Ending of season 4 of Stranger Things explained: the piggyback, Max, the rift, and what it sets up
Season 4 · The ending · Explanations
Season 4 ends on a defeat: Vecna has vanished, Max is in a coma, four gates have joined, and the earth has opened in a cross in the middle of town. For the first time, the Upside Down is coming over to our side. Here is the ending explained, step by step, and what it prepares.
The essentials
- The plan: the piggyback: Max as bait, Eleven in her mind
- The fight: Nancy, Steve and Robin against Vecna's body, in the Creel house
- Max: dead for a few seconds, brought back by Eleven, in a coma
- The ending: four gates meet; the town is cut in two
Contents
Explanation of the ending: the piggyback plan
The plan comes down to three teams. Max, Vecna's designated target, serves as bait in the Creel house: she lets the trance come, so that he is busy. Eleven, from a Nevada pizza shop, in a freezer turned into a sensory bath, enters Max's mind “piggyback,” that is the meaning of piggyback, to face Vecna from the inside. Nancy, Steve and Robin, in the Upside Down Creel house, attack his body while he is in a trance. Dustin and Eddie, in the trailer, divert the demobats.
The Vecna T-shirt, the provisional winner.
In the shopWomen's Max's Mixtape T-shirt39,90 €See the product
What happens
Everything goes wrong at once. Vecna traps Eleven in Max's memories, and explains his plan to her: four deaths, four gates, a town opened. The Demobats come back too fast; Eddie draws them away from the trailer and dies under their bites. In the Creel house, Nancy, Steve and Robin burn Vecna's body with a Molotov cocktail and riddle him with bullets; Nancy sends him through the window. When they go down, he is gone.
In the trance, Eleven, carried by the memory of Mike telling her he loves her, breaks Vecna's hold. Too late: Max, her limbs broken, her eyes closed, dies in Lucas's arms.
| Character | At the end of season 4 |
|---|---|
| Max | Brought back by Eleven after a few seconds; coma, broken limbs, blind |
| Vecna | Burned, riddled, fallen through the window; gone |
| Eddie | Dead under the demobats |
| Eleven | Powers back; brought Max back but feels Vecna is alive |
| Hopper and Joyce | Back from Russia |
| The town | Cut in two by a cross-shaped rift |
Max: dead, then not
Max's heart stops. Eleven, still in her mind, refuses to let her go and brings her back: the heart starts again, but Max stays in a coma, blind, her bones broken. The fourth death has still happened, if only for a few seconds: the fourth gate opens under the Creel house, joins the other three, and the earth splits in a cross in the middle of town. That is the “earthquake” the outside world believes.
The fourth-death trapVecna did not need Max to stay dead long: he needed the death, not the corpse. The few seconds were enough. That is what makes the ending bitter: the party saved Max and lost the battle.
The last scene
Two days later, everyone is gathered at Hopper's cabin: Eleven finds Hopper again, whom she thought dead, and Joyce. Then Will says he can feel Vecna, wounded but alive. The group climbs the hill: ashes fall from the sky, the flowers die, and in the distance the clouds of the Upside Down advance over the town. The title sequence drops on a rain of spores. The Upside Down starts to come over to our side.
What it sets up
Everything season 5 tells comes out of that scene: the town under military quarantine eighteen months later, Max still in a coma, whose consciousness turns out to be a prisoner of Vecna's mind, Will bound to him more strongly than ever, and Vecna invisible, preparing from the Abyss what the party thought it had stopped.
The Max figure, the one from the cemetery.
In the shopLego Max Mayfield mini figure14,90 €See the product
The plan's three teams, and their result
| Crew | Mission | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Max, Lucas, Erica | Max serves as bait in the Creel house in Hawkins, to draw Vecna into her mind | Jason steps in, Lucas fights, Max is killed then brought back |
| Nancy, Steve, Robin | Enter the Upside Down Creel house and burn Vecna's body | Vecna is riddled with bullets and burned, but disappears through the window |
| Dustin and Eddie | Divert the demobats from the trailer, with “Master of Puppets” | Eddie dies a hero, Dustin holds him in his arms |
| Eleven, in a Nevada pizzeria | The piggyback: entering Max's mind to face Vecna | She saves Max once, then brings her back from the dead |
| Hopper, Joyce, Murray, in Kamchatka | Destroy the particles of the Upside Down in the Russian prison | Murray's flamethrower weakens Vecna at a distance |
Why Max is not quite back
Max dies for about a minute, the time it takes for the fourth gate to open. Eleven brings her back to life, but not all of her: she stays in a coma, blind, limbs broken, and her mind is not in her body. Season 5 will say where it is: in Henry's memories, where Max has been wandering since her death, looking for a way out. That is where she will guide Holly, and that is where Lucas, by playing her song at the hospital, will bring her back.
In hindsight, the end of season 4 is therefore not a resurrection but a kidnapping. Vecna got his fourth gate, and he kept Max hostage in his own mind.
The two days after: the rift
The epilogue takes place two days later. The town has been cut in two by a fissure, and the version served to the residents talks of an earthquake. Part of Hawkins evacuates; the others set up an aid camp at the high school, where Nancy, Robin, Steve, and Dustin hand out blankets. Dustin finds Eddie's uncle, Wayne, and gives him the pick; Eddie remains, for the town, a murderer on the run.
Eleven, Mike, Will, Jonathan and Argyle finally arrive, after three days on the road in the Surfer Boy van. Will feels Vecna on the back of his neck: he is not dead, he is wounded. Hopper, Joyce and Murray come back from Russia. And the last image shows the group on a hill, facing spores falling from the sky: the Upside Down has started to invade Hawkins. Season 5 opens nineteen months later, with the town under quarantine.
The Season 4 poster.
In the shopBrown Vecna mask34,90 €See the product
TakeawayThe piggyback: Max as bait, Eleven in her mind. Eddie dies, Vecna vanishes, Max dies for a few seconds. Four gates meet, the town splits in a cross. The last scene: the ashes, the Upside Down on our side.
Frequently asked questions
How does season 4 end?
The plan to kill Vecna half fails: he is burned and disappears, Max dies for a few seconds then is brought back by Eleven, but the fourth rift opens and the town is cut in two. The season ends on the Upside Down coming over to our side.
Does Max die at the end of season 4?
A few seconds. Eleven brings her back; she stays in a coma, blind and bones broken, until season 5.
Is Vecna dead at the end of season 4?
No. Burned, riddled with bullets and fallen through the window, he disappears; Will senses he is alive.
What is the piggyback?
The finale's plan: Max serves as bait in the Creel house, and Eleven enters her mind from Nevada to face Vecna from the inside.
Where is Max's mind after the finale?
In Henry's memories, as season 5 reveals: she has been wandering there since her one-minute death, looking for a way out, and will guide Holly.
What happens in the season 4 epilogue?
Two days later, the town is cut by a crack presented as an earthquake; Dustin returns Eddie's pick to his uncle, everyone is reunited, and spores fall on Hawkins.