The true origin of Eleven’s powers in ‘Stranger Things’: explained
If the first volume of Stranger Things season five raised more questions than we began with, the second volume on Netflix brought more answers than we could digest.
The second volume picks up right where we left off in the first, when Will Byers took it upon himself to save his friends, exerting superpowers we didn’t know he had in the first place.
But it’s not just us who had our jaws dropped following the revelation; the Hawkins gang, too, had theirs, including Mike and Joyce. However, besides Will, the one who had powers right from the start is Eleven, and the second volume finally unpacks the origin of those.
Since the 2016 debut of Stranger Things, fans have kept asking about the real source of Eleven’s powers. While fans know that it had a lot to do with her mom, who was one of the subjects of Project MKUltra, what was majorly acknowledged was that the powers were actually sourced from the strange subjects she induced with during her pregnancy with Eleven.
Before the release of season five, most of us suspected these substances were a mixture of different drugs, which eventually became reactive in Eleven’s journey. But as it turns out, that may not be the whole truth.
During those experiments, Henry Creel became the first human in the Stranger Things universe to possess abilities such as telekinesis and telepathy. While conjectures persist that he was probably born with those powers, Stranger Things: The First Shadow further explains that the process actually involves the Mind Flayer. However, the exact intricacies remain shrouded in mystery.
In any case, when Dr Martin Brenner founded the MKUltra projects, the idea was to replicate Henry’s powers, which was ultimately achieved when El’s mom was infused with Henry’s blood. The reason Eleven possesses these abilities right from her birth is that she has been carrying Henry’s mutated blood all this time.
While other subjects of the MKUltra experiments have undergone a similar transfusion, the results were probably not as effective in others as they were with Eleven (via bamsmackpow.com).
So, although what goes around clearly comes around in Stranger Things, it looks like Henry is no longer the cash cow anymore. While it remains to be seen what the finale brings, volume two has given enough revelations to spark twice as many theories.