Warning! SPOILERS ahead for Stranger Things season 4.Everyone knows about Eleven and (more infamously) Eight, but there are eight other test subjects that were experimented on at Hawkins National Laboratory in the Stranger Things Expanded Universe has also given more insight into the Hawkins Lab children.
The so-called Stranger Things Expanded Universe has fleshed out the backstory of Project MKUltra, the real-world secret government plan that involved brainwashing and “personality realignment” – including the little revelation that Eleven and her so-called siblings originate from Project Indigo, a spinoff from MKUltra. While this EU has created more than its fair share of continuity problems with its source material, it still provides a fascinating look at these children, further explores the character of Dr. Martin Brenner, and provides a much more nuanced context for the Netflix series to exist in.
It also potentially sets up one final element for the Stranger Things mythos as a whole: it creates a pretty wide narrative tapestry for the finale to draw upon. While it’s already been well established that Dr. Brenner is still alive, the latest season has introduced almost all the remaining test subjects before the Hawkins Lab massacre. The Expanded Universe of novels, comic books, and video games will serve much the same purpose with future seasons that they did with the recently-released season 4 – making them even better for those in the know. Here's every child in the Hawkins Lab that has been introduced in the Stranger Things universe.
One/Henry Creel
It's revealed during Stranger Things season 4 that Henry Creel, first believed to be an orderly at Hawkins Lab, is actually their first test subject – aka One. Creel, or Vecna, was gifted with exceptional psychokinetic abilities and is able to alter others' perceptions. When Henry Creel was a child, he killed his mother and sister using his powers and was then carted off to Hawkins Lab after framing his father for their murder. Hawkins soon found out that they couldn't fully control their first subject and implanted a chip under his skin that essentially "turned off" his abilities. During Stranger Things season 4, he's shown befriending Eleven and convinces her to take the chip out. After she does, he massacres almost everyone at the lab, causing Eleven to banish him to the Upside Down, where he officially becomes Vecna.
Two
Two is the oldest test subject after Vecna to be experimented on by Hawkins Lab during the 1970s. Arrogant and psychopathic, Two targets Eleven after she beats him in an exercise led by Dr. Brenner and relentlessly bullies her throughout Stranger Things season 4. Like many of the other test subjects, Two has exceptional telekinetic abilities, with only One and Eleven being stronger than him. Using his powers, he consistently attacks Eleven when the cameras are off in the Rainbow Room and even threatens to kill her after he is punished for torturing her.
Three
The teenager named Ricky is the next oldest test subject that audiences have seen in any piece of Stranger Things storytelling – he’s more than likely somewhere around the age of 16 or 17 – and he’s also one of the few male participants in Project Indigo (although Eight was originally written in the TV series to be an older guy). More interesting than all that, however, is his particular power set: he’s apparently able to plant suggestions into other people’s minds – or, as he himself puts it in the Six comic-book miniseries, “Let’s just say… I can be very good with people. Make them like me. Trust me. Open up to me.”
Where, exactly, his character arc leads is an open mystery, but there is the very real possibility that he won’t make it past the year 1978, which is when Six takes place and when he helps lead a (probably ill-fated) attempt to bust all of his test-subject brethren out of Hawkins National Lab.
Six
Francine has the rare distinction of carrying her own narrative within the Stranger Things universe, getting her very own comic-book miniseries (just as Eleven ostensibly gets her very own television series). The story it paints is not a particularly flattering one for the future Hawkins Lab test subject. However – gifted with the ability to (sometimes, sort of) predict the future, her already-abusive parents demand that she help them use her talents to help them get rich, and when their greed proves to be insatiable, she’s manipulated by her boyfriend into running away from her family and heading for the greener pastures of the Hawkins Lab. That boy she’s dating? He turns out to be test subject Three, sent by Dr. Brenner to lure the teenage Francine into his experimental arms.
Her precognitive nature allows Six to be one of the very first individuals to become aware of the threat that an alternate dimension will one day be present – including the deadly creatures like the Mind Flayer that will emerge into our world. It is a small but potent link to the originating TV show.
Eight
Eight was already a part of Project Indigo by the year 1969, when another test subject, Terry Ives (the mother of the future Eleven) would become a subject herself at Hawkins National Laboratory. In fact, during their time together at the facility, five-year-old Kali Prasad and Terry would become friends, with the latter vowing to rescue the super-powered child. Unfortunately, the best she would end up doing is (unwittingly) giving her a baby “sister” to look after instead.
Eventually, Eight would use her abilities to project convincing, lifelike illusions against the Indigo personnel and escape, setting up her role in Stranger Things season 2 as an outlaw – and, presumably, the future cavalry for whatever impending hardships Eleven and her newfound family in Hawkins, Indiana will endure.
Nine and Nine-Point-Five
Nine and her twin sister, Nine-Point-Five, were brought aboard Dr. Martin Brenner’s program when they were very young. Nothing definitive has been stated of the circumstances under which they arrived in Hawkins, but, according to Brenner – who may very well be lying – their home background wasn’t too dissimilar from Six’s abusive upbringing (only with the added detail of having their house burn down, killing all the rest of their family).
The only power that Nine has demonstrated thus far in the Stranger Things Expanded Universe is to warm objects up by touching them, including the possibility of autoigniting them, although Dr. Brenner intones that she’s “so much more than that.”
Ten
Ten also appears during Stranger Things season 4. The subject has special abilities outside the regular telekinesis. Similar to Eleven, he has the power of remote viewing and is able to see outside his present location. He uses this ability most often while practicing with Dr. Brenner. Before the Hawkins Lab massacre, he was working on his remote viewing powers with Brenner and was asked to see what was happening in Six's room. After this, Ten became concerned and reported that Six was dead, showing the beginning of the massacre.
Eleven
So much distinguishes Jane Ives from all 10 of her Hawkins Lab siblings: she was the first to be inducted as an infant, and she is quite clearly the most powerful of them all, possessing both telepathy and, more impressively, telekinesis. She also essentially ended the program, having been the last subject that then escaped.
Audiences, obviously, know Eleven's story the best, given her prominence in the television show, but the Stranger Things Expanded Universe still manages to provide a few new nuggets regarding her tenure at Hawkins Lab, mostly regarding her interactions with her fellow test subjects. It turns out she spent most of her tenure with her siblings, which we get a taste of during the flashbacks in season 4 and which is expounded upon in the comics (there are several scenes of her with Eight, Nine, and Nine Point-Five). How much of an impression this will make upon both her character and her ultimate denouement remains to be seen.
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