Does Max die in Stranger Things?

As fans revisit Stranger Things to brush up for the upcoming fifth and final season, many wonder if Max made it out alive in Season 4.

Netflix‘s smash hit original series Stranger Things is finally coming to an end with their fifth and final season after first premiering eight years ago.

Season 4 was an intense thrill ride that a lot of Hawkins residents fall victim to the series’ big bad Vecna, including fan favorite Max Mayfield.

And as fans revisit the show in order to brush up before the final season airs, many are wondering if Max actually died in at the end of Season 4, so here’s everything we know.

Does Max die in Stranger Things?

No, Max does not die in Stranger Things.

Throughout Season 4’s two parts, Max is haunted by Vecna, a supernatural being who preys on people’s weakened mental states until he ultimately kills them. And Max becomes his latest target as she witnessed her abusive older brother, Billy, violently die at the end of Season 3.

Vecna worsens Max’s depressive state of mind before trapping her in the Upside Down to finally kill her, but she’s saved by her favorite song (“Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” by Kate Bush) and rejoins her friends to take down the monster once and for all.

How did Max survive the Stranger Things Season 4 finale?

Max survives in the Stranger Things finale because Eleven saves her.

The plan to take down Vecna does not go well at first as he begins his ritual to kill Max after she offers herself up as bait for him by finally opening up about her mixed feelings about Billy dying.

She also uses a non-musical way to keep herself tethered to her friend by remembering her first school dance with Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin).

However, none of this works out and Vecna is on the verge of murdering Max once and for all, but Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) ends up entering Max’s mind and saving her from Vecna, but the battle leaves Max in a comatose state.

Will Max be in Stranger Things Season 5?

Max will be in Stranger Things Season 5, but she will still be in a coma.

Ross Duffer, one of the show’s creators, recently posted a photo of Sadie Sink on set, which led fans to believe that Max had woken up from her coma, but he was quick to shut those rumors down by confirming that we will still see Max, but she’ll be in the hospital.

The fact that fans will see her at all is a bit of a miracle as Ross Duffer has explained that killing Max in Season 4 was a strong possibility as he told IndieWire, “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. It’s still really dark, and if Max is going to be OK, we just don’t really know. We wanted to leave it up in the air moving forward into Season 5.”

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McLaughlin echoed Duffer’s sentients in the same interview explaining that, while Max is still technically alive, she’s not the same character fans have come to know and love since she first appeared in Season 2.

“I feel like Lucas still feels like she died, honestly. People think that she didn’t. I’ve seen people who were like, ‘Um, Max didn’t die, guys, relax,’ but she’s not the same,” McLaughlin explained, “She’s in a coma; would you want to see your loved one or your family member in that state? Her eyes were about to be sucked into her head, all her bones are broken. She could be there, but she may not be there. She’s not the same anymore. They were supposed to go to the movie on Friday, and I don’t think they will.”