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Throughout a large portion of the concluding season of the popular Netflix show, the young Holly Wheeler and Max Mayfield find themselves trapped inside a mental fortress built from the memories of the villain Henry. The search for freedom in episode 6 has them relive a traumatic incident from Henry's youth—a moment that may just hold the secret to his downfall permanently.

Editor's Note: This article contains major spoilers for the concluding episodes.

The Discovery in the Mine Shaft

After locating Max in the world dubbed Camazotz, it becomes clear she is sheltering in a chamber that Henry is terrified of. By leaving the lens cap on a spyglass pilfered from Henry's old home lets Holly see that the true terror lies not within the cave. By aligning her view through the cap, she and Max tumble into a subterranean passage.

In this place, they observe a young, eight-year-old Henry find an wounded, fearful individual. As the boy offers aid, the man reacts violently, striking Henry in the hand. Fighting for his life, Henry strikes the man down with a rock. "Did this make Henry evil?" Holly wonders aloud. The answer is affirmative, but the trauma went deeper than a defensive killing.

In keeping with mysteries this season, the significance of the mine shaft incident originates in the theatrical production Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

The Philadelphia Experiment and Stolen Research

This backstory explains the 1943 event, which transported a U.S. Navy ship into a realm dubbed the Abyss. It faced creatures, and the lone returnee was the captain, who emerged in a unresponsive state with an entirely new blood.

This man's son, a young Martin Brenner, wanted to repeat this dimensional breach in the Nevada desert. One of his scientists took experimental components to hand over to the Communist spies, who were eager to begin their own interdimensional projects. The man in the cavern is the one who stole the materials.

The Briefcase's Contents

Given what is revealed about Brenner's work, the case almost certainly contained samples of Captain Brenner's infected blood. In the scene, Henry is wounded and bleeding. It's probable he was infected upon handling the contents, causing the development of his psychic abilities—traits he would later pass on to the kids Brenner would experiment on.

A second theory, the box could have held dark matter that eventually found its way to the secret facility, where it maintains the stability of the mirror dimension. The stage play explains that young Henry ended up in the Abyss, returning hours later fundamentally changed. From then on, he fights the influence of a malevolent force, reminiscent of how the character Will was controlled by the entity in the past.

Confronting Terror

The reason Henry avoids the cave of that cave demonstrates how profoundly traumatic the event was for him. While he orchestrates the collective consciousness and attempts to pull the Abyss into Hawkins, a fragment of his psyche remains. Vecna uses fear, and the series is building toward a climactic battle between him and Will, who has deliberately faced his own deepest fears to become stronger.

Will's growth has taken a weapon from Vecna. Crucially, Will now knows what his enemy truly fears, potentially giving him a decisive edge in the series finale to come.