As Stranger Things approaches its fifth and final season on Netflix, one of the top questions on viewers’ minds is Max Mayfield’s (Sadie Sink) fate. Stranger Things season 4’s ending shows Max comatose in the hospital after facing off with the Upside Down’s supervillain Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) in the old Creel house where he was raised and once regarded as Henry Creel. Max’s heart stops, and Eleven (Millie Bobbi Brown) manages to revive her just enough to survive. Therefore, the reveal of Max’s fate in Stranger Things season 5 is a highly anticipated moment.

The show’s fourth season provides a lot of clarity on the origin story of the Upside Down, an alternate reality full of monsters that feed on humans. The world’s biggest monster did not start out as one at all – Henry Creel was a young boy with psychokinetic powers living in Hawkins, Indiana, and pushed into experiments alongside Eleven. Stranger Things’ experiments are based on the real-life MKUltra experiments conducted in Montauk, New York in the 1980s. However, if Max survives, the core characters will gain more knowledge of what it takes to survive Vecna.

Max’s Fate In Stranger Things Season 5 Risks Being Very Anticlimactic

Max’s Death Would Be Too Predictable For Stranger Things’ Conclusion

If Max dies at the very beginning of season 5 of Stranger Things, it would leave her character arc feeling very anticlimactic. Season 4 focuses on her grieving the loss of her brother Billy (Dacre Montgomery) and finding herself at the center of the group’s latest tussle with the Upside Down. The pivotal scene in which Max listens to Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” as her friends pull her out of the Upside Down received widespread critical acclaim, becoming a cultural phenomenon.

Her arc was a refreshingly honest depiction of teenage grief and personal growth. To have last season’s cliffhanger answered in an abrupt death would be a disservice to Max’s character, and seems unlikely. Additionally, if Max survives her coma, the plot will be pushed forward because the group will learn more insight about Vecna and be able to combat the Upside Down better, especially now that it is leaking into Hawkins.

There’s No Way Stranger Things Season 5 Opens With Max’s Death

Stranger Things Has Bigger Fish To Fry Than Writing Out Max

The finale left off with several lingering questions to be explored in Stranger Things season 5. Among them are Will Byers’ (Noah Schnapp) sexuality; the growing love triangle between Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), and Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton); and Hopper’s (David Harbour) return to Hawkins. All of these subplots, layered with the growing power of the Upside Down, would come across as cluttered if they coincided with Max’s death, as a major character death so early in the season would throw off its pacing.

From a logical standpoint, Sink’s appearance in early cast announcements for Stranger Things season 5 indicates that she will likely make more than a cameo appearance, and will remain a major character. With the intricate fantasy elements the show must already work through as the beloved gang battles Vecna one last time, a character’s death at the beginning of the show would overshadow the many interconnected narratives to be explored throughout. It would make a lot more sense for Stranger Things season 5 to conclude with a major character’s death, as it is the show’s final season.