Stranger Things Season 5: Who is Mr. Whatsit? Mysterious character's link to Madeleine L'Engle’s ‘A Wrinkle in Time’

Stranger Things Season 5 introduces a new character, Mr. Whatsit, who is Holly Wheeler’s imaginary friend. Here's how he is connected to ‘A Wrinkle in Time’.

Warning: spoilers ahead!

Stranger Things Season 5: Explaining Mr. Whatsit's link to ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ (Netflix)

The first episode of Stranger Things Season 5 Vol. 1 introduces a new character, Mr. Whatsit, who will now surely become a household name. Whatsit is Holly Wheeler’s imaginary friend.

Holly (Nell Fisher) believes that Whatsit is very real, despite what her teacher and mother, Karen (Cara Buono), believe, and if you read Madeleine L'Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, you would know it’s real too.

Meet Mr. Whatsit

In the first scene that isn’t a flashback of Stranger Things 5, viewers see Holly waving to someone outside the window while setting the table. That is the first time we “meet” Whatsit.

Later, we see Holly speaking with someone (Mr. Whatsit) at the fence, but when the teacher arrives, no one is there.

After a demogorgon takes Holly into the Upside Down, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) decide to find out who Whatsit really is. They sneak into their mother’s hospital room and ask her about Holly’s imaginary pal. Karen is unable to speak after the demogorgon’s vicious attack, but she manages to reveal that Whatsit is a tall man, who is kind and gentle, and has a hat and a pocket watch. She also spells out on a piece of paper that Whatsit’s real name is Henry.

It is finally revealed that Mr. Whatsit is Henry Creel/Vecna.

Vecna initially occupies the minds of Chrissy, Fred, Patrick, Max, and Nancy in Stranger Things 4, and later targets the younger minds of Hawkins. He uses a book character they all love, Mrs. Whatsit from A Wrinkle in Time, to easily manipulate them.

While we don’t yet know what Vecna’s plan with the kids is, it is clearly not something good. Viewers know from Holly and the other children that Vecna had promised to take them somewhere special, along with their friends and families, to protect them from monsters.

Mr. Whatsit’s reference to A Wrinkle in Time

The character in L’Engle’s story is called Mrs. Whatsit, who is a god-like being. In the book’s first chapter, she crashes a late night party at Murry's house in the middle of a scary windstorm at a time when Meg, her little brother, Charles Wallace, and their mother are having a snack.

Mrs. Whatsit turns out to be a friend of Charles Wallace, the same way Holly is friends with Mr. Whatsit. The difference, however, is that Mrs. Whatsit is a good person who helps Meg and Charles Wallace understand how to rescue their father from the planet Camazots. Mr. Whatsit, on the other hand, is taking children captive into the Upside Down.

In the first few episodes of Stranger Things 5, A Wrinkle in Time pops up various times, including many references to Mr. Whatsit by Holly, Derek Turnbow (Jake Connelly), and other children. At one point, Holly is seen reading the book while waiting for her mother to finish meeting with her teacher.

Later, Mike sees A Wrinkle in Time in the waiting room at the hospital. This unlocks a memory in him, leading him to pursue Holly’s connection to Mr. Whatsit.

Holly even refers to the place she is being held captive as Camazotz, which is from the book.