The fourth season of Stranger Things put characters in all kinds of dire situations, all of which they seemed to escape by the skin of their teeth. The one who came the closest to meeting an untimely end was Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), who slipped through the clutches of the malevolent Vecna partway through the season only to lose the rematch in the finale.
Essentially, Vecna killed Max…but not really. Eleven pulled her back from the brink, and she ends the season in a coma.
At least from where I’m sitting, Stranger Things is developing a reputation for almost killing characters but then pulling back at the last second. That said, creators Matt and Ross Duffer did at least talk about bumping off Max for good. “It was discussed as a possibility,” Ross said during Netflix’s Stranger Things aftershow. “For a while that is what was going to happen. But we ended up in this… we wanted to end it with a little more of a question at the end of the season, where it’s still really dark and if Max is going to be okay… we just don’t really know. We wanted to leave it up in the air moving forward into season 5.”
Season 5, FYI, is going to be the final season of the show. While the Duffers can’t go into the details, Matt did say that “it is important” that Max is in a coma, saying that the character’s condition isn’t just a “cheat” to keep her in the cast but is actually “incredibly relevant” and will have “a major effect on [season] 5.”
Towards the end of the finale, we get a brief scene where Eleven uses her powers to try and contact Max, but can’t find her. Perhaps there will be a battle of some kind on the psychic plane?
Sadie Sink doesn’t know what’s in store for Max in Stranger Things 5
As for Sadie Sink, she’s just hoping she still has a job. “I just hope that she’s able to do anything, I guess,” Sink said. “Yeah, I have no clue what is going on just with her in general… Hopefully she’s out of the hospital… out of the full body cast, that would be great.”
For all the Duffers say about putting Max in danger, I tend to think she’ll back in fighting shape come partway through season 5. We have a while to wait for new episodes — David Harbour (Jim Hopper) thinks they’ll come out sometime in 2024 — but I don’t think we need fret in the meantime.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels
h/t The A.V. Club