Mr. Whatsit is bound to become a household name after Stranger Things 5 Vol. 1. The first episode of the new season introduces fans to a new character, Mr. Whatsit, who is Holly Wheeler’s imaginary friend.
The thing is, Mr. Whatsit isn’t imaginary at all. He’s very real, and Holly (Nell Fisher) believes that despite what her teacher and mother, Karen (Cara Buono), believe. And, if you read Madeleine L'Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, you know it’s very real, too!
Spoilers ahead for Stranger Things 5!
In the first scene that’s not a flashback of Stranger Things 5, we see Holly setting the table, and she waves to someone outside the window. That’s the first time we “meet” Mr. Whatsit. Later, at school, we see Holly speaking with someone, Mr. Whatsit, at the fence, but when her teacher arrives, there’s no one actually visible.
So, who is this mysterious figure, Mr. Whatsit? I have a feeling that most fans were able to figure it out.
Mr. Whatsit is Henry Creel/Vecna
After Holly is taken into the Upside Down by the demogorgon, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) put their heads together to find out who this Mr. Whatsit actually is. They sneak into their mom’s hospital room and ask her about Holly’s imaginary friend. Karen isn’t able to speak after getting her throat slashed, basically, by the demogorgon, but she reveals that Mr. Whatsit is a tall man who is gentle and kid who has a hat and a pocket watch. She also reveals his name is actually “Henry,” which she spells out very slowly on the piece of paper.
Finally, it’s revealed that Mr. Whatsit is, in fact, Henry Creel/Vecna.
While watching Stranger Things 5, there was not one second that I thought Mr. Whatsit was anyone but Vecna. I don’t know if anyone else was fooled by the big reveal in episode 2, “The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler.”
After occupying the minds of Chrissy, Fred, Patrick, Max, and Nancy in Stranger Things 4, Vecna turns his gaze to the younger minds of Hawkins and uses a book character they all know and love, Mrs. Whatsit from A Wrinkle in Time, to bring their guard down and make it easy to manipulate them. We don’t find out what Vecna’s plan is with these kids quite yet, but it’s very clear from what we do know that it’s not going to be good.
We also know from Holly and the other kids who Vecna was also manipulating as Mr. Whatsit that he had promised to take them somewhere special, along with their friends and families, to save them from the monsters. It’s bad enough that Holly doesn’t even trust that Max (Sadie Sink) is trying to help her when she follows the map away from Creel House.
What is Mr. Whatsit a reference to?
As mentioned, Mr. Whatsit is a reference to A Wrinkle in Time. In L’Engle’s story, the character is actually called Mrs. Whatsit, who is a god-like being. In the first chapter of the book, she crashes the late night party at the Murry’s house in the middle of a vicious windstorm while Meg, her little bother, Charles Wallace, and their mother are having a snack.
As it turns out, Mrs. Whatsit is a friend of Charles Wallace, very much in the same way that Holly is friends with Mr. Whatsit. The only kicker is that Mrs. Whatsit is very good and helps Meg and Charles Wallace understand how to rescue their father from the planet Camazots, while Mr. Whatsit is taking kids captive into the Upside Down and using them for his own purposes.
A Wrinkle in Time pops up many times in the first few episodes of Stranger Things 5. There are multiple references to Mr. Whatsit by Holly, Derek Turnbow (Jake Connelly), and some of the other kids. We also see Holly reading the book while she waits for her mom to finish meeting with her teacher. Then, again, at the hospital, Mike sees A Wrinkle in Time in the waiting room, which unlocks some memory in him that leads him to pursue Holly’s connection to Mr. Whatsit.
Interestingly, Holly also refers to the place she is being held captive as Camazotz, which is from the book, as well.
It will be very interesting to see if there are other connections to A Wrinkle in Time in Stranger Things 5, and I have a feeling it’s going to be a big deal as the series continues with Stranger Things 5 Vol. 2 on Christmas and the finale on New Year’s Eve.
Last but not least, if you haven’t read A Wrinkle in Time yet, I highly recommend you read the book (and the full series!). It’s a kids book, but it’s the perfect story, and again, I feel like it’s going to be very important for Stranger Things 5.