There are a number of Stranger Things cast members who gave standout performances in the show's fourth season — we see you, Sadie Sink — but it's possible none were better than the one given by Jamie Campbell Bower, who delivered a star-making turn as Vecna, the gnarly villain who was revealed to be the show's ultimate big bad. While that was indeed Bower buried under latex to play the Freddy Krueger-inspired menace, it wasn't those scenes that made the performance so strong. No, where Bower really blew the doors off the joint was in the flashback scenes set inside Eleven's memory, where a still-human, pre-Vecna Henry Creel (a.k.a. One) worked as an orderly at Hawkins National Laboratory, steadily gaining Eleven's favor before tricking her into short-circuiting the device that suppressed his powerful psychokinetic gifts. The climax of the season's seventh episode, where Bower gives a long, almost hypnotizing monologue that reveals not only the answers to the show's biggest mysteries but also the depths of Henry's malevolence, showed Stranger Things at its best — a series with the ability to terrify, mesmerize, and thrill the viewer all at the same time.
And while Millie Bobby Brown is also doing great work as Eleven in that scene, it mostly works thanks to Bower's unhinged yet precise performance. Sure, gross-looking Vecna is fine, but Bower in the flesh, blue eyes ablaze as he attempts to convert Eleven to his side before ultimately settling on trying to murder her — now that is a villain worthy of Stranger Things' massive audience. And that's why if the Duffer Brothers, the show's creators and showrunners, want to make its fifth and final season as strong as it can possibly be, they need to bring back not just Vecna — they need to bring back Bower as Henry as well.
Bringing Bower Back as Henry Wouldn't Be Difficult
"But how is that possible?" you're asking. "He's already been turned, and there are likely no more flashbacks to be told!" To which I reply: That's all true, and I don't even particularly want more flashbacks. But this is a fantasy show, people. There's absolutely no reason the Duffers and the Stranger Things writers' room can't concoct a way to get Henry/One back on screen in his human form in the show's primary timeline. After all, this is a series about kids with superpowers, one of whom has already demonstrated an ability to make people see things that aren't necessarily real in that episode nobody likes to talk about. There's no reason Vecna can't suddenly have the power to trick people into seeing his previous human form.
Or maybe it doesn't even need to be explained. Just as we saw an older Eleven playing a younger version of herself as she relived her memories in Season 4, maybe when Vecna and Eleven square off again in the final battle, the audience can see Vecna as Eleven might see him — as the man she once knew and inadvertently sent on a path of other-worldly destruction. Are those cheats? Of course, they are! But cheats are allowed when they are specifically designed to put the best, most dramatic, most exciting version of your show forward. And, as any actor who has ever worked buried under prosthetics can tell you, their best performance is going to come not when they're trying to emote through latex, but rather when they have their own face to use as their most effective tool.
And, look, this isn't to say that Vecna himself isn't a commanding screen presence. Stranger Things' top-notch FX and design teams made sure that he indeed is. And it's cool that Bower himself was playing Vecna under the prosthetics during Season 4, when lesser shows not as concerned about the consistency of the character might have easily subbed in a stuntman for those scenes (or, even worse, just made him a fully computer-generated creation). But I don't think it can be argued that Bower is a more effective villain when he gets to appear as himself onscreen. There's only a short time between when a recognizable Bower first shows up on screen in Episode 6 to the end of Episode 7 when Eleven blasts Henry into the Upside Down, permanently disfiguring him and turning him into Vecna, but Bower makes the most of every minute of it.
We Can't Be Denied Another Great Henry Monologue
He's a compelling presence from the moment he first appears as a seemingly empathetic orderly with a special interest in Eleven (which probably caused more than a few viewers to suspect that something larger was going on with him). From there his performance continues to shape-shift -- from intriguing to imposing to menacing. It's like a switch is flipped when finally he reveals the full truth to Eleven, showing her the "001" tattoo on his arm right before he uses his now freed powers to rip through hallways of security guards and test subjects on his way to the Rainbow Room, where more bloodshed awaits.
And then there's the monologue. The sad fact is, Vecna doesn't really do much heavy-duty monologuing in Season 4. (His most memorable bit of dialogue is probably just calling out for Max. "Maaaaxxxxxxxx.") But, oh my god, can Henry monologue. The speech he gives at the end of Episode 7 is a villain monologue for the ages. It starts off quiet and introspective, with only the lightest hints of malice. ("I know what it's like to be different, to be alone in this world.") It then methodically builds in intensity with each new bit of revelatory dialogue, arriving at a fever pitch of burning rage at its halfway point. ("Where others saw order, I saw a straightjacket — a cruel, impressive world dictated by made-up rules ... Each life a faded, lesser copy of the one before. Wake up. Eat. Work. Sleep. Reproduce. And die!") Then Bower dials it back down as he makes his final sales pitch to Eleven, filled with malice and hate but also believably sincere. ("If you come with me, for the first time in your life, you will be free. Imagine what we could do together. We could reshape the world.") The whole scene must have been an absolute beast on the page, and the Duffers had to know they didn't have their Vecna until they could find someone who could effectively deliver it.
My guess is Bower exceeded their expectations. And now that we've seen him do it once, it would be criminal if we didn't get to see him do it again in Stranger Things 5. Bower as Vecna is good. But Bower as the still human Henry Creel is electric. There's no doubt the former is returning for the final season. Let's all hope the latter makes some appearances as well.