All the Signs Dr Brenner Is the Ultimate Bad Guy in “Stranger Things”

The fourth season of “Stranger Things” seemingly introduces the most powerful villain we’ve met so far: Vecna, a deadly monster from the Upside Down. But Vecna isn’t just any interdimensional baddie – he used to be One, another test subject like Eleven in the lab run by Dr Brenner. While the show’s writers seem to want us to think that Vecna is “Stranger Things”‘s new main baddie, we can’t help but keep an eye on Dr Brenner, who’s back after inexplicably surviving a brush with the Demogorgon. There’s plenty of evidence that Dr Brenner actually might be the baddest of them all, so let’s take a closer look at the evidence (and theories) so far.

Does Dr Brenner Have Powers in “Stranger Things”?

Even as we learn more and more about the backstory of the lab where Eleven and her “siblings” originated, we still know remarkably little about the mad scientist she called “Papa.” Many questions remain about who he is, how he got involved with the project, and how he has managed to survive all the dangers and near-death experiences working with these superpowered kids has brought him. Is it possible that he has powers of his own, and that’s how he has stayed alive through all of it?

We can’t help wondering about the details of Dr Brenner’s “work” with the kids in the lab. Did he “give” them powers simply through sheer mad science experimentation, or was he able to give them superpowers because he already had a head start from having powers of his own? Dr Brenner having powers would also explain a lot of things about his unlikely survival; we’ve seen him survive a Demogorgon attack and One’s attack on the lab, and who knows what other “accidents” happened during his time at the lab.

One Reddit theory takes this possibility even further, positing that Dr Brenner might be “000,” or the original superpowered being. The Reddit user, Jamcam007, points out that we never see the spot on Dr Brenner’s wrist where numbers would be; it’s always covered by a watch. It’s also worth considering in the context of the “patient zero” colloquialism traditionally used to denote the original source of something unusual. If there’s a patient zero among the superpowered humans, then Dr Brenner would definitely be an interesting possibility.

What Is Dr Brenner’s Link to the Upside Down?

The connection between the Upside Down and the experiments – both at the lab in Hawkins and at the Russian facility – has already been made clear. Human experiments have cracked open a door to that demonic dimension, allowing monsters through. But we still don’t know for sure how the Upside Down came to exist in the first place.

One possibility: Dr Brenner is, somehow, personally responsible for the creation of the Upside Down, not just for breaking through to it. This could go one of two ways: either as part of the “Dr Brenner has powers” theory, or simply through supernatural science experiments gone horribly wrong (or horribly right, depending on what his original intentions were). His reactions to displays of power – Eleven discovering the monsters, for instance, or even her more violent accidental uses of power – seem more awestruck than horrified, further indicating that he’s getting what he wants out of his experiments. The only time he truly seems horrified is after One’s killing spree – that is, after his life’s work is all but destroyed.

Dr Brenner’s interest in the Upside Down could also closely connect to his interest in Eleven. It seems too unlikely that he has helped El get her powers back just because he believes it’s the right thing to do. He knows how powerful she is, and he knows how powerful their enemies in the Upside Down are. Could he be trying to use El not to defeat the monsters for the good of everyone, but to take control of the Upside Down for himself?

What Does Dr Brenner’s Crossword Puzzle Mean?

We all know that the “Stranger Things” writers like to hide their clues in plain sight. A pair of Reddit users zoomed in and took a closer look at Dr Brenner’s crossword puzzle from the opening minutes of season four, and it looks like there could be some relevant hints buried there.

Among the words in the puzzle are some ominous references, such as “Robespierre,” famed for the Reign of Terror in revolutionary France, along with several references to Russia and the Soviets, like “Tsar” and “Eurasian.” The name “Kali” also appears, aka the name of Eight, one of the surviving test subjects from the lab.

Whether these are meant to be hints or – as one clue in the puzzle says – just a bunch of “shams” meant to misdirect us remains to be seen. Nevertheless, there are just too many things about Dr Brenner that don’t add up, and we’ll be waiting eagerly to see whether he’s revealed to be the ultimate villain behind it all!