic,

followed by Vecna's clock chime. Henry

walks in and Virginia is waiting for

him. She's mad again and tells him not

to see Patty anymore and slaps him in

the face. They eventually change the

play to have Henry tell her that she

can't tell us what to do anymore, and

she asks, "Who is us?" She threatens to

call the police if he doesn't stop.

Henry laughs maniacally and presses her,

asking why she never called the police

on her father when he would lock her in

a closet and all the spiders would come

out. This fills us in on where her

spider trauma comes from. He makes her

see spiders coming out of everywhere in

the attic coming for her. On Broadway,

Virginia tells Henry to stay away from

her and he says that he's already

inside. Can you feel it? The fear. Your

fear. It changes us. It feels so. And

then he trails off. Henry tells her

she's not going to call the police now

either because the fear has already

taken root and she's too afraid.

Virginia tries to run out of the attic

and Henry uses his powers to slam the

attic door. He seems to become taken

over by an entity and these tancoled

vines come out of the wall and grab him

from behind as if this is the mind flare

taking over or possessing him. He yells

at her and she runs away saying that she

can't help him anymore. She tells Victor

and Alice to get their things that

they're leaving. A second later, Alice

wanders in and says, "Where's Henry?"

Henry, normal now, responds and says,

"He's right here." And Alice replies

saying that he's not Henry. You're not

him. And then Henry tells her to run and

she scurries out of the attic. Now, we

jump forward to the following night, and

we see Bob, Joyce, and Hopper together

in the woods with the homing device Bob

built to track the interference. Hopper

puts the pack on his back, and they

wander off into the night searching for

static. Now, since the Creel family

left, Henry has Patty over. They go

inside and Henry tells her that no

matter what happens, try not to let it

know you're afraid. We hear Vecna's

clock chimes and they head up to the

attic. Now, we pause this and go to the

town meeting. Hopper's father, the

police chief, puts the town under curfew

until they find out what's been doing

all of these killings. Victor stumbles

in drunk and asks to speak with Mr.

Newbie, telling him Virginia and Alice

left this morning and that they're not

coming back. Victor tells Newbie he

thinks the killings might be him with

all the nightmares he's been having of

the war flashbacks. He tells Mr. Newbie

that Henry's a good kid and that he's

been doing well since he's been hanging

out with his daughter. Mr. Newbie has no

idea about this and is furious. Victor

says that they're hanging out at the

house now and they both leave and head

to the Creel house. In the attic, Henry

blindfolds himself and asks Patty to

hold his hand. We see Hopper, Joyce, and

Bob in the woods as they start to pick

up some static and try to locate the

direction it's coming from. Henry's nose

starts to bleed and Patty gets

concerned, but she hears a female voice

singing over the radio and recognizes

the song as one her mother used to sing

to her as a kid. Henry quickly senses

someone else's presence as both of their

fathers enter the house. They walk in

and the lights start to flicker and

static comes over the radio. Then they

hear Patty scream from the attic and her

father immediately runs up to see what's

wrong. But Victor starts rambling and

goes into a nightmare from the war. Up

in the attic, Patty asks Henry where her

mother is and if he can see her. Henry

is in the void and finds her mother on

stage singing. But something goes wrong.

Patty's mother in the void addresses

Henry directly and all the lights go

red. This very quickly turns into a

nightmare. Henry tries to stop it, but

he can't. He tries to warn Patty to run

as her mother reaches out and grabs onto

Henry. Meanwhile, Bob, Joyce, and Hopper

are walking through the woods as the

machine seems to overload or malfunction

from all the static it's picking up.

They look up and realize they're at the

source, the Creel House. They hear a

distorted version of Henry's nightmare

coming through Bob's machine, and they

decide to go into the house. We go back

to the attic, and Patty screams out in

pain as Henry's accidentally crushing

her hand. Her father runs in, and Henry

yells at him to get Patty out of here to

save her. Mr. Newbie walks over and

tries to force Henry to let go of her

hand and in doing so swaps places with

his daughter. Henry yells out in a

distorted voice that he can't have her.

She's ours, which is basically the mind

flare talking through him. Henry reaches

out with his powers and freezes Patty on

one side of the attic and throws her

father to the other side. Henry

levitates up into the air and all the

light bulbs explode. Hopper, Joyce, and

Bob let themselves into the house and

stumble onto Victor Creel, still in his

nightmare from the war. He mumbles that

he killed something and Joyce assumes

he's talking about the animal killings

and that they're too late. He's already

killed again. They hear Patty yell from

the attic and Bob recognizes her scream

and runs upstairs. Henry is now fully

suspended in the air with vines

connecting to him, but he's still in the

[music] real world. Patty pleads with

Henry to stop and tries to bring him out

of this nightmare. Her father is now

trapped up in the air against the wall,

restrained by vines. Henry flicks his

hand and we hear Mr. Newbie's bones snap

as he screams out in pain. Patty tells

Henry to make it a happy dream as he

throws her father offcreen up into the

ceiling. Now, for a moment, Henry goes

to a happy place, describing the night

after they got kicked out of Melvald's

diner. It was starting to snow. We see

Patty sitting on a bench and he walks

over to her and puts his jacket around

her to keep her warm. He tells her that

she's perfect, beautiful, and then Henry

winces out in pain, obviously struggling

to fight off the mind flare. Patty

reminds him it's his dream and that

anything is possible. She says, "I love

you." Henry responds, "Me, too." And she

responds, "No, you have to say it." And

Henry says, "I love you, too, Patty." We

hear a loud noise interrupt them, and

Henry falls to the ground as the vines

go back into the ceiling. Now, in the

Broadway play, they change it. So, Patty

is the one wandering through all of

Henry's memories, seeing him get bullied

by everyone. And she stumbles onto the

memory of the incident from his last

school in Nevada. She watches a boy come

up to Henry, telling him that he saw him

murder his dog, and pushes Henry to the

ground. Henry, in defense, throws out

his hand, blinding the boy, and then

screaming in fear as if he didn't mean

to do that. He didn't mean to use his

powers. I much prefer the West End's

version of them telling each other that

they love one another before collapsing.

But this was the only time it's ever

mentioned what the incident in Nevada

was that made them leave, so that's why

this is included. Hopper, Joyce, and Bob

run in to find Mr. Newbie's lifeless

body laying on the ground. It seems like

Henry or the mind flare actually sent

him through the floor. They're about to

give him CPR when he wakes up screaming,

"The boy, you've got to save the boy."

Referring to saving Henry from the mind

flare. Now, back in the attic, Henry is

on his knees trying to gather himself as

Patty hysterically runs out the door. We

see red lightning strike and then the

scene ends. They follow this with a

montage that explains that the

principal, Mr. Newbie suffered from a

terrible fall in quotation marks and

that he was blinded. We see a doctor's

report say that his eye trauma was not

consistent with the reported slip and

fall. And a police report shows there's

conflicting witness statements. And then

it shows us classified documents from

Project Rainbow saying that a possible

subject has been found and an

investigative unit will be deployed.

There was possible exposure to exotic

material referring to mind flare

particles and there is a possible

contagion risk. The newspapers then show

mystery contractors recommissioning a

vacant power plant, referring to them

building Hawkins Lab. And then in the

theater, hazmat suits with

electromagnetic field detectors wander

through the crowd and walk onto the

stage. We see Virginia Creel sitting on

Henry's bedside, and she tells him about

a specialist doctor that she's brought

out from Nevada to help him get better.

A hazmat suit steps forward and removes

his head covering, revealing himself to

be Dr. Brener. He says that he's here to

help. The lights flicker and the scene

ends, concluding the first half of the

play as we hear the Stranger Things

intro music. Now, after intermission, we

open in Hawkins Lab to Brener asking

Henry questions about everything, and he

mentions Virginia told him that Henry

went missing on his 8th birthday for 12

hours near a military base in Lincoln,

Nevada, with no memory of what happened.

Brener goes on and starts to taunt

Henry, telling him that he's weak and

he's not special, intentionally trying

to get a rise out of him. Eventually, he

gets it, and Henry reaches out in anger

and uses his powers to explode the rat

in a cage that was in the room with

them. Brener got what he wanted. Then,

we cut to Hopper and Joyce catching up

after the incident as they've been

looking into what actually happened, and

they just find out that everyone is

covering it up with no leads.

Disheartened by everything, Hopper

randomly asks Joyce if she wants to get

out of there. He tells her that he fixed

up his car and they can just get in and

drive, go to Mexico. Joyce asks him why

he didn't leave sooner if his car was

fixed. And he tells her that he stayed

in hopes of finding this killer to prove

to his dad that he's not a screw-up.

Joyce tells him that she's been waiting

her whole life to hear someone ask her

to run away from this place. And she

seriously considers it. They exchange a

little bit of soft banter, thinking

about running away together. And they

get closer and they start to go in for a

kiss. But unfortunately, we're

interrupted by the receptionist. Joyce

snaps back to reality and tells Hopper

this is bigger than both of them and

they can't let Victor get away with

this. They storm into the police station

to talk with Hopper's dad and Joyce

shows him all of her theories and

supporting psychological studies,

suggesting Victor is behind the

killings. Hopper's dad just yells at

them and belittles them, telling them

they need evidence and a confession. The

police talk to Patty and she says her

father just fell through the floor,

nothing more. Then Hopper and his dad

break out into an actual fist fight

after some name calling, and they

wrestle through the office, destroying

it. Hopper and Joyce eventually leave,

determined to get a confession from

Victor. The next scene takes place in

the hospital, and we see a nurse telling

Patty that her father is coming out of

the ICU, but he still hasn't woken up.

Patty is visibly shaken up and tells Bob

that she's scared. What if he comes back

for me? The lights flicker, and when Bob

asks who, Patty says, I can't tell you.

He's listening. And the lights flicker

more. Hopper and Joyce walk in looking

for Bob. Patty goes into her father's

room to sit by his side as Hopper tells

Bob of their plan to take down Victor

Creel and Bob joins them in hopes of

protecting Patty. He suggests kidnapping

Victor Creel during the play and Hopper

can pretend to be his dad and they'll

record him giving a confession. Bob goes

into the room to try to convince Patty

to do the play again and Patty thinks

he's just trying to get her to do it to

impress Joyce and she gets mad at him

and they get into a fight. The commotion

wakes up their father who starts

screaming. Bob goes and runs for help

and their dad realizes Patty is there

and he tells her he's sorry. He's sorry

for being so horrible to her her entire

life and how he thought adopting her

would save his marriage, but his wife

still left and because of that he

punished Patty for her entire life. He

says that this shadow thing could smell

his secret rotting inside of him and

that it attacked him. At first, it went

inside of him. He could feel it pulling,

hunting, and now he can't stop seeing

the shadow monster. The lights flicker

and Patty yells out, "Henry, no." And

her father says, "It wasn't the boy. The

boy stopped it. It was killing me." And

if the boy hadn't fought it, it would

have won. Patty processes what he just

said, that Henry didn't do this as her

father removes the bandages over his

face and reveals his eyes are gone,

leaving behind bloody eye sockets. He

asks Patty for paper and shoves his

fingers into his eyes and scribbles in

blood a picture of the mind flare. This

looks just like Will's drawings of it.

Alarms go off and nurses run in and he

yells, "It wants more. It wants

everything. You have to stop it." The

boy can save all of us, but he needs

your help. You have to find him before

it's too late. Before he lets it in.

It's coming to punish us. I see it. The

streets burn. It's everywhere. You're

dead. Your mother's dead. We're all

dead. I can't serve it. Find the boy.

Save him. This ends with Patty seeing

the picture of the mind flare he drew.

And then we change scenes. In a room at

Hawkins lab, Brener is taking a syringe

full of Henry's blood and tells him

they're building a map of his brain and

his body. They've also learned already

he has a completely unique blood type,

one that's never been seen before.

Brener tells Henry the feeling, the rush

he feels when he kills an animal is not

psychological. It's physical. When Henry

kills, he's actually absorbing the

energy from his victim and it directly

makes him stronger. Brener tells Henry

about his father, how he worked on

Project Rainbow, and that he was

teleported to another dimension that

changed him. When he returned, his blood

type was the same as Henry's, unique and

different. Brener was only allowed to

see his father once before he died, and

he told him the truth about what really

happened to their ship. That's when

Brener dedicated his entire life to

Project Rainbow, and he joined the

research team out in Nevada. Brener

tells Henry that they had access to

special materials from beyond our world

that were extracted from inside his

father. This is referring to the mind

flare particles that he infects his

hosts with. And 10 months ago, a doctor

working on the project with him was

revealed to be a Russian spy. This

doctor stole these special materials and

tried to run away. He didn't get very

far and his remains were found 2 days

later near a cave system. When they

found the box he took, it was empty.

There was no trace of the mind flare

particles, but they did find another

clue at the scene. A hazmat suit walks

in towards Henry holding a box, and in

it is one of his toys from the comic

books him and Patty read. He lost it one

day and never saw it again until now.

This means that Henry, as a child, was

playing near these caves and discovered

the box. He opened it, most likely just

being curious, and the mind flare

particles went inside of him, and Brener

tells him it changed him. Henry went

missing that day for 12 hours. They put

a brain monitoring device on his head

and Brener starts pressuring him, asking

him what he found in the box. This

stresses Henry out to the point where

he's convulsing and starts foaming at

the mouth. It was enough to unlock this

repressed memory he has, just like

Brener does to L in season 4. Through

the monitoring device, images appear on

the wall of TVs behind him of what he

saw that day. And we can clearly see

that Henry was transported to Dimension

X. And we see images of a demogorgan

attack before all the screens explode

and Henry collapses. Brener tells him

that now he has something extra just

like his father had. And now they can

open a doorway back to that other place,

a gate. This ends the scene, but we need

to talk about the massive change they

made to this in Broadway. Take this with

a big grain of salt. In my head cannon,

what we just talked about is what

actually happens. But since they updated

the American version, this might be

important. So, in New York, they

actually bring out Brener's father in a

wheelchair, still barely alive. He looks

just like Terry Ives, kind of

non-functioning. Brener tells Henry the

mind flare particles consumed his

father's mind and uses that to say he

wants to help Henry. But then, out of

nowhere, Brener's father speaks for the

first time in years, saying to Henry

that they are friends, as if the mind

flare is still inside his father. Henry

tells Brener that that isn't his father,

meaning it's the mind flare talking. It

tells him to let us in. and all of the

lights flicker. It tells Henry that in

Hawkins he is nothing, but with us

you're a god. He extends his hand and

Henry takes it. All of the lights

explode and they put the brain

monitoring device on his head and we see

the visual of the mind flare form.

Brener leaves his father to admire it

right before the wall of TVs explode and

break apart, opening a literal portal to

the upside down on the wall behind them.

It seemed like here is when the mind

flare goes inside Henry from Brener's

father. We can actually see through the

portal demo bats flying around and a

demogorgan walks up to the portal and

shoves his arm through, grabbing Brener

and throwing him to the ground. A

scientist runs over and rips the brain

monitor off Henry's head and the portal

immediately closes. Brener's father is

dead and he doesn't seem to care, saying

that he was weak. It doesn't matter. And

Brener tells Henry that he's the key.

With him, they can open a doorway back

to that other place and whatever comes

through, he can help him control. Now, I

really don't know why they needed to

make such a big change here. We see the

mind flare tempting Henry to join him

and be a god. And we see a portal open,

which is exciting, but it doesn't really

serve a purpose other than changing the

lore to now being the first time an

actual gate was opened between the two

dimensions instead of when Eleven opened

it. But it doesn't make sense why when

Eleven touched the demogorgan and opened

the portal in season 1 that it didn't

close. If anything, it started coming

into Hawkins more. Whereas, when Henry

does it, it closes immediately. In the

play, it's almost just used as

excitement to fuel Brener's motivation

for research even more. But he already

was motivated, so I don't really think

this is necessary. Now, moving on, we

see Patty in a room talking out loud,

telling Henry that she knows he's

watching her. We see the lights flicker,

and she tells him that now she knows

he's scared since her father told her

about the shadow, and she knows that she

can help him. She puts on a blindfold

and we see Henry bring her into the

void. She sees Henry's real body in the

lab strapped down to a table and Henry

in the void walks in and greets her

saying that she's not safe here. He

tells her they're using him to try to

make contact right now since the last

experiment. The machines hooked up to

him display the image that starts to

form the mind flare. Henry begins to

tell Patty goodbye and apologizes for

everything, but Patty says no that the

scientists can't help him fight the

battle inside of him, but she can. Henry

says that he's tired. He's tired of

hating himself and tired of hating

everything and wonders if he belongs

here. Patty tells him that he's not bad.

He's just fighting something bad and she

knows he saved her father from it. Henry

in a distorted voice says maybe he

shouldn't have as if he's been taken

over by the mind flare. Henry tells

Patty that this thing shows him fears

and secrets. And he tells her that her

father fell in love with a student and

had a baby and declared her mother unfit

to hide his secret. He tells her she

actually wasn't adopted. This is a minor

Broadway change. If you remember earlier

when her father wakes up from his coma,

he told her he adopted her to save his

marriage and it failed. Well, in the

American version, they actually change

it to saying he fell in love with a high

schooler as the principal and then kept

the baby and said she was adopted to

cover it all up. I kind of just prefer

her being adopted as a last resort to

save their marriage and it failing and

then because of that her whole life he

resents her. Patty responds to Henry

saying that she knows what the shadow

is. that it doesn't want or care about

him. It's just using him and will

continue to until there's nothing left.

She says that all of this power is just

a drug to keep him distracted while it

keeps him alive. Meaning that the mind

flare is just letting Henry use its

powers to justify being a host. She says

Henry knows this and that's why he's

scared. He tells her that her father

lied to her for her entire life and that

he hates her and that she's less than

nothing. This is all the mind flare just

beating Patty down and it works. She

collapses crying. She tells Henry that

she's lonely and Henry says, "Me, too."

Patty tells him that she doesn't want to

be lonely anymore. And Henry says that

she should just run away from him. But

she says, "Where would she go? She's the

girl from nowhere. She can't give up."

She tells Henry, "Don't fight for

yourself. Fight for me." She says that

everyone has their monsters, but that

doesn't mean they're bad. And if her mom

is still out there, she wants to find

her. Patty asks Henry to come with her

to leave all of this behind. They'll

fight the monsters together and find the

good in this world. In the background,

the test has been getting crazier up

until now, and then the mind flare just

disappears. Patty tells Henry to look,

it's gone. We're on our own. And Henry

replies, "It is gone. Don't leave me."

Patty tells him that there's a train

they can catch tomorrow that goes into

the city. They'll tell Joyce that

they're going to do the play, and during

the chaos, they'll leave before anyone

notices. They'll run away together.

Henry tells her that he's scared and not

to let him go. She says, "I won't." And

then she disappears. Henry says that

he's going to find her. And then Brunner

wakes him up, telling him that they

weren't able to make a connection, but

now he knows how to fix it. He unveils a

man with a bag over his head in the

other room and explains it's an inmate

that has the death penalty and will get

the electric chair next week. Brener

tells Henry that the only limit to his

powers is access to more fuel. And to

test this theory, they need more energy.

Brener wants Henry to kill a person to

become powerful enough to open a portal.

Henry refuses and tells Brener he's done

with the program and that he's leaving.

Brener becomes really upset and starts

digging. Discovering that there's a girl

in his life and starts taunting Henry

again, telling him he'll never live a

normal life. He tells him he can't

outrun the darkness, he is the shadow,

and that eventually he'll come crawling

back to him because he wants to kill.

The mind games work on Henry and the

lights start to flicker. Blood starts to

run from the inmate's eyes from inside

the bag. Henry is really struggling as

Brener continues to belittle him. Henry

breaks and throws out his hand, lifting

Brener up into the air and sends him

through the ceiling as all of the lights

go red. The inmate has been killed and

has fallen to the ground. Guards rush in

and Henry kills them immediately and

then runs away escaping. Now it's the

night of the play and we see Patty

getting into costume, waiting for Henry,

but he doesn't show up and the play

starts. Joyce Hopper and Bob get Ted to

bring the person who is in Victor's seat

in the crowd back into the changing

rooms. Hopper throws a bag over his head

and handcuffs him to the chair,

interrogating him, pretending to be his

father. But he realizes Ted grabbed

Lonnie instead of Victor, and he runs

out of the changing room. Now, we hear

VCNA's clock chime, and we see the red

lasers indicating Henry is going into

the void. He listens to Alice, asking

their mother why Henry's come home. And

originally, Virginia says that he's home

to have his last supper, as if he's

going away forever. She tells Alice that

she wants to have a nice family dinner

and then they'll all go see the school

play together. And then we see Virginia

talking to Brener and she's trembling.

She's scared. Brener tells her Henry

escaped about an hour ago and asks

Virginia about the girl he's going to

see. She hesitates and then makes Brener

promise that when they catch Henry,

they'll lock him up and throw away the

key. That's insane. When she tells him

Patty's name, Henry in the void

listening becomes furious. The scene

transforms and goes into the dinner

scene that we see from the show. We see

Henry interact with this white wisp,

this smoke in the void, and then start

to struggle. Red clouds appear, and

originally in the background, the mind

flare forms in the shadows. But on

Broadway, they created a practical

30-foot mind flare that appears above

him, which is so cool. We hear the dream

song come over the radio, and then we

hear screams from Alice, and we hear

Virginia's bones crack. A flash of red

lightning reveals her in the air,

crumpled. The white smoke comes down and

goes inside of Henry. And then the red

lasers take us out of the void. Back at

the play, we see Bob tell Joyce Hopper's

gone and that their plan must have

worked. He must have taken Victor to the

cops. But the final scene of the play is

starting and the power goes out. Joyce

has to go down to the electrical room to

fix the power and Henry appears from the

shadows asking where Patty is. Joyce

tells him he doesn't need to worry

anymore and that she knows everything.

talking about his father being the

killer. But of course, Henry thinks

she's figured out he's the killer. The

lights start to flicker and Henry gets

ready to kill Joyce right before she

says that his father will be brought to

justice and Henry stops confused. He

goes on this rant about how he used to

just hear voices, but now he sees them

and now he can see everything. We hear

VCN's clock chimes and the scene ends.

And then we see Hopper and his father

have a ride at the Creel House to the

murders. Hopper's clearly upset and

yells at his dad for not listening to

him. They tried to tell him about Victor

and then he runs out. We see Henry

watching from the void as an officer

takes away Victor in handcuffs. A man in

a black suit walks in and tells Brener,

who is now on the scene, that they lost

Henry. He was unconscious on a gurnie

and the next second he was gone. Brener

rushes off, calling all units to the

school, knowing Henry's going after

Patty. and Henry comes out of the void

and goes back to talking to Joyce,

telling her that she needs to learn to

do whatever it takes to protect what you

love. The lights flicker and he asks

about Patty. Joyce tells him that she's

on the catwalk above the stage getting

ready for the final scene and Henry

rushes off. We see Patty up on the

catwalk in an outfit of white wings with

Sue clipping her into wires to be

lowered down. Sue leaves and Henry

rushes up to her and immediately tries

to get her unhooked, telling her she

needs to leave immediately, trying to

send her off to the train station

without him, and tells her the address

that her mother works at. He says that

he needs to make sure that they don't

follow them. But Brener appears with the

worst timing ever, and starts talking to

Patty, trying to turn her against Henry.

Brener tells her that he's a weapon that

belongs to the United States government.

Patty defends Henry, saying that she's

seen him fight the shadow and win. And

Brener says that he's a killer and that

Henry doesn't need her. The lights

explode and Henry is very obviously

struggling a lot. And Patty tries to get

through to him, telling him not to

listen to Brener. But then Brener tells

her that he killed his family. She

refuses to believe it at first, but then

Henry says it's true. He tells her that

spending time with her made him want to

get better, but he can't. She shoves him

away from her and he falls to his knees

and we hear a demogorgan growl. Brunner

says it's here that the connection is

about to start. We see red clouds on the

stage form into the mind flare. Henry

struggles to tell Patty the Stardust

Casino is where she can find her mom and

then screams out in pain. Brener tells

him not to fight it, and Patty

interrupts him, telling him to listen to

her voice. Stay right here. Brener tells

him she's the only thing holding him

back, to take her. Do it. Patty is

crying at this point, pleading with

Henry, trying to get him to fight back.

We hear orchestral music rise up and the

lights flash and we see Henry form the

connection with the mind flare. It seems

like Henry then reaches out with his

powers and pushes Patty away. In slow

motion, the catwalk breaks and we see

Patty fall backwards off the rafter down

onto the stage below. All the lights go

out except for one spotlight on Patty's

now lifeless body and Bob slowly walks

over to her crying and the scene ends.

Next, we see a montage of newspapers

saying that Patty is in critical

condition. We see the newspapers

covering the Creel murders. And then one

saying that the principal's daughter

goes missing, that Patty ran away. And

then we see local research study seeks

pregnant volunteers, which is Brener

looking for mothers for MK Ultra

testing, which includes Eleven's mother,

Terry Ives. And then we see a final

newspaper from December 1960 saying,

"Hawkins moves on. A full year has

passed since everyone's graduated high

school." And we hear Bob's voice come

over the radio wishing everyone a merry

Christmas. And now we see Hopper in a

police uniform walk into Melvald's to

pick up some food to go. He looks up

with a warm smile on his face as he

listens to Bob on the radio. Joyce walks

over who is now working two jobs, one

here and one at Enzo's. She's still

dating Lonnie and her and Hopper

reconnect as if they haven't seen each

other since they graduated. And when

Hopper gets up to leave, Joyce shily

tells him that she gets off at midnight

if he wants to stick around and get a

drink together. And it seems like he

really wants to, but he tells her that

tomorrow morning he ships off to basic

training. He's going to try to make

something of himself. And Joyce tells

him that he is something. He always has

been. And she says that at least they'll

always have Mexico, which is really

sweet. Hopper stops and it seems like

they're about to go in for a kiss, but

Joyce pulls back and they tell each

other Merry Christmas and Hopper walks

out. Over the radio, we hear Bob

dedicate one last song to a special

someone wherever she is. And then he

plays a song for Patty, one that her

mother sings. And this transitions to

the stage of a theater, and we see Patty

using a cane to slowly make her way to

the back after a show. Some show girls

are walking out and one of them stops

and tells her she isn't supposed to be

back here, but she does a double take

and slowly realizes that this is her

daughter. The two run to each other and

embrace in a very long-awaited hug and

we see the lights flicker. Patty looks

up and says, "Henry." Her mother takes

her hand and they walk off stage

together. Now, we see some projected

footage, specifically a blueprint of

Hawkins lab that shows Henry's picture

at the top and reveals 10 other test

subjects below him, each with their own

line that connects to Henry. We open in

the lab where Brener has Henry strapped

down to a chair with a gag in his mouth.

Brener tells Henry that they've had 10

test subjects successfully survived the

blood transfusion so far and all of them

are special, meaning they managed to

transfer Henry's powers to each of these

children through his blood. Brener tells

him the Department of Defense wants him

to dispose of Henry and to get rid of

him, but instead he would like him to

help him raise the children, to help him

get them to their full potential,

referring to them as his brothers and

sisters. They've unstrapped him at this

point and taken the gag off and Henry

agrees. He gets up and we see a small

girl playing with a toy on the ground in

front of him. It's 11. He kneels down

and introduces himself and tells her

that he's here to help. He takes her

hand and walks away. And then out of

nowhere, for a split second, a massive

light flashes, showing the 30-foot

shadow of Vecna holding young 11's hand

and the play just ends. This is such a

roller coaster of a show and confirms so

many huge theories answering massive

plot questions tying directly into the

show. From why Brunner started MK Ultra

to the first time humans ever interacted

with the upside down to where Henry got

his powers from and completely spins the

narrative, showing his human side as we

watch him fall in love. We also get to

see his internal struggles for the first

time as he tries to fight the mind

flare. This was the first time that we

really get to see the mind flare is

truly the one behind all of this and

it's just using Henry. I wouldn't be

surprised if we end up seeing Patty make

an appearance in season 5. It would be

so crazy to see the kids try to contact

what's left of Henry Creel inside Vecna

and try to save him from the mind flare.

It would be insane to see Henry turn

good at the last second and sacrifice

himself protecting the kids from the

mind flare just like Billy did in season

3. I also really like that just like

Will, Henry also was able to act

somewhat normal with the mind flare

inside of him until it needed him to use

him and then we heard his voice turn

into Vecnas because Will talks about

this in season 3 when Billy is the host

that the mind flare is dormant inside of

you until it needs to use you and then

you're activated. It's so cool to see

the mind flare speaking through the

nightmares and the people he infects.

This play is truly amazing. If you're

ever in London and it's still running,

it's 100% worth it. Please go watch it

in person. I think I teared up multiple

times watching it. The one in New York

is better than nothing, but trust me

when I say it's completely different. It

feels so rushed with them cutting out so

many amazing parts from the original

show and changing some of the main

characters to be insufferable and

annoying. The effects are awesome, but

the ones in the West End are really

good, too. I hope you enjoyed this very

thorough breakdown of every important

story element, as well as some of the

more wholesome emotional beats. Please

send this to all your Stranger Things

friends so they can join in on our

conversation and tell me in the comments

what you thought of all these massive

reveals. Thank you so much for watching

this video. I will see you in the next

one. Peace.