so Max's ending is still a little ambiguous. but it's pretty clear that she's gonna wake up from the coma. in season five.
In going over the fates of many major characters, the creators confirmed Max's fate at the end of the season, assuring Max is alive in Stranger Things, but is in a bad way. See what the Duffers explained below: “Right, she's braindead, but she's alive.
Is Max Mayfield in Stranger Things season 5? 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.
In episode 4 of season 4 of Stranger Things, "Dear Billy," Vecna tries to kill Max. Her friends use the beautiful power of music, specifically "Running Up That Hill," to bring her back.
The fourth season of Netflix's Stranger Things ended with Sadie Sink's Max Mayfield in a coma after a run-in with the show's major villain, Vecna, leaving the character's future up in the air.
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. When Eleven later enters the Void to find Max, all she sees is darkness.
When speaking with Josh Horowitz on his podcast, the Duffer Brothers said that although Max is alive, she is "brain dead, blind, and all of her bones are broken."
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.
Through the window, Max saw her real body levitating above the cemetery, her friends panicking on the ground below. Bracing herself, Max pulled at a vine in Vecna's neck, causing him to writhe in pain and accidentally release her from the vines' grasp.
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.”
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.
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.
The reason that Eleven couldn't find Max is actually pretty simple -- Max had already died. That means her soul had already been absorbed into Vecna's consciousness. So, while Eleven restarted Max's heart and brought her body back to life, she was trapped inside of Vecna's hive mind.
It seems like the worst is over, but it's not so easy - Max is left blinded, with broken limbs, and ultimately in a coma after the attack from Vecna, which she may never wake up from, and that is where her story concludes in Stranger Things season 4, volume 2's ending.
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 managed to save her from Vecna's curse but the creature had already done some irreversible damage to her, rendering her unable to feel or see anything. She then died in Lucas' arms. That is, until Eleven used her newfound powers to bring her back.
Sadie Sink has also said that Max is "definitely not back in the way she once was" in Stranger Things 5.
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.
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's death allows Vecna to open the fourth gate, and rip a huge hole in the middle of Hawkins. However, Eleven is still watching all of this unfold from The Void. Refusing to believe that Max is dead, El places a hand on Max's body and appears to transfer their happiest memories to her.
Finally, many characters in Life is Strange deal with mental health issues. The antagonist is certainly a psychopath and Nathan is treated for bipolar disorder and/or schizophrenia. Max herself is thought to live with social anxiety and developmental disability like ADHD, High Functioning Autism, or Asperger Syndrome.
While there are no direct statements, it's still clear that Max suffers from mental illnesses, such as depression, trauma, and even PTSD.
Inside Max's mind, Eleven reaches out to her friend and tells her she can't go yet, and Eleven manages to somehow use her powers to bring Max back from the dead.