Max rises into the sky, her limbs begin to snap, and she goes blind. Max briefly dies and the portal begins to open to The Upside Down, but
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.
Despite the best efforts of Eleven and Lucas, Vecna succeeds in wounding Max badly enough with the ritual that she dies. Eleven manages to revive her, but the minute that Max spent dead was enough to trigger Vecna's spell and open the gate.
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.
In the battle against Vecna, Max dies.
Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the brothers confirmed that Max is "braindead and blind and all of her bones are broken".
Max rises into the sky, her limbs begin to snap, and she goes blind. Max briefly dies and the portal begins to open to The Upside Down, but Eleven throws a monkey wrench in Vecna's plan by bringing Max back to life.
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. Eleven regains her strength and pushes Vecna off before he can complete the job, but the damage is already done.
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.
Tragically, Vecna succeeds in killing Max, though she's shortly resurrected by Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) — or is she? Vecna doesn't just kill, he consumes his victims, absorbing the essence of their minds and souls. Max, who lies in a coma, might have a pulse, but, as Eleven discovers, her mind is empty.
Fred Benson, another Hawkins High student, was Vecna's next target. The previous year, Fred had crashed a car and accidentally caused his friend's death; Fred was haunted by survivor's guilt ever since, making him a perfect target for Vecna. Fred, like Chrissy, reported the curse's symptoms to Ms.
Vecna's obsession with time appears to be linked to his hatred of humanity. He views time as a human imposition on the natural world; an attempt to impose order on nature.
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.
Meanwhile, on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Duffer brothers added more insult to injury by saying that Max is literally "braindead and blind and all of her bones are broken".
Yes, Max is brain dead in Stranger Things. When speaking with Josh Horowitz on his podcast, the Duffer Brothers said that although Max is alive, she is "brain dead, blind, and all of her bones are broken."
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.
After learning how Victor Creel was able to evade death back in 1959, Robin and Nancy deduce that playing the victim's favorite song can help them escape the trance that Vecna places them in, with music and happy memories being the only way to keep Vecna's fatal curse at bay.
Stranger Things creators The Duffer Brothers explain why it was necessary for a certain character to be Vecna's fourth victim in season 4. Stranger Things creators The Duffer Brothers explain why Max had to be Vecna's fourth victim in season 4, volume 2.
Vecna's first season 4 victim is Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien), who is targeted based on the trauma she carries due to her body-shaming mother.
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.
Using past traumas to break down his victims, Vecna brought Nancy to the pool where Barb was killed by the Demogorgon and revealed her mangled corpse. Vecna then taunted Nancy with her own feelings of guilt - that she was responsible for Barb's death and had forgotten about her.
The theory predicts that Vecna wants to regain his human form, and he will use Will to do so in Season 5. Knowing that Vecna singled out Will in Season 1, it's a reasonable theory, but it might go too far. After all, Vecna already has a human form, and he has vowed to eliminate humanity.
Vecna as Billy tells Max: "[L]ate at night, you have sometimes wished to follow me. Follow me into death. That is why I am here, Max, to end your suffering once and for all" — alluding perhaps to suicidal feelings Max hasn't mentioned.
But while Vecna was finishing her off Eleven and the rest of the Hawkins crew managed to defeat him. Unfortunately, the damage by Vecna's curse was not to be undone and Max lay with Lucas, blind with broken limbs. Max would have died and was dead for a whole minute, but Eleven brought her back to life.
There's been debate as to whether or not this scene implies that Eleven created the Upside Down or merely opened the first gate to it. But according to Millie Bobby Brown, the Upside Down existed before El ever meddled with it. “I don't think that she created the Upside Down,” Brown told Variety in June.