While “Stranger Things” season 4 ends with the possibility that Max may somehow pull through, her death “was discussed as a possibility,” according to Ross Duffer. “For a while, that is what was going to happen,” he said. Matt Duffer explained that at the end of season 4, the show’s protagonists had to fail in order to properly set up season 5:

“We wanted them to actually lose. We wanted our characters to experience what 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.”

Ultimately, what saved Max from certain, complete doom was the Duffers’ desire for a little more ambiguity leading into season 5. As Ross Duffer explains:

“We wanted to end it with a little more of a question mark at the end of the season. Where it’s still really dark and we don’t know if Max is going to be okay. We don’t really know. We wanted to leave it up in the air moving forward into season 5.”

One thing is for sure: The death of new fan-favorite Eddie (Joseph Quinn) and the shocking physical attack on Max are going to have huge ripple effects on what happens in the upcoming final season. “The fact that [Max] is in a coma, I can’t really get into the details, but it is important that she is,” Matt Duffer teased. “And that is going to have a major effect on 5. So it’s not a cheat. It’s incredibly relevant to 5.”