Spoilers for season four ahead.
The newest season could have been a lot grimmer if The Duffer Brothers had gone through with killing off this fan-favourite character.
In case you're still reeling from that epic two-hour and 20 minute episode nine, it turns out things could have gone a lot worse in 'Stranger Things' season four for Max, played by Sadie Sink.
It wasn't an easy ride for the characters during the series' fourth outing, but the one who ended up getting the long end of the Vecna stick was undoubtedly Max. As we began the season, the teen was dealing with the gruesome death of her older brother, Billie, from season three, which in turn led the big bad of season four to target her as one of his next victims in Hawkins.
Only Kate Bush (and Max's quick-thinking friends) could save her from his hideous hands during the climax of the fourth episode, and she remained on the must-watch list for the rest of the season. The youngsters did all that they could to stave off Vecna, but during the season finale, he finally got revenge on her. The season ended with Max in a coma, full of broken bones, no eyesight and no sign of life.
If this ending for 'Stranger Things' season four wasn't harsh enough - it turns out it could have been a lot worse. Series creators The Duffer Brothers revealed in a recent interview that they originally wanted Max to die after her encounter with the villain.
Ross Duffer said: "It was discussed as a possibility. For a while, that is what was going to happen. But we ended up in this… we wanted to end it with a little more of a question at the end of the season.
"It’s still really dark and if Max is going to be okay, we just don’t really know. We wanted to leave it up in the air moving forward into season five."
Matt Duffer added: "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 five."
According to Sadie Sink, she still hasn't found out her Max's fate for the final season of 'Stranger Things'. She said: "I just hope that she’s able to do anything, I guess. Yeah, I have no clue what is going on just with her in general… Hopefully she’s out of the hospital… out of the full-body cast, that would be great."
Although Max didn't bite the bullet just yet, one other new fan-favourite character unfortunately did. Before he died in The Upside Down, Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) went out with a rapturous guitar solo to Metallica's 'Master of Puppets'. In the clip above, Joseph describes Eddie as "a brave boy".