Max’s storyline just became the most mysterious part of Stranger Things 5

After the game-changing events of Stranger Thing season 4, we were going into the fifth and final season with endless questions about Vecna, the Upside Down, and what it all means for our favorite Hawkins heroes. In particular, there were still linger questions about what would happen to Max.

Last season, Max was nearly killed by Vecna, but Eleven was able to use her powers to save Max's life. She's not completely back from the dead just yet, as Stranger Things season 5 reveals just like everyone had expected that Max is still in a coma, even after Eleven helped heal her injuries.

Needless to say, the question about Max's fate persist and have become even more complicated after the first part of season 5. The first four episodes drop an unexpected surprise about Max that no one could have seen coming, making her storyline one of the season's biggest mysteries.

WARNING: Major spoilers ahead from Stranger Things season 5 part 1.

Where is Max in Stranger Things 5 part 1?

Physically, Max remains in a coma at the hospital. Lucas continues to visit her and play "Running Up That Hill" to possibly help bring her back, but she hasn't been able to wake up just yet. For the most part, that's the biggest update on Max's physical form in Stranger Things season 5 volume 1, but the first four episodes dropped a shocking twist about where she actually is in episode 4.

Max appears in the episode 3 cliffhanger, which comes as a real surprise. Holly Wheeler gets taken by Henry a.k.a. Mr. Whatsit and he leaves her in the Creel House. When a rapid knock at the door subsides, Holly ventures outside to find a letter and map in the mailbox. Believing it's from Henry, she follows the map and ends up in a mountainous desert. She's quickly met by Max, who wrote the map.

It's revealed, or at least strongly believed, that Max and Holly are trapped in Henry's mind. While Max's body is stuck in a coma at the Hawkins Hospital, her spirit has been sequestered in the depths of Henry's mind, some sort of purgatory that's not in the Upside Down. Seemingly, she had been alone in there until Holly showed up, and found a safe haven in a cave that Henry wouldn't enter. He chased Max down, but when she went inside the cave, he appeared to choke up and leave.

Max has made the cave her de facto home, gathering supplies on her rare and careful trips outside of the cave. She explains the story to Holly, including how she was also somehow transported back in time to when Henry and all of the Hawkins parents were in high school and how she narrowly was able to run out of this weird alternate realm through an opening while "Running Up That Hill" played.

She apparently missed her chance to escape Henry's mind and wake up from her coma when the Kate Bush tape stopped playing and Lucas had to rewind it. For now, it's unclear how Max — and now Holly — will be able to be free from Henry's mind. Somehow, they are stuck in the same strange purgatory even though one is still in Hawkins and the other has been kidnapped to the Upside Down.

We have an answer to where Max is and what happened to her so far, but it's incredibly complicated. She's in a coma, but she's also in Henry's mind. She's alive, but she's also unconscious. She lives in a cave, but she's also in a hospital bed in Hawkins. We haven't yet seen the scene in the trailer where Lucas carries her out of the hospital, so there's lots more to look forward to for Max in season 5!

Stranger Things season 5 volume 2 drops on Christmas Day at 8 p.m. ET on Netflix, and the series finale releases on New Year's Eve at the same time.