So, Max was nearly murdered like Vecna's three previous victims. Just before Max died,
Why Did Vecna Go After Max? As Vecna continued to go after young victims in order to open more portals, he set his sights on Max Mayfield, since she was investigating the deaths of Chrissy and another student named Fred Benson with help from her friends (including Dustin, Steve, and her boyfriend Lucas).
Max has escaped Vecna, so she is safe from Vecna. But you don't just beat depression once and go about the rest of your life.
While restoring Eleven's powers in Stranger Things season 4, Brenner explains that Vecna/Henry does not just kill his victims, he absorbs them and takes on their characteristics. As a result, it appears that Max's consciousness has been absorbed by and resides within Vecna.
Did Max die in Episode 9? Technically, yes. Max begins suffering the gory effects of Vecna's ritual—which include the victim's bones breaking and eyes bleeding—before Eleven taps into her power and blasts the monster away.
However, within the red smoke of Vecna's Mind Lair, it wasn't the song itself that saved her, but the memories it conjured up. What broke through to Max was the happy, loving memories of her friends, particularly Lucas and Eleven, and these were what truly allowed her to break free of Vecna's grasp and escape.
Well, based on the injuries she sustained, it's likely Max will be blind going forward. Additionally, the Duffer Brothers actually confirmed during a recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast that Max is blind and brain dead.
Related Stories. But even the Hawkins crew's four-phase plan of attack and Eleven's revived telekinetic blasts are not enough. Vecna holds off Eleven long enough to brutally attack Max in his signature style—she levitates, her eyes go white and bleed, and he snaps her limbs.
Brenner (Matthew Modine) states in the Stranger Things episode "Papa" that Vecna "consumes" everything about his victims, Vecna targets traumatized victims because it builds for him a well of sad and angry memories to draw from. With each victim, he can become gradually more powerful.
And while his usual modus operandi is to embody his victims' negative self-talk (another very real psychological phenomenon), this time he is telling Nancy his plans and then releasing her so she can report back to everybody—Eleven included—that the end is nigh, with the goal of discouraging and disempowering them.
After serving as bait for Vecna, she becomes his “final sacrifice,” getting her bones broken and losing her vision during a low point. Once the fight is over, she dies in Lucas' arms, unable to see or feel anything as Eleven looks on from her mindspace.
He takes everything from his victims. In this case, the "everything" Vecna took was what makes Max the person her friends know and love. The moment she died, Max's essence left her body and became the property of Vecna, explaining why Max is not there to greet Eleven inside her own mind.
At his empire's height, Vecna was betrayed and destroyed by his most trusted lieutenant, a vampire called Kas the Bloody-Handed, using a magical sword that Vecna himself had crafted for him, now known as the Sword of Kas.
Ultimately, it is revealed in Stranger Things season 4's finale that the reason why Vecna was killing Hawkins teenagers was to create a massive gate that merges the Right Side Up with the Upside Down - and he specifically needed four bodies to do so.
Once he takes control of the mind, he traumatizes them by showing the visions of their dark past. He takes them to unknown places and gives them a glimpse of himself. The pain of his victims doesn't end here. Every single one of his victims experiences nose bleeding and severe headaches as well.
Hawkins has suffered a lot of trauma over the years - not all of which is connected to Hawkins Lab and the Upside Down - and Vecna's curse takes advantage of that. Vecna appears to carefully choose people who feel a strong sense of guilt or shame, particularly if those emotions are repressed.
(All of which have been cited by show creators the Duffer brothers as inspirations for the villain.) But he does have a surprising weakness: music.
In the game, Vecna seeks power through artefacts, while in the series, he enhances his powers by consuming the essence of his victims, like the other gifted children in the lab, and absorbing their powers. When he took over the Mind Flayer, he gained control over the Demogorgons and other monsters.
This gave Eleven time to piggyback into her mind “from a pizza dough freezer.” Unfortunately, Eleven wasn't strong enough to defeat Vecna and Max didn't escape unscathed the second time around. Vecna broke Max's limbs and blinded her before she heartbreakingly “died” in Lucas' arms.
Of course, it's "Running Up That Hill," blasted into Max's headphones that breaks Vecna's hold on her. As Vecna prepares to take her life, Max closes her eyes and sees joyful memories: laughing with El, dressing up as a Ghostbuster for Halloween, dancing with Lucas (and kissing him).
There are many questions about Eleven, like whether Eleven created The Upside Down, and in the season 4 finale, she brings Max back to life. Eleven uses her telekinetic powers to get into Vecna's mind and battle him herself.
Refusing to allow Max to die after their battle with Vecna, Eleven pulls out the stops to save her life. As Lucas begs Max to stay alive, cradling her in his arms, Eleven uses just enough power to get Max's heart beating again.
Max's death was used a device to push Murphy toward killing Josh in the series finale. Max didn't need to die to wrap up the story this way. Sure, Murphy needed to have a complicated place to land.