Spoilers for Stranger Issues season 4, quantity 2 underneath.

On the finish of the Stranger Issues season 4 finale, it’s frustratingly unclear simply how useless Max if truth be told is. Or isn’t. The remaining we see of her, she’s within the clinic, seriously maimed and comatose after her ultimate come upon with Vecna. Nobody is aware of when she’ll come again, if in any respect.

Max has had a difficult pass of it in recent times. Wavering between guilt, grief and aid over her stepbrother Billy’s dying, in season 4 she turns into a first-rate goal for Vecna, the massive unhealthy from the Upside Down who preys on children haunted via previous traumas, infiltrating their minds by the use of their distressing ideas ahead of killing them in grotesque model. Feeling fragile and standoffish (it additionally did not lend a hand that she and Lucas broke up or that her absolute best buddy, 11, moved around the nation), Max was once marked via Vecna early on. However with the assistance of the Kate Bush tune now caught on your head for, shall we embrace, perpetually—“Operating Up That Hill (Maintain God)”—she controlled to workout the villain from her head.

However that Kate Bush cassette may just simplest loop for goodbye. Within the season’s ultimate two episodes, Max and her pals in Hawkins devise a plan: In a ploy to kill Vecna, she’ll ditch the headphones and invite him into her thoughts, luring him in together with her darkest ideas. (That means, her pals may just kill Vecna within the Upside Down whilst he was once distracted.) Lucas isn’t a large fan of this plan—Vecna isn’t recognized for shows of mercy—however, jointly, they make a decision it’s the most productive transfer. Whilst inside Vecna’s clutches, Max will get a marvel help from 11, who enters Max’s thoughts the use of her psychic powers in a makeshift sensory deprivation tank. Although El is all of the means in Nevada, she’s ready to stand Vecna in one in every of Max’s reminiscences, all in hopes of saving each her buddy and the arena.

However even the Hawkins staff’s four-phase plan of assault and 11’s revived telekinetic blasts aren’t sufficient. Vecna holds off 11 lengthy sufficient to brutally assault Max in his signature taste—she levitates, her eyes pass white and bleed, and he snaps her limbs. 11 regains her power and pushes Vecna off ahead of he can whole the process, however the injury is already completed. In the true global, Max collapses in Lucas’s fingers (deficient child was once gazing this the entire time whilst fist-fighting a college bully), nonetheless mindful and begging to not die. “I am not in a position,” she tells Lucas. Neither are we! In spite of Lucas’s pleas for Max to “stick with me,” she is going nonetheless. The grandfather clock within the Creel space chimes 4 occasions, signaling Vecna’s process is finished, and the 4 gates to the Upside Down he’s opened—one for each and every homicide—break up open, carving fault strains via Hawkins.

11, on the other hand, is not going to permit her buddy to die. “No,” she says. “You might be now not going.” Attaining Max by the use of the sensory deprivation tank (this darkish, watery psychological realm is often referred to as the Void), 11 places a hand on Max’s chest and remembers their happiest moments in combination. Two days later, Max is within the clinic, in a coma.

So, did Max die?

Technically, she did—if just for a second. In line with Lucas, the docs stated Max’s middle stopped for over a minute, however then she got here again to lifestyles. 11 doesn’t say that she’s liable for Max’s survival, however Will and Mike flash each and every different a figuring out glance to mention they’ve figured it out. However what, precisely, did 11 do? Did she expand new resurrection powers? Did she jump-start Max’s middle together with her psychic talents? Did channeling Max’s satisfied reminiscences by some means deliver her again to lifestyles? The theories are certain to be unending. However something is bound: Simply because Max survived, that doesn’t imply she’s protected. It is unclear when she’ll wake from her coma. “They are saying she may now not,” Lucas says. And even supposing she does wake, there’s no ensure she’ll be the similar Max.

Courtesy of Netflix

The place is Max now?

Bodily, she’s in a clinic mattress in a coma, with each her legs and arms in casts. However mentally? Neatly, that’s a unique tale. When 11 hops again into the Void to search for Max on the finish of the finale, she will be able to’t in finding her anymore. She screams her title, however the Void is empty. Does that imply Max has died for genuine this time? Or that her thoughts has long past totally clean?

Take into accout, 11 has used the Void to find other people previously, each alive (Will) and useless (Barb, RIP). What does it imply if the individual she’s on the lookout for is lacking from the Void solely?

Those, in fact, are giant inquiries to with a bit of luck be spoke back in season 5, which will likely be Stranger Issues’ remaining. Along with Max’s destiny, we’re additionally fascinated about Vecna’s whereabouts—he didn’t die in that ultimate standoff when the children set him on hearth. And, taking into account the remaining shot of the finale, the crowd will now must maintain an apocalyptic merge between the Upside Down and real-life Hawkins.

Whether or not Max makes it to the following season or now not (even though we truly, truly hope she does), actress Sadie Sink is content material with Max’s season 4 adventure. She informed ELLE.com again in December, “I’m truly pleased with the place Max’s storyline went for season 4. I feel you spot a unique facet of her that I’m truly excited to proportion with everybody.”

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