A current Stranger Things character with more of a story to tell is
Despite Max (Sadie Sink) being left in a coma at the end of season 4, she will be returning for season 5. The actress appeared on Today with Hoda and Jenna, where she opened up about the last season of the show.
The creators' confirmation that Max is alive is sure to be soothing news for those concerned about the fan-favorite character, though their note that she's "braindead" does pose a unique challenge for the Duffers going into season 5 in how they either bring Max back or allow her an emotional sendoff.
Technically, Max does die from sustained from Vecna's curse during "The Piggyback" before Eleven uses her powers to restart her friend's heart. Before doing so, Vecna breaks Max's limbs and causes her to go blind before she dies in Lucas' arms.
After serving as bait for Vecna, she becomes his “final sacrifice,” getting her bones broken and losing her vision during a low point. Once the fight is over, she dies in Lucas' arms, unable to see or feel anything as Eleven looks on from her mindspace.
Physically, yes. Lucas tells his friends that Max is in a coma, and we see her wearing casts on her arms and legs. The Duffer brothers have also confirmed that at the end of Season 4, Max is alive yet "brain dead, blind, and all of her bones are broken." The big mystery is where the redhead is mentally.
In episode 7, Vecna is revealed to be Henry Creel (played as a youngster by Raphael Luce), the son of Victor Creel (Robert Englund) and his wife Virginia (Tyner Rushing) shown in the 1950s flashbacks.
Since her limbs were still broken and she's now comatose, it seems Max will still be blind after Stranger Things' season 5 time-jump, as Vecna had already “taken her eyes.”
Eleven's Life-Saving Decision
Refusing to allow Max to die after their battle with Vecna, Eleven pulls out the stops to save her life. As Lucas begs Max to stay alive, cradling her in his arms, Eleven uses just enough power to get Max's heart beating again.
Max's death was used a device to push Murphy toward killing Josh in the series finale. Max didn't need to die to wrap up the story this way. Sure, Murphy needed to have a complicated place to land.
Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) may have been able to revive her, but while Max is still alive, she hasn't been able to regain consciousness, and there's every possibility that Vecna has something to do with that.
“Stranger Things 4” put Sadie Sink's Max Mayfield through hell. The fan-favorite character ended the season in a coma with her bones broken and eyes blinded at the hands of Vecna.
New Amsterdam sadly ended after five seasons in January 2023. We officially said goodbye to medical director Max Goodwin (Ryan Eggold) and made room for a new generation of doctors that (spoiler alert) are led by his daughter, Luna.
Reconciliation. After many ups and downs, including the Battle at Starcourt and the death of Max's brother, Lucas and Max appear to have reconciled their romance. They tease Dustin over his mysterious girlfriend, singing the theme song from The Neverending Story.
This ultimately destroyed Vecna. Though they're clouded with cataracts, Vecna in Stranger Things has both of his eyes.
The fight distracts Lucas from holding onto Max, who levitates under Vecna's thrall. And then it happens: her bones break, her eyes bleed, and she collapses, dead. Max is dead for a minute, but Eleven (who has been psychically piggybacking onto her from Nevada) uses her powers to restart Max's heart.
Eleven seems to be able to accomplish great things when she concentrates and focuses really hard, and that seems to be how she brings Max back to life. It's an incredibly powerful storyline and makes it even harder to wait for season 5.
Next up, the viewers go on to theorise that One/Vecna is actually Eleven's dad. Yep, told you it was wild. The theory claims that Brenner wanted to create a child with stronger powers, so he waited until One was old enough to become a father.
Then there were the three poor teens of Season 4. Vecna's first big credited kill was Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien). He followed that murder with canonically terrible driver Fred Benson (Logan Riley Bruner) and basketball star Patrick McKinney (Myles Truitt).
He was initially trained by his mother, Mazzel, in the art of magic, before she was executed by the government of Fleeth for practicing witchcraft. Vowing revenge, Vecna eventually assumed a mastery of the dark arts achieved by no mortal before or since.
This technical death triggered the opening of the fourth and final curse gate, wreaking havoc across Hawkins. However, Eleven used her abilities to restart Max's heart. She was brought back to life, but remained comatose, teetering on the boundary between life and death.
Max is powerless to do anything, watching as her stepbrother is taken apart by the Mind Flayer. Although they did not have the best relationship, Max feels defeated and, eventually, became clouded with enormous guilt.
This is perhaps what has happened with Max. Vecna had already begun his attack, meaning that he probably took huge parts of her mind and only left her body behind, so even though she is still technically alive, there is nothing of Max left inside.