Now if you’re like me, you’ve spent virtually every day since the Stranger Things season four finale wondering what’s going to happen next. Specifically, what’s going to happen next to my absolute girl Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) in season five. And now fans reckon they’ve cracked some of the code.
At the end of season four, Vecna (ugh) manages to get Max. We see her lose her eyesight and watch the horrifying sequence of her bones snapping. Max technically dies, however our trusty heroine Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) tries to save her — and thinks she succeeds.
But near the end of the finale, Max is shown comatose in hospital. And when Eleven tries to enter her mind, it’s just an empty, black space.
Obviously, this has left fans with a bunch of questions about Max’s fate. Why not just have her character die at the end of season four? Will she play a role in season five? Will we get a Max and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) reunion?
Well, the Stranger Things writers have absolutely set the interwebs ablaze with a screenshot of the script when El tries to revive Max, which they shared on Twitter.
El revives Max pic.twitter.com/gBnfloAxAZ
— stranger writers (@strangerwriters) September 16, 2022
The bit that has everyone in a real tizzy is a description near the end.
“Quick flashbacks of Eleven with Max, dancing, laughing, playing, then a brilliant kaleidoscope of colours fly at the camera,” it says.
“Just like when Eleven sent One into another dimension.”
Sorry, it’s just like WHAT???
Obviously this revelation has led to fans theorising that Max — or at least part of her — is trapped in another dimension, maybe even still in the Upside Down. So potentially there’s hope for our girl after all!
“just like when eleven sent one into another dimension” https://t.co/NsEWatuwDu pic.twitter.com/NiE1engPti
— ִֶָ (@enoIahoImes) September 16, 2022
“How do we know El didn’t send Max somewhere else and Vecna doesn’t have her???” one person wrote.
“Max isn’t gone!! El just sent her into another dimension,” theorised another.
Others were less convinced, instead taking the scene as evidence Max is well and truly gone.
Max was originally supposed to die at the end of season four, though Sadie Sink told W Magazine she didn’t know that was the Duffer Brothers‘ OG intention for her character arc.
“When I got the script for episode nine, it said that Max dies but she sort of comes back,” she said.
“It’s uncertain, but she’s not fully dead. I didn’t know the plan was to completely kill me off, which definitely would’ve been a very impactful ending.”
According to Sink, the Duffer Brothers have said in interviews that Max’s “state” after the season four finale “is intentional, crucial and calculated in terms of how it’s going to come to play in season five”.
I’m sensing some inter-dimensional travel!
Honestly though, all I want from Stranger Things season five is a Lucas and Max reunion, so here’s hoping there is actually a secret Max dimension.
