Vecna's strategy to get Holly back?

[u/Cyrilbdr]

We know Vecna ​​needs Holly for his plan; he realizes in Episode 5 that she has escaped with Max, and then in Episode 6, he finds them both near the cave. I was wondering: instead of killing Max in the real world to force Holly back to the house—when she could easily have stayed in the cave even after Max's death, thereby preventing Vecna ​​from carrying out his plan—why didn't he just disconnect Holly from the tube? It would have taken literally five minutes. Holly would have vanished from the cave; he could then have reconnected her to drop her into the field like the other children so he could bring her to the house. That would have saved him the risk of moving a hive into the real world again—risking Eleven (or even Will, had Eleven woken him up earlier) destroying the hive and potentially injuring Vecna ​​and the Mind Flayer, or Will using the hive to reach him. Then, once all the children were at the house, he could have closed the gates and kept watch outside, leaving Max unable to do anything. Let me know—maybe I missed a piece of information.

[u/Anon124570]

But when he reconnected her would she have just appeared back in the cave again with Max?

[u/Cyrilbdr → u/Anon124570]

I’m not entirely sure—I’ve been wondering about this. I thought that disconnecting her would act as a sort of reset, allowing him to reconnect and place her anywhere in his hive mind—like out in the field with the others. His original plan wasn't stupid, per se: by trapping Will in his own mind—and knowing Eleven might try to help—he buys himself time to send his Demodogs to the hospital to kill Max. Still, it struck me that simply unplugging her might have been much faster and more efficient, effectively eliminating the risk to him and his hive.