Max Mayfield

Maxine "Max" Mayfield, portrayed by **Sadie Sink**, is a main character in *Stranger Things*, being introduced in the second season. A newcomer to the Party, and the stepsister of **Billy Hargrove**, she is close friends with **Will Byers**, **Dustin Henderson**, **Jane "Eleven" Hopper**, **Lucas Sinclair** and **Mike Wheeler**; she also has an on-and-off romantic relationship with **Lucas**.

Max was originally from California, and had a keen interest in skateboarding from a young age. Following her mother's divorce and remarriage to **Neil Hargrove** in 1984, Max and her erratic stepbrother **Billy** moved to Hawkins, Indiana. Max quickly gained a reputation at the Palace Arcade for topping the game leader boards, her high scores submitted under the player name "MADMAX". Max's high scores captured the attention of arcade regulars **Dustin**, **Lucas**, **Will** and **Mike**, who mistakenly assumed her to be a boy. After Maxine joined the boys' class at Hawkins Middle School, they realised the new girl and the mysterious MADMAX were one and the same. On Halloween, Max crossed paths with the boys while trick-or-treating, and despite being weirded-out by their earlier behaviour, had a change of heart, and sought to befriend them. **Dustin** and **Lucas**, each secretly pining for her affection, wanted to make Max an official member of "The Party", but **Mike** pushed back against the idea.

When Will started experiencing strange 'episodes', Max took notice, and became even more curious after learning of **Will**'s disappearance the previous year. Though her new friends were initially reluctant to explain what had happened to **Will**, **Lucas** eventually divulged the whole history of events involving **Will**, **Eleven**, the Demogorgon and the Upside Down. Though skeptical at first, Max's convictions would shift after encountering a pack of faceless humanoid predators alongside **Lucas**, **Dustin** and their friend **Steve Harrington**. Max and her friends soon realised **Will** was possessed by "The Mind Flayer", a malevolent entity serving as the mind and heart of the Upside Down, whose influence in Hawkins was expanding in the form of gigantic, vine-like tunnels burrowing deep beneath the city.

Max grew romantically attached to **Lucas**, but had an awkward first meeting with **Eleven** upon her return to Hawkins. After standing up to an erratic and violent **Billy** after his assault on **Steve** at the Byers house, Max further proved her worth, stealing **Billy**'s car and transporting the group to the underground tunnels. There, they assisted in the fight against the Mind Flayer by attacking the Upside Down's shared hive mind. After defeating the Mind Flayer, Max attended the Snow Ball with her new group of friends, and after sharing her first kiss with **Lucas**, would begin a relationship with him.

By the summer of 1985, Max had befriended **Eleven**, while going through cycles of dating **Lucas**, breaking up with him and getting back together again. However, to Max's discomfort, the Party's attention shifted to **Billy** after he was noted to be acting unusually. The group would later discover that **Billy** had become possessed by the Mind Flayer, prompting the Party and their allies to band together to defeat them. While the group battled the Spider Monster with fireworks at Starcourt Mall, **Eleven** reminded **Billy** of his humanity; her words prompted **Billy** to sacrifice his life to save **Eleven**'s, which horrified and traumatized Max. Despite her rocky relationship with **Billy**, Max was deeply affected by her stepbrother's loss and experienced a profound sense of grief, survivor's guilt, and depression. Three months later, Max, along with the rest of the Party, tearfully said goodbye to the Byers and **Eleven**, who had been relocated to California by **Dr. Owens**.

Months later, Max still struggled with **Billy**'s loss, suffering from frequent nightmares in which she would relive the moment of his death. She isolated herself from her friends, breaking up for good with **Lucas**. However, in March 1986, she decided to help her old friends investigate the murder of **Chrissy Cunningham**, who died across the street from her home. After learning that **Chrissy**, like her, had been seeing the school counselor, Max and her friends broke into the counselor's office to find clues relating to **Chrissy**'s death. Max realized she was experiencing the same symptoms as **Chrissy** and began seeing disturbing hallucinations super-imposed onto the world around her. Max and her friends came to the conclusion that she had been 'cursed' by a mysterious Upside Down entity dubbed "**Vecna**", and that she didn't have much time to live. However, Max was able to survive when her friends played her favorite song over her headphones, providing her with an anchor to reality, and giving her the strength to defy **Vecna** and return to reality. After discovering **Vecna**'s true plan, the group came up with a plan of attack to defeat **Vecna**, in which Max would act as bait to distract him, while **Nancy**, **Steve** and **Robin** would attack his real body in the Upside Down. At the abandoned Creel House, Max made herself vulnerable to Vecna's influence, turning off her cassette player. She began hallucinating again, but to her surprise, **Eleven** appeared in her visions, via her power of psychic projection. However, **Vecna** overpowered **Eleven**, and began killing Max.

Eleven found the strength to overcome **Vecna**'s control, and at the same time, **Nancy**, **Steve**, and **Robin** set **Vecna**'s physical form ablaze with Molotov cocktails. Though Max initially survived **Vecna**'s second murder attempt, she was blinded and her limbs were broken; for a moment, her heart even stopped. Her death triggered the opening of the fourth and final curse gate, wreaking havoc across Hawkins. However, **Eleven** used her abilities to restart Max's heart. She was brought back to life, but remained comatose, teetering on the boundary between life and death.