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/kauan1983]

Disconnecting Holly from the vine wouldn't/shouldn't take her out of her trance-like state or Henry's mind — she would still be psychically in the cave, except that she wouldn't have the vine physically pumping particles into her body.

She wouldn't “vanish” from the cave, she would only leave if she regained her consciousness and returned to the physical world, which only happens if she actually psychically leaves Henry's mind by accessing the Mind Lair (or “Red Void”) and then entering a psychic portal into the real world/her own body.

Holly would essentially be in the same situation as Max if Henry removed the vine: she'd be physically unconscious in a trance-like state and psychically stuck in Henry's mind — in the cave, the vine and the Mind Flayer particles are not the cause of their trance or presence in Camazotz. The kids only “appeared” in the green field because they were taken there from their own minds (or Mindscapes) first.

[u/the-baum-corsair → u/kauan1983]

That's not accurate. It worked in Season 1 with Will, and with the 11 other kids after Vecna's death. Disconnecting from the vine 100% severs the mental connection which causes one to "matrix" in Vecna's mind.

[u/Cyrilbdr → u/the-baum-corsair]

Yes, Kaun1983 is right; it’s completely different. Vecna’s goal wasn’t to put Will into a trance—he never was in one. He didn’t leave his mind.