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, she is the older sister of Stephanie Mayfield, former girlfriend of Lucas Sinclair, and the best friend of Mike Wheeler, Jane "Eleven" Hopper, Dustin Henderson, and Will Byers.

## Max Mayfield

* Season Two
* Season Three
* Season Four

### Aliases

* Max (by everyone)
* MadMax (arcade name/by Billy)
* Random Girl (by Steve)
* Red (by Eddie)

### Relatives

* Sam Mayfield (Father)
* Susan Hargrove (Mother)
* Neil Hargrove (Stepfather)
* Stephanie Mayfield (Younger Sister)
* Billy Hargrove (Older Stepbrother)✝️
* Sarah Wheeler (Goddaughter)

## Appearances

### Debut

Chapter One: MADMAX

Originally from California, her parents' divorce and mother's remarriage caused Max, alongside her little sister, Stephanie Mayfield and vindictive stepbrother, Billy Hargrove, to relocate to Hawkins, Indiana, in October of 1984. Because of her stepbrother's verbal and emotional abuse, Max and Stephanie became skateboarding loners, while also gaining a reputation at the Palace Arcade with high scores, under the alias "MADMAX". On Halloween, she's invited to trick-or-treat with two boys, Dustin Henderson and Lucas Sinclair - both who secretly pine for her affection. The boys attempt to integrate Max into their group - better known as the Party, much to their leader Mike Wheeler's disapproval. When one of the Party's members, Will Byers, begins having strange episodes, Max is slowly told through bits and pieces of the events that happened in Hawkins prior to her arrival. Her skepticism and Billy's disapproval of Lucas causes a strain on her relationship with the Party, but it's not until Lucas, Dustin, and their friend Steve fight off dog-like creatures that she finally accepts the supernatural side of Hawkins. As Max helps her friends discover a malevolent entity infecting the town through an underground tunnel system, she soon grows romantically attracted to Lucas, while also proving her worth to the Party by standing up to Billy and stealing his car to give them a ride. After defeating the Mind Flayer, Max attends the Snow Ball with her new group of friends, and officially becomes Lucas' girlfriend as they share their first kiss while dancing.

Six months later in the summer of 1985, Max cares for her boyfriend, Lucas, despite his obvious lack of romance or chivalry, but when Eleven comes to her with relationship issues, Max takes her under her wing and shuns the guys. When they try to find out what the boys are up to without them, they instead stumble upon Max's stepbrother, Billy, in a compromising position and the girls eventually discovered that, as a result of Eleven closing the Gate, the Mind Flayer now resides in Hawkins, possessing Billy and forcing him to kidnap people to create a controlled army. Letting bygones be bygones, the girls ban together with Mike, Lucas, and Will (alongside Mike's sister, Nancy, and Will's brother, Jonathan) to battle the Mind Flayer, reuniting with Dustin, Steve, Robin, and Erica, who discover a Gate being built under the mall. While battling the monster with fireworks, Billy sacrifices himself for Eleven at the cost of his life, much to Max's horror. Three months later, Max, along with the rest of the Party, tearfully says goodbye to Will and Eleven as their family moved out of Hawkins. Meanwhile, Max continued to mourn the loss of her stepbrother by crying in his bedroom.

In March of 1986, following what happened to her stepbrother, Billy, Max’s grades dropped, and she's been reluctantly meeting with the school counselor. Her ex, Lucas, is concerned she's not telling him something, but she's turned a cold shoulder to him — as she has to everyone around her. Max is also having trouble sleeping, due to her nightmares of the previous summer. She's also gained terrible headaches. When Eddie is found as a witness for Chrissy's murder, she helps to investigate. Upon finding out that Chrissy had been seeing Ms. Kelly, Max goes to her house to find the keys to her office. After realizing that she's been having the same symptoms as Chrissy and Fred, it is revealed that she has been cursed by Vecna and that was causing these difficulties. She ends up almost dead, in the Vecna's mindspace, and is saved by Dustin, Lucas, and Steve. The next morning, she draws the Vecna's mindspace with Holly's crayons, and Nancy reveals the mindspace to have the Creel house inside of it. She visits the Creel house with Nancy, Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Lucas, and goes to Lover's Lake with them to find a gate. She ends up getting herself, Dustin, and Lucas investigated by Officer Powell and Officer Callahan in the Wheeler's house, where the group finds Nancy, Steve, and Robin through Holly's Lite Brite, and helps to make an attempt to get them out of the Upside Down. After Nancy is placed under Vecna's spell to send a message to Eleven that he will make Hawkins fall, Max realizes that every kill of Vecna has a chime; once Max is killed, the four total chimes will cause a rip in Hawkins. The group come up with a plan where Max will deliberately get hypnotized by Vecna and will be saved by Nancy, Robin, and Steve through the portals in the Upside Down. Gathering weapons, Max, Stephanie, Lucas, and Erica arrive at the Creel House and the plan works. She is nearly killed when Eleven saves her in her mindscape while Nancy, Steve, and Robin light Vecna's body on fire. Awakening, Max's limbs are snapped backwards and her eyes leave her blinded with blood, and she soon dies from her injuries, causing the rift in Hawkins to open and causes massive destruction in Hawkins. However, Eleven restarts her heart in the Void using her abilities. Two days later, though Max is alive, she is comatose, and her subconscious is empty in the Void. Stephanie sits by her bedside and reads to her, when she, Lucas and Erica discover the Upside Down beginning to infiltrate Hawkins.