In going over the fates of many major characters, the creators confirmed Max's fate at the end of the season, assuring Max is alive in Stranger Things, but is in a bad way. See what the Duffers explained below: “Right, she's braindead, but she's alive.
In an interview on theHappy Sad Confused podcast released today, the Duffer brothers said that Max is alive, but “brain dead, blind, and all of her bones are broken.”
The fourth season of Netflix's Stranger Things ended with Sadie Sink's Max Mayfield in a coma after a run-in with the show's major villain, Vecna, leaving the character's future up in the air.
In episode 4 of season 4 of Stranger Things, "Dear Billy," Vecna tries to kill Max. Her friends use the beautiful power of music, specifically "Running Up That Hill," to bring her back.
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.
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.
This technical death triggered the opening of the fourth and final curse gate, wreaking havoc across Hawkins. However, Eleven used her abilities to restart Max's heart. She was brought back to life, but remained comatose, teetering on the boundary between life and death.
Since her limbs were still broken and she's now comatose, it seems Max will still be blind after Stranger Things' season 5 time-jump, as Vecna had already “taken her eyes.”
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.
Vecna doesn't kill Nancy (Natalia Dyer), but he does leave her with a vision: a dark cloud, dead soldiers, and armies of monsters.
Through the window, Max saw her real body levitating above the cemetery, her friends panicking on the ground below. Bracing herself, Max pulled at a vine in Vecna's neck, causing him to writhe in pain and accidentally release her from the vines' grasp.
In episode 7, Vecna is revealed to be Henry Creel (played as a youngster by Raphael Luce), the son of Victor Creel (Robert Englund) and his wife Virginia (Tyner Rushing) shown in the 1950s flashbacks.
Despite Max (Sadie Sink) being left in a coma at the end of season 4, she will be returning for season 5. The actress appeared on Today with Hoda and Jenna, where she opened up about the last season of the show. She told them why it was going to be 'sad and scary' explaining: "It's going to be awful.
Vecna had already begun his attack, meaning that he probably took huge parts of her mind and only left her body behind, so even though she is still technically alive, there is nothing of Max left inside. This would explain why Eleven couldn't find her in the void - because there was nothing to find.
Did Eleven save Max's life? Two days later, it's revealed that Max is still alive, but she's in a coma and it's unclear if she will ever wake up. Lucas tells El, Mike, Will, Nancy and Jonathan that Max was clinically dead "for over a minute," but she then came back.
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.
Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) is another character whom Vecna curses early on in season 4. Because she didn't get along with her mean-spirited stepbrother Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery) and The Mind Flayer murdered him in season 3, this leads to a mixture of complicated emotions.
The reason that Eleven couldn't find Max is actually pretty simple -- Max had already died. That means her soul had already been absorbed into Vecna's consciousness.
The fight distracts Lucas from holding onto Max, who levitates under Vecna's thrall. And then it happens: her bones break, her eyes bleed, and she collapses, dead. Max is dead for a minute, but Eleven (who has been psychically piggybacking onto her from Nevada) uses her powers to restart Max's heart.
Eleven managed to save her from Vecna's curse but the creature had already done some irreversible damage to her, rendering her unable to feel or see anything. She then died in Lucas' arms. That is, until Eleven used her newfound powers to bring her back.
How Max Can Wake Up In Stranger Things Season 5. It is always possible for Max to simply wake from her coma, but because she wasn't put there by natural causes, that seems unlikely. All signs point to Max being alive inside Vecna, which is preventing her from coming back to the real world.
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.
Breakup. After being pushed away by Mike, Eleven breaks up with him and spends some much-needed girl time with her new BFF Max. They later reconcile after Mike reveals that he only avoided Eleven because Hopper had threatened him and tells El he loves her which she reciprocates.