Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 Vol 1 (First 4 episodes, S05E01 The Crawl, S05E02 The Vanishing of…, S05E03 The Turnbow Trap, S05E04 Sorcerer)
First, yes Season 5 Vol 1 was released about month ago (on US Thanksgiving), but I didn’t see any other discussion threads, and I just finished watching it last night.
Season 5 Vol 2 releases on Christmas and Vol 3 (the finale) on New Years.


Re Max.
When we first saw Max still in a coma I couldn’t figure out how they were going to use that plot line. When Holly is dancing around Henry’s perfect house and someone knocked on the door I knew it had to be Max. Mostly because she was the only hero unaccounted for.
I figured maybe Vecna had tried to convince her that she was living in a perfect world, but Max being both older and having seen his tricks, wasn’t convinced and was hiding. Her being older also explained why Vecna wanted younger kids. (Which is sorta true as Vecna confirms later on, children are easier to control/break.)
However a line I did find interesting is that Max says she “died” and went nowhere, until one day she woke up in a memory, Vecna’s origin memory, the day he began his change from Henry to Vecna.
Is Max’s life tied directly to Vecna? If Vecna dies, will Max die?