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It's been two years since the last Stranger Things season hit Netflix, and with the final season looming above us all, it's worth taking a look back on what actually happened in season 4. As Stranger Things has gone on, for better or for worse, the show has expanded beyond the scope of Hawkins, Indiana. And while I was initially very on board when the show debuted in 2016, when it was a story about a small town mystery, succeeding seasons have made the show feel bogged down by superfluous storylines (all of the stuff in Russia?). 

Still, season 4 of Stranger Things was its best season since its debut, in large part due to one character: Max. While the main cast of the show was scattered across Indiana, California, and Alaska, Max was stuck in Hawkins as Vecna began targeting kids with trauma in their lives, killing them off one by one. Now, all of the kids on Stranger Things have trauma in one way or another, but Max is a unique case. She had a jerk of an older brother named Billy in seasons 2 and 3, who she saw die in front of her. In season 4, the show gives her the proper space to work through her feelings of grief, relief, and everything in between by setting up a conflict between her and Vecna. In doing so, the show set her up to have the most heroic arc in the entire series - a fact I still feel comfortable saying before season 5 has begun streaming. 

Part of what drew us all into Stranger Things, initially, was the investigative nature of the show. In season 1, we had no idea what was going on, and we were figuring out things alongside Joyce and the kids on the show. However, as we've learned more about the Upside Down and the larger military apparatus that gave Eleven her superpowers, the succeeding seasons just haven't had the same sense of emotional stakes, for me at least. As the characters keep fighting monsters over and over again, they feel less and less relatable. 

Which is why Max's arc in season 4 works so well, because ultimately, her fight against Vecna is a powerful reckoning with her own mortality. She drives the investigative plot in season 4, because her life is at stake. And she's just a kid, which is what makes it all the more heartbreaking to watch. As she puts the pieces together, and finally tells her friends that she thinks she has less than a week to live before Vecna comes for her, she isn't interested in hearing them say how unfair it is for her to have to go through this. She simply wants to get down to business. Actress Sadie Sink brings a layered sense of angst to the role, as we see Max struggle with the rage she has about the trauma in her life and in the unfairness of how she's been marked as Vecna's next victim. 

Now, as season 4's greatest hero, Max has to overcome the season's greatest obstacles: apathy and capitulation. Ultimately, the reason why Vecna has been targeting each victim is that they have unresolved trauma that they feel guilty about. For Max, it's her brother Billy, whose death she grieves, even if she also recognizes how much of an abusive asshole he was. And as much as she wants to figure out how Vecna is making this all happen, her cynical side has led her to accept her imminent demise. She solemnly writes letters to everyone she loves, because she doesn't expect to survive what Vecna has in store for her. In episode 4 of the season, aptly titled "Dear Billy," Vecna takes her into the Upside Down after she reads a letter addressed to Billy in front of his grave. As Vecna prepares to kill her, he tells her, "[Your friends] can't help you. There's a reason you hide from them," referring to the grief and trauma she keeps hidden from them. 

But as her friends blast her favorite song, Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God), Max becomes galvanized. Powered by nothing but Kate Bush herself and the knowledge that her friends love her unconditionally, Max sprints away from Vecna and the Upside Down, cementing one of the show's most iconic sequences. And it's a powerful scene because it reveals how the depths of depression can cut us off from the ones who love us most. In these moments, our own inner demons, our own Vecnas, can feel like insurmountable mountains that we're forced to run up time and time again. But with a little help from those closest to us and a lot of Kate Bush, we can find the strength to keep going.

Mind you, this all happens midway through season 4 of the show, and there's plenty more growth that Max undergoes in the remaining episodes. Unfortunately, despite how solid the Max plotlines are in this season of Stranger Things, season 4 is still bogged down by its other circular plotlines (seriously, do we really need a "will they, won't they?" romantic subplot with Nancy and Steve?). Ultimately, Max ends up in a coma at the end of season 4, and it's currently unclear if she is going to make it out alive in season 5. Thus far, the only glimpses we've gotten of her in season 5 have been Lucas carrying her unconscious body in the hospital. So things aren't looking great for our hero. 

Regardless of what happens, even if she doesn't pull through, Max will still have gone down as Stranger Things's greatest hero. 

As we all collectively wait for Stranger Things season 5, here's the keys to getting ready:

• How to watch Stranger Things in chronological or release order
• Getting to know the Stranger Things season 5 cast
• There needs to be more death in Stranger Things, says co-star Gaten Matarazzo
• The Stranger Things time jump between season 4 and 5 has been confirmed by Netflix - and it raises some serious questions
• "They land the plane," David Harbour describes the Stranger Things finale, which he calls its "best episode"