Stranger Things 5: Does Sadie Sink's Max Escape From Henry Creel's Mind?

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Stranger Things Season 4, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) was after Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) as he opened the gates between Hawkins, Indiana, and the Upside Down. He kills three other Hawkins High students and is about to finish the job with Max when Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) comes to her rescue. Now, in the final season of Stranger Things, Max's body has been languishing on a hospital bed, while she is trapped in the mind of Henry Creel, Vecna's real persona. So what happens to her in the second volume? Warning: Major spoilers Ahead!

Does Max finally wake from her coma?

The happy answer for fans is yes, Max does wake up after being asleep for the past 18 months. But how does she reunite with her friends and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) again? In the mind prison of Henry Creel, Max finally gets help to find an exit strategy after she meets Mike Wheeler's younger sister Holly (Nell Fisher). Together, they delve through their memories of meeting Henry and eventually seek refuge in a cave where Henry refuses to enter. But why?

The young Henry Creel encounters an injured man with a gun who shoots at him and eventually uses a rock to kill him. Max and Holly use that memory to get out. Max sees Lucas with her body, still playing the Kate Bush song Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God), and she knows she has a chance and must take it. This is where Holly and Max must part, as her body is located somewhere else.

Max and Lucas reunion

When Max finally comes to in the laundry room of the hospital, Lucas is overcome with emotion. Max's mobility is limited, and she finds the lights to be harsh after being in a trance for so long. It is also clarified that Max was not in a coma as was presumed for so long. She was in a trance, just like Will whenever Vecna took over his mind.

Slowly but surely, Max reunites with the rest of the Party and Eleven as they all rush to the hospital, believing her life to be in danger. Vecna had sent the Demogorgons out to finish off her physical body at the hospital since she had managed to turn Holly and proved to be a threat to his grand plans.In an interview with Deadline, McLaughlin revealed that after they filmed the scene of Lucas and Max reuniting, everyone on set cried, including him and Sink. When the final episode of Stranger Things Season 5 airs on January 1, 2026, the gang formulates a plan to rescue Holly and save Hawkins once and for all.