What Happens to Max at the End of ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4, Explained

Hey! There are spoilers for Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 ahead! This is your first warning! Run like Vecna’s chasing you if you don’t want to know what happens to Max in Stranger Things 4. Does she live? Does she die? This is a place for the people who want spoilers about who dies on Stranger Things. The ones who aren’t going to be able to handle the stress of this Netflix series if they aren’t prepared with the answers. Is everybody ready? Did everybody die?

Here’s what you need to know about Max in Season 4 before the fifth and final season of Stranger Things…whenever it happens. Spoilers ahead! This is your SECOND WARNING.

Where we left Max in Volume 1

In Volume 1 of Stranger Things 4, Max made a heroic escape from Vecna in the Upside Down with an assist from Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.” The song blew up. Generations in the real world started fighting and gatekeeping who was allowed to call themselves a Kate Bush fan. It was a whole thing. But since Max survived once, does that mean she can do it a second time? She volunteers to face Vecna as bait again in Volume 2, and even her friends think it’s a bad idea.

Here, relive the Kate Bush scene from Volume 1 with me before we get into spoiler territory about whether or not Max survived. (I’m only going to tell you about Max, BTW. If you wanna know what happened to Steve, go somewhere else. If you wanna know if Will’s OK, press play!) This is your FINAL WARNING I’M SERIOUS!!!!!

Does Max die in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4?

Technically, Max does die in Volume 2…

…but she’s not dead! Confused? It’s just a little bit of magic. Max sacrifices herself and almost dies in Lucas’ arms. Very romantic for teenagers. She promised Lucas that she would go to the movies with him. They haven’t seen Captain America: The First Avenger, so they don’t know yet that it’s a bad idea to make plans to go out right before a potential heroic sacrifice.

But the power of love and female friendship rescues her. Eleven uses her powers and brings Max back to life by remotely starting her heart. She’s basically in a coma for now, so while it’s not great, we’re guessing this probably isn’t the last we’ve seen of Max. She might be benched for a bit. The rest of the gang might go on adventures before she recovers. Vecna broke almost every bone in her body and she lost her vision, but she’s still in the game. However, unless Eleven can help further—Max is going to be doing a lot of healing in Season 5.

(featured image: Netflix)

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Leah Marilla Thomas

Leah Marilla Thomas (she/her) is a contributor at The Mary Sue. She has been working in digital entertainment journalism since 2013, covering primarily television as well as film and live theatre. She's been on the Marvel beat professionally since Daredevil was a Netflix series. (You might recognize her voice from the Newcomers: Marvel podcast). Outside of journalism, she is 50% Southerner, 50% New Englander, and 100% fangirl over everything from Lord of the Rings to stage lighting and comics about teenagers. She lives in New York City and can often be found in a park. She used to test toys for Hasbro. True story!