How does Max wake up in Stranger Things 5 volume 2 — and why couldn't she take Holly?

This post contains spoilers from Stranger Things 5 volume 2 from this point forward.

After the amazing first part of the final season, the expectations for the answers and developments we would receive in Stranger Things 5 volume 2 couldn't have been higher. Beyond even the final battle against Vecna, there are still so many loose threads that we need clarity on, like Will's powers, Eleven's reunion with Eight, and how Max and Holly would escape from Camazots.

In Stranger Things 5 volume 1, Holly joined Max in the purgatory of Henry's mind, stuck inside an imaginary wold of horrors orchestrated by Vecna. But Holly the Heroic isn't one to give up, which we shouldn't be surprised about since she's Nancy and Mike's little sister. While getting the lay of the land, Holly makes a discovery that helps wake Max up and return to her body.

We have been waiting for Max to finally wake up and rejoin her friends, and we get to see the miraculous and heartwarming moment happen in Stranger Things 5 volume 2. However, during their escape from Henry's mindscape, Max realizes that Holly can't come with her. So, how does Max ultimately wake up, and why can't Holly join through her portal?

Max wakes up in Stranger Things 5 volume 2

In Stranger Things season 5 episode 6, "Escape from Camazots," Max and Holly venture outside of the cave through various memories, including an especially chilling one from Henry's childhood, that leads them to be able to escape his mind and re-enter the red lair. Thankfully, Max's portal is ready for her to run through back to her body since Lucas has been playing her song.

Even though "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush is one of the driving forces that allows Max to leave Henry's mind and wake up back in he body, Max believes that music isn't the only way. Something that connects her to the real world is the key to waking up from Vecna's hold. Being so, some mixture of music and Lucas being by her side is what releases Max from Henry's mind.

Why couldn't Holly leave Camazots with Max?

Unfortunately, when Max and Holly get to the red realm of Vecna's mind (which we can affectionately nickname "the lobby"), she realizes that there's only one portal open and Holly can't come with her through her portal. Since Max's portal leads to her body, Holly wouldn't be able to come through return to her own body. Holly's body isn't even in Hawkins.

Max talks Holly through her fear, guilt, and doubt and assures her that her Holly the Heroic pendant around her neck isn't simply a toy. She has become heroic herself. Without Holly, Max wouldn't have never found her way out of Camazots/Henry's mind. Once Holly believes in herself and feels the connection to her pendant, the connection to the real world opens her own portal.

Holly isn't on the other side of the wall in the Upside Down as the rest of the group had hypothesized, though. As they later realize, she's up in the Abyss with the other children that Vecna has stolen and brainwashed. They're all hooked up by their mouths to creepy tentacles. After running through her portal, Holly wakes up, removes herself from the tentacle, and escapes.

When she runs away from Vecna and opens a rift in the ground, she falls from the sky in the Upside Down. Nancy hears her scream as she falls through the sky, but Holly ends up sucked back up into the Abyss. She's right back where she started and fails to convince the kids — and Derek — they're in danger. And they are! It would have been so much better if Holly could have joined Max.

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