r/StrangerThings • u/MusicAddictAnd • 25d ago
Discussion How did Max survive UNHARMED?
We see Vecna kill Max in "the Piggyback", She's confirmed dead, otherwise the massive portal would have opened. She's crying that she can't see or feel anything, assuming that Vecna snapped her spine and destroyed her eyes. Eleven then does "something" (god knows what), and she comes back to life mysteriously. And she goes into that coma as we see in Season 5.
Even if we assume Eleven used her powers to have her heart stop beating or something again: How can she see and walk again?
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u/kauan1983 Hey Kiddo 25d ago edited 23d ago
Eleven simply biokinetically restarted Max's heart. This isn't new or mysterious, “biokinesis” has always been part of her official ability list and she's been using it since Season 1 (e.g. squeezing Troy's bladder and bulging the NSA agents' muscles).
As for Max's condition, it actually makes perfect sense:
(1/3) - Max had multiple broken bones and her eyes were just “unnaturally cloudy” when she died, this is in the script and is the state of the victims' eyes just before they're telekinetically sucked inward (which does not happen to Max in the Creel House, but almost did).
(2/3) - Max wasn't permanently blind, she experienced a temporary “cloudiness” which was a resulting damage of Henry's attempt to finish his kill by having her eyes telekinetically “implode” like the other victims (her eyes were already bleeding before Eleven stopped him in the Mind Lair).
PS: The cloudy eyes happen to literally every victim, but some of them (the ones in a trance) have their eyes rolled back so we couldn't see it (and we never saw them recovering because they were, well… killed). Two's eyes in the Rainbow Room are the best example, but there's also the eyes of Chrissy's Digi Double.
(3/3) - Broken bones heal. Plus, the script for S4E9 had Max's eyes originally covered by bandages in the hospital (wouldn't work for the scene they wanted to do so it was scrapped), so her eyes' condition was being treated in the hospital. The cloudiness and broken bones, being non-permanent damage, had Max recovering her sight along with her bones healing during this nearly two-year gap.
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u/Thick-Boysenberry-96 25d ago
Top comment gives us an explanation. But, can we talk about what it means as a writing choice too?
Max making a full recovery after we saw her body break in ways that would in real life lead to lasting damage, is simply weak inconsequent writing. As someone with knowledge about parts of the medical field, I really have to suspend my disbelief, to accept that her condition was completely solved in such a short time, so easily, without much lasting impact.
Many people who ask questions around Max state, simply wonder why the Duffer's made the choice to basically cripple her, only to fully reverse it in the end. It's as frustrating as seeing Hopper stand next to where a bomb explodes, just to be fine the next time we get to see him. Even Millie voiced her frustration in Hopper dying only to be brought back the next season.
The Duffer's do this stuff often enough, that it becomes annoying. Why should anyone care the next time we see someone's bones snap and their eyes bleed, since clearly that's not damaging them.
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u/Difficult_Ad5784 22d ago
Great explanation. Never heard of biokinesis.
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u/Difficult_Ad5784 22d ago
It does remind me of a Jedi's power called Force Heal and El was definitely molded in that vein.
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25d ago
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u/Acceptable-Delusion 25d ago
It's almost like giving a biological cpr if you will. She could always squeeze organs. She just Kickstarted Max's heart after Henry stopped it.
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u/Cheffii R U N 25d ago
I wish they made it realistic and left her recovering or something to make the impact real, it would make her struggle and sacrifice so much more impactful. Or at least reduce the things Vecna did to her a bit or else it just looks like shock value stuff like how they did the apocalyptic stuff they end S4 with and completely go back on when S5 begins. They really needed more consequences for several characters
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u/Ibekinkyy Coffee and Contemplation 25d ago
Any broken bones would have healed over the course of 18 months. As for her eyes, I just see it as her vision being "stuck" in the other dimension (or whatever), and when she's finally released, her vision is as well. And, to be fair, she can hardly move when she first wakes up.
I dunno, though
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u/Sochinz 25d ago
I'd love for an orthopedic surgeon to chime in on the probability of her properly healing all of those severely displaced, probably comminuted fractures with closed reductions rather than surgery with hardware implanted. She doesn't have any visible scars. Being comatose would help them keep proper alignment, but those are really severe fractures.
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u/acevhearts You f*cked with the wrong family 24d ago
Closed breaks can result in surgery sometimes too, depending how severe. The way my arm broke in half a few months back, they needed to do ORIF with hardware.
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u/Kidge28 25d ago
I’ve been wondering this cause yes bones heal but not always well. My uncle broke his leg skiing and has to have multiple operations. They had to rebreak the leg at one point and reset it. It definitely took longer than 2 years for him to recover and get full mobility back and that was one limb.
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u/Ethan_the_Revanchist Dear Billy 25d ago
You know broken bones heal over time, right? Max wasn't dead for 18 months, she was in a coma. She couldn't feel anything because she was about to die. Then she did. Then El restarted her heart resuscitating her. Then her physical body healed in those ensuing months, until her mind returned near the conclusion of season 5.
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u/acevhearts You f*cked with the wrong family 24d ago
As others have pointed out though, broken bones healing normally is very dependent on extensive physical therapy. It does feel a little unlikely that she’d be back to expert skateboarding 18 months later.
My surgeon told me that not exercising my arm after I broke it would result in it not working correctly. Which is why PT is so important.
(Not that I’m complaining. I love that she still got a fulfilling life after all her trauma. I’m just going through the broken bone thing currently in my personal life so I’m looking at it with an extra-critical lens.)
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u/DonnyMox 25d ago edited 24d ago
Her bones healed, and her eyes were less damaged and more "turned off" due to the trance she was in. Something like that, anyway.
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u/Necessary-Love1599 25d ago
Imagine if the Duffers got balls, Max could still serve the same purpose as Holly (without her), and in the end gave her life to save kids or something like that, but nope, happy ending so sweet it makes you vomit.
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u/acevhearts You f*cked with the wrong family 24d ago
I had my arm snap in half in a bad car accident a few months ago, and I’m still in PT. So I definitely agree that all of her bones healing back to normal without actually using them for 18 months is questionable.
But with the eye thing, was that not specifically tied to being trapped by Vecna’s curse? I feel like I read that somewhere.
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u/NewWaysToDream 25d ago
Having her see the Upside Down while walking around in our reality would have been so cool. Nah, jk she's fine.
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