SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched Episodes 8 and 9 of “Stranger Things 4,” now streaming on Netflix.
“Stranger Things 4” put Sadie Sink’s Max Mayfield through hell. The fan favorite character ended the season in a coma with her bones broken and eyes blinded at the hands of Veca. 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. Series creators Matt and Ross Duffer recently confirmed that Max’s ambiguous fate was originally going to be more clear, and it wasn’t going to be good for fans.
“It was discussed as a possibility,” Ross Duffer recently said about killing Max permanently. “For awhile that is what was going to happen. But we ended up in this… we wanted to end it with a little more of a question at the end of the season. It’s still really dark and if Max is going to be okay, we just don’t really know. We wanted to leave it up in the air moving forward into Season 5.”
Matt Duffer described “Stranger Things 4” as the Netflix show’s “Empire Strikes Back Season” because “we wanted them to actually lose. We wanted our characters to experience what that that felt like. That was the big idea coming into Season 4, that they were going to lose. We were going to introduce Vecna and they were going to lose to him. That sets our characters up for what will be the ultimate final confrontation with Vecna and with the Upside Down in Season 5.”
While Max’s fate was left more ambiguous, there’s nothing left up in the air about Eddie’s fate. Joesph Quinn’s character was killed by demon bats in the Upside Down. “We fell in love with Eddie. We fell in love with Joe,” Matt Duffer said. “I think everybody in the cast fell in love with him. We knew he had to die…that’s part of me that wishes he still around for Season 5. That’s ultimately how you want to feel.”
“Stranger Things 4” is now streaming in its entirety on Netflix.
