If you have a feeling in The finale of “Stranger Things” that Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) will get one last heroic hurrah during his final conversation with Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), then don't worry. The Duffer Brothers recently admitted that they toyed with the idea until they realized that he had finally passed the point of no return and had to take the hit.
Although the Duffer brothers said that they took inspiration from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in terms of completion, they were also close to finishing Return of the Jedi. In an interview with Netflix TudumRoss Duffer explains why there is no turning back for Henry Creel.
“We were talking with the writers' room about whether he could get Billy [Dacre Montgomery] the moment he rebels against the Mind Flayer [in a] It's a Darth Vader-type situation,” the co-creator admitted, “But the more we talked about it with the writers and with Jamie, he's come so far to get here, he has to justify everything he's done. And the only way to justify it is to say, “I chose this and I still believe in it.”
You can certainly sense snippets of what could be Creel's face turn in the aforementioned scene, which lingers long enough for us to actually believe it could happen. However, as with many storylines in the series' final chapter (whether we like it or not), the Duffers are happy to leave it up to interpretation as to whether Henry actually considered a different path.
“Even though he's shocked to see that memory, he's too far gone to stand up to the Mind Flayer at this point. But we wanted to leave it up to the audience to decide whether young Henry chooses to do that or whether the Mind Flayer controlled him from start to finish,” Ross Duffer explains. “But ultimately, in terms of where Henry goes, it doesn't matter because he'll end up choosing the Mind Flayer's side.”
Ultimately, no matter how things turned out and where you might stand on some of the other creative decisions in the finale, killing Henry was the right thing to do. Besides, if he hadn't died, Joyce (Winona Ryder) would have brought that ax in vain.
