Stranger Things season 5, Volume 1 is now streaming on Netflix, and the fourth episode, “Sorcerer,” reveals exactly what's been going on with Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) since she narrowly survived her horrific encounter with Vecna in the season 4 finale.
Spoilers follow.
Vecna very nearly succeeded in killing Max when he possessed her in order to open the gate between Hawkins and the Upside Down, but Eleven was able to keep her friend alive. Max's body survived, but she remained in a coma, which is where we find her when season 5 gets underway.
Lucas has been staying by his girlfriend's side, playing "Running Up That Hill" in an attempt to bring her back. Unfortunately, it's probably going to take a bit more than a Kate Bush classic to fully revive the heroic teen.
In episode 4, Holly Wheeler becomes trapped in the mind of Henry Creel, aka Vecna, where she runs into Max, who explains that she's been hiding out in a cave ever since Vecna was made aware of her location when she almost managed to escape. It turns out that Lucas' determination - and Miss Bush - very nearly did the trick, but the portal to Hawkins closed when the tape stopped playing.
Max says she does have a plan to return to their reality, but we're going to have to wait until Volume 2 to find out what it entails.
“I didn’t know exactly what the plot was going to be, but they kind of just had to warn me. Matt and Ross called me. They’re like, ‘You’re gonna get the final episode of Season 4, and it’s gonna say that you died, but don’t worry. You’re in a coma, and we do have a plot for you in Season 5.’ So that was kind of all the information I had for a while,” Sink tells Deadline.
“Obviously, she has been in a dark place for a while, all of Season 4. Just kind of throwing her into this next battle, and then keeping her there for so long, it was fun, which seems like the wrong word, but it was fun to kind of think about how that would affect her,” she adds. “For a minute, I was like, ‘Is she just totally nuts? Has she gone absolutely crazy?’ But I think the thing about Max, and what she’s always been, is she’s just super resilient, and even under the toughest circumstances, she just has this very ‘this is the card I was dealt’ kind of attitude. So if anyone was gonna get stuck in her plot line, it’s her. She’s gonna handle it the best, I think.”
Have you watched the first four episodes of Stranger Things season 5 yet? If so, what did you think? Drop us a comment down below.
"The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time."
Stranger Things stars Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Maya Hawke (Robin Buckley), Priah Ferguson (Erica Sinclair), Brett Gelman (Murray), Jamie Campbell Bower (Vecna), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), Amybeth McNulty (Vickie), Nell Fisher (Holly Wheeler), Jake Connelly (Derek Turnbow), Alex Breaux (Lt. Akers), and Linda Hamilton (Dr. Kay). New to the cast for Stranger Things season 5 are Linda Hamilton (The Terminator), Nell Fisher (Evil Dead Rise), newcomer Jake Connelly, and Alex Breaux (Joe Pickett).