‘Stranger Things’ Season 4: Why Did Vecna Use Nancy as a Messenger?

In Stranger Things Season 4, Vecna targets several victims with some kind of trauma in their past to take their life. Vecna also attacks Nancy, but he doesn’t kill her. Instead, he gives her a message to pass on to Eleven and the rest of her friends. A psychotherapist recently broke down why Vecna chose to use Nancy as his messenger.

Vecna shows Nancy his plan for Hawkins in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4

In Stranger Things Season 4 Episode 8, Vecna makes contact with Nancy Wheeler. He shows her his childhood at the Creel House, explaining that he was different from others. Nancy learns that Henry killed his own mother and sister before collapsing into a coma. He then became Dr. Brenner’s first experiment and was renamed One. Finally, One battled Eleven, and she banished him to the Upside Down, where he became Vecna.

Vecna terrorizes Nancy in her own mind, like many of his other victims. However, he doesn’t physically harm her. Instead, Vecna gives Nancy a message for Eleven. He showed her visions of a cloud over Hawkins and the city on fire, with an army of monsters roaming the city. Vecna also showed Nancy the four Gates spreading throughout Hawkins, and she heard a grandfather clock chime four times.

A psychotherapist explains that Vecna wanted revenge on Eleven

Instead of attacking Nancy in Stranger Things Season 4, Vecna shows her his past as a young Henry Creel. YouTuber and psychotherapist Georgia Dow explained, “He doesn’t want to traumatize Nancy. He wants her to understand him.” But why Nancy in particular?

“Nancy makes this perfect vessel because she’s already been to the Upside Down, and she already has a connection to Vecna,” she adds. “But he’s not feeding off her. He’s giving her, imparting with her information.” Dow added that she felt Vecna’s narcissism drew him to Nancy rather than his sociopathic traits.

Dow also added that as a narcissist, Vecna is deeply impacted by Eleven’s rejection of him years prior. Due to this, he is determined to make her regret refusing to join him. He releases Nancy so she can relay the news to Eleven that everyone will suffer because of her.

Why did Vecna choose Nancy as his messenger?

In her video, Dow explains why Vecna specifically chose Nancy as his messenger in Stranger Things Season 4. “The reasons that he chose Nancy are because she’s connected to Eleven, she already is connected to Vecna by her traveling to the Upside Down, and Nancy is a reporter. She already wanted to find out the truth, so she also has so much of the back story already. She has a trauma that he could pull through with the death of Barb,” Dow said.

“So it ended up making her the perfect emissary so that Vecna could reach Eleven and make her pay and feel fear and trauma for his rejection.”

All episodes of Stranger Things are currently streaming on Netflix.