The Stranger Things series, when hit the screens in 2016 gained massive popularity and was a sensation among viewers. Not only the storyline and the settings of the show was amazing but it also delivered some great characters that carried the series just well.
It has been almost six years now but the show is still going strong and the characters gaining more and more love from the audiences.
Over the years, many characters are introduced to the series; some vanished with time while others are still equally popular. One such character that is very popular among the audience is Max.
One of the most beloved characters of the franchise, Max has always been the talk of the town and with the recent season four of the show, she is all that people could talk about.
In the latest season, during the fight with Vecna Max is inflicted with many injuries and is even considered to be blind. So is she really blind? What really happened to her?
Well, to find out you must have stuck with us till the end as we have gathered all the information about her and what exactly happened to her.
So, let’s get right into it.
Who is Max?
Max Mayfield or Max is one of the main characters of the series, Stranger Things, introduced to the show in the second season, and was born in California to Susan and Sam Mayfield on July 12th, 1971.
Portrayed by Sadie Sink, Max was very close to her father and shared an interest in science and horror movies whereas her mother tended to be very wary of her uncharacteristic hobbies.
before 1984, Max’s parents divorced and her mother moved from San Diego to Los Angeles. Not long after the divorce, Susan married Neil Hargrove and together with his son, Billy moved to Hawkins, Indiana.
Having somewhat of a tomboy personality, Max had too many interests that some didn’t consider “conventional” for a girl during the time period. She did have a bold personality, had a shaky relationship with her new stepfather and stepbrother, and especially resented Billy’s bullying.
Although Max was a newcomer in the town, she quickly gained a reputation at the Palace Arcade for topping the game leaderboards, her high scores submitted under the player name “MADMAX”.
A newbie to the party and the stepsister of Billy Hargrove, Max soon adapted to the new town and made best friends with Will Byers, Dustin Henderson, Jane “Eleven” Hopper, Lucas Sinclair, and Mike Wheeler. She also had an on-and-off relationship with Lucas.
Max’s encounter with the Supernaturals
Max was just a regular kid with “weird for that time” kind of hobbies, but little did she know what the future held for her after she moved to Hawkins.
After moving to Hawkins, she got some best friends and even got herself into a romantic relationship. Later on, she even met with Eleven, when Eleven returned to Hawkins from the lab.
By the summer of 1985, she grew close to Eleven and even befriended her, while going through cycles of dating Lucas, breaking up with him, and getting back together again.
It was during this time that Max and her friends discovered that her stepbrother, Billy, had been possessed by the Mind Flayer, which made both the Party and their allies band together to defeat them.
While the group battled the Spider Monster with fireworks at the Starcount Mall, Eleven reminded Billy of his humanity, which made Billy sacrifice his life to save her. Seeing her stepbrother sacrifice his own life horrified and traumatized Max.
Although Max didn’t have a great relationship with Billy, she was deeply affected by his death and experienced a profound sense of grief, survivor’s guilt, and depression.
What Happened to Max in Season 4?
With the fourth season, Stranger Things made sure to give the audience something great with new villains and more interesting events. Surely Vecna stole the limelight, but that didn’t mean Max’s popularity become any less.
Months after the events with the Mind Flayer, Max was still suffering from the loss of her stepbrother Billy and had frequent nightmares in which she relieved the moment again and again.
Having a hard time coping with such loss, Max isolated herself from her friends and even broke up with Lucas. Regardless, later in 1986, she decide to join her old friend to investigate the mysterious death of Chrissy Cunningham, who died right across the street from her home.
While investigating, Max ended up discovering the fact that Chrissy had been seeing the school counselor. After breaking into the counselor’s office to find clues about Chrissy’s death, Max realized that she had the same symptoms as Chrissy and began seeing disturbing hallucinations superimposed onto the world around her.
After going through all the clues, Max and her friends reached the conclusion that just like Chrissy, Max had been cursed by the mysterious Upside Down entity, dubbed Vecna. With the curse, Max also realized that she didnt have much time to live.
When Max was attacked by Vecna for the first time, she was able to survive when her friends saved her by playing her favorite song over her headphones, which provided her with an anchor into reality.
Since she was dragged into a realm that was not present in the real world, the songs not only provided an anchor to reality but also gave her the strength to defy Vecna and return to reality.
Right after nearly escaping death, Max and her friends discovered Vecna’s true plan; to open up the gates of Upside Down and wreak havoc on humankind by using humans as a sacrifice.
When the group realized Vecna’s plan they immediately came up with a plan to defeat Vecna using Max as bait to distract him, while Nancy, Steve, and Robin would attack his real body in the Upside Down.
Putting the plan into action, at the abandoned Creel House, Max made herself vulnerable to Vecna’s influence by turning off her cassette player. Right after she turned the player off she began hallucinating and was transported to Vecna’s realm.
Surprisingly, when she was hallucinating, Eleven appeared in her visions with the help of her psychic projection. However, even if Eleven was present in Max’s visions, Eleven was quickly overpowered by Vecna and he began to attack Max as well.
Is Max Blind In Stranger Things Season 4?
Moving on to probably one of the biggest mysteries of the whole season; did Max become blind? The ending killed Max and with her brief death, Vecna was able to open up the gates and create rifts that looked like gates to hell in Hawkins.
As you know, Max was possessed at the very beginning of the series and was saved by her friends who played her favorite song to get her out of Vecna’s control.
Later they planned to use Max to lure Vecna and while fighting off Vecna, Max was attacked as Eleven’s mind control was disturbed by Jason. As a result, Max was injured by Vecna.
Not only were her limbs brutally broken but her eyes were whitened out and even blood began to ooze down her face like tears.
So, yes even though Max had some near-death experiences, at last, she was captured by Vecna and literally put through hell. The fan-favorite character ended the season in a coma with her bones broken and eyes blinded at the hands of Vecna.
Is Max alive Stranger Things?
Fortunately, Vecna didn’t go all out on her as his kill ritual was interrupted from completion and Max didn’t have her eyes destroyed and her skull crushed. However, he was still able to kill Max and open the fourth and final gate.
Max was then taken to the hospital and her death was confirmed by the doctors when they stated that her heart had stopped for a full minute. Refusing to allow Max to die after their battle with Vecna, Eleven pulled out the stops to save her life.
As Lucas begged Max to stay alive, cradling her in his arms, Eleven used just enough power to get Max’s heart beating again. Max technically died for one whole minute before Eleven revived her friend, but Eleven’s powers weren’t enough to bring Max fully back to life.
So, Max’s physical body was still alive but her mind was in a deep state of coma. When Eleven tried to get into Max’s mind, she was not there; neither her soul nor her conscience was there, which opened up a possibility that Max could have been still trapped in Upside Down or some other realms.
Stranger Things really sent the fan favorite, Max to hell and on top of broken bones even destroyed her eyes. However, more of her condition is left ambiguous so, with season five rumored to be released in the coming days, we hope we get to see her soon and learn about her condition.
The fifth season is going to be the final installment of the series rumored to be released in 2023 or 2024 and fans can’t wait even get to see what happens to Max, her friends, and Hawkins.
