Spoiler alert! What happened to Sadie Sink’s Max in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5?
Published by RawNews1st
After nearly dying at the hands of the villainous Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), the fan favorite Max (Sadie Sink) has been lying in a coma since the end of “Stranger Things” Season 4. But the headstrong character returned in the final moments of Season 5, Episode 3, after the young Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) was abducted by Vecna.
Max reveals to Holly that she, too, is trapped inside Vecna’s mind, even as their physical bodies are elsewhere. Meanwhile, Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) has been sitting by Max’s side in the hospital, repeatedly playing Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” in hopes of awaking his on-and-off-again girlfriend from her comatose state.
“Being unconscious, honestly, wasn’t a bad gig at the end of the day,” Sink recently told Entertainment Weekly. “I just felt bad for everyone who had to carry me around. The one thing that always stuck out to me, even in Season 4, I can’t help but look at myself in that hospital state and just laugh because I’m like, ‘Of course that’s where it ended for Max.’ If you would’ve told me that in Season 2, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
Earlier this year, “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” opened on Broadway, telling the story of how a troubled young boy named Henry Creel (Louis McCartney) became the big bad Vecna. The stage show acts as a prequel to the Netflix series, and playwright Kate Trefry teased that “First Shadow” is “essential” viewing before watching the fifth season.
“I’m really excited for Season 5 to finally come out because it’s in such conversation with the play,” Trefry told USA TODAY earlier this year. “Once people are finally able to consume the series and the play as a whole, they’ll be able to appreciate how connected it all is. It’s a singular piece of work.”
Watching Episodes 3 and 4, it becomes clear what Trefry meant: After Holly is taken by Vecna, he brings her to his childhood home – the exact same house where Henry and his family live in “First Shadow,” which looks like paradise but hides something much darker. Max and Holly also wander the maze of Henry’s memories, which includes Hawkins High School circa 1959, where the Broadway play is largely set.
“I had seen the show in London before filming Season 5,” Sink told Entertainment Weekly. “So I knew exactly where I was and what it was referring to.”
“Stranger Things” Season 5 continues with three more episodes streaming Christmas Day, and the series finale on New Year’s Eve.
WARNING: Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 and The First Shadow ahead.
Fans watching Stranger Things Season 5 may have noticed that Henry Creel was seemingly terrified of the cave Max Mayfield was hiding in during episode 4, and the show made a point to highlight that fear. The First Shadow, the Stranger Things play, gives the full backstory, and it’s way darker and more complicated than anything the series has shown so far.
Here’s what The First Shadow reveals and how it ties directly into Henry’s storyline in season 5.
Forget Hawkins. Henry’s fear started long before he ever stepped foot in Indiana. According to The First Shadow, Henry and his family lived in Nevada when he vanished for twelve hours as a child. During that time, he was somehow transported into Dimension X, the same realm tied to the Mind Flayer.
