12 questions Stranger Things season 5 needs to answer

5. What’s going to happen to Max?

One of the biggest emotional gut punches of Stranger Things 4 was when Vecna finally made good on all his threats and killed Max…kind of. Though her arms and legs were broken and her mind was assaulted so brutally that she died, Max was brought back to life at the last minute by Eleven. Max was dead for a whole minute — long enough to trigger Vecna’s gate and bring about the apocalypse — but when last we saw Max she was alive and in a coma in Hawkins hospital.

Now, we’re just going to assume that Max will recover in some way in season 5. Sadie Sink was one of this season’s standout performers, and there’s no way the show would keep her around to not feature her again in some way. The question isn’t whether Max will play a role in season 5, but how she will recover. And if she does wake up…will she be the same Max? Eleven tried to contact her mind while she was comatose, and received no reply.

If Max is going to come back from the brink, it’s easy to imagine she’ll return changed in some way. Will there be a lingering connection between her and Vecna? The fate of Max Mayfield is at the forefront of our minds when it comes to season 5.

6. When will the show actually address Will Byers’ sexuality?

Despite thoroughly exploring the love lives of most of the show’s characters, Stranger Things 4 left Will Byers in a bit of an awkward spot. It was heavily foreshadowed throughout the season that Will is gay, and may be in love with Mike. Actor Noah Schnapp did a fantastic job conveying Will’s feelings, but by the end of the season we still hadn’t gotten an actual conversation about them. Even when Jonathan brought it up and gave Will the perfect opportunity, Stranger Things didn’t go quite so far as to actually have Will talk about what he’s going through.

It works for now, since there’s still one more season left. Will keeping things to himself does fit with how he acted in the past, like when he accumulated resentment for Mike and Lucas because they were more concerned with dating than D&D. And if Will does have feelings for Mike, who so far as we know is straight and in love with Eleven, then things could get complicated.

But as we head into the fifth and final season, the show really needs to actually explore where Will’s at. It needs to give him some closure, and the screen time to actually explore what this means for him, and his relationship with Mike. Anything less would be a disservice to one of the most important characters on the series.