Stranger Things Season 5: Max and Holly’s conversation arrived at the worst possible moment and we all felt it

The premiere of Stranger Things Season 5 was divided into three sections: the first part, which consisted of four episodes, was released on November 26, the second part, which contained three episodes, was released on December 25, and the series finale is slated for December 31.

Fans have been waiting for Max Mayfield to break out of Vecna’s nightmare brain prison, and finally, it happens in Episode 6, Escape from Camazotz. You would think we would get a big, fist-pumping moment. Instead, Max stops right at the escape hatch and decides it’s time for a heart-to-heart with Holly Wheeler. Please, Max, the portal is wide open, Vecna is probably brewing up new horrors, and you are just… chatting?

We have waited since Stranger Things Season 4 to see Max come back to the real world, see Lucas, hug her friends, all that good stuff. Then she stalls for a full-on therapy session while all of Hawkins is burning down outside. It was the kind of moment that makes you want to yell at your TV.

Max and Holly’s scene in Stranger Things made us want to scream at our screens

In Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2, after Max and Holly finally busted into the red realm, the same place Max had almost gotten out of before, they spotted Max’s portal, just there, open, with Lucas playing Running Up That Hill on the other side. Victory is a hop away. And then Max reveals that Holly can’t come with her. She spells out the logic since Holly’s body isn’t in the hospital with hers; they can’t just use the same escape hatch.

It makes sense, but talk about the absolute worst timing. Max slides into therapist mode, trying to calm Holly down and talking her through the panic, all the guilt, and the “what ifs.” She tells her that the “Holly the Heroic” pendant isn’t just a trinket. Holly is legit heroic now.

But that scene in Stranger Things was maddening to say the least. Every second they waste chit-chatting is another second Vecna could sniff them out. Every pep talk is just Vecna’s invitation to drop in and ruin everything. You just know, as a viewer, this is not the time for a heart-to-heart. We have all watched enough of these scenes to scream at the TV. The suspense isn’t just dramatic at this point; it’s borderline torture.

The annoyance here is baked into the bones of the show’s storytelling this season. Everything just magically works out, so the stakes feel fake. What are we even supposed to worry about? Max is literally in mortal danger. Vecna is after her, Henry is poking around in Will’s brain, and demodogs are tearing through the hospital walls.

And then Max decides that this is the perfect moment for some heartfelt life coaching. She is standing there, jaws of death wide open, and instead of running or fighting for her life, she is giving Holly a pep talk about self-worth. Read the room, Max!

What really elevated the annoyance was just how ridiculously easy it all went down. Max gives Holly a pep talk, tells her she has main character energy, and magically, there’s another portal for Holly. It almost felt like all the tension in Stranger Things is pointless.

If everyone knows Nancy and Jonathan are getting their last-minute rescue, or that Holly is just going to get her own portal handed over, why bother worrying? There’s zero tension. That chat between Max and Holly felt fake. We all knew they would be fine, not because they outsmarted some insane danger, but because the writers needed them to be fine. Max puts both of them in the danger zone for a heart-to-heart that boils down to Holly just needing a confidence boost? That’s the kind of conversation you have after you have escaped certain doom, not while you are still neck-deep in it.

We are all for characters having their big emotional moments. Max helping Holly tap into her own strength is exactly what makes sprawling shows actually mean something. But the timing is everything. You can’t just drop a five-minute therapy session in the middle of a ‘run for your life’ sequence and expect people to buy it. Our survival brain cannot handle that.

Max does one right thing as she tells Holly to hunker down in the Upside Down, keep breathing, hang tight for backup. That’s solid advice. The problem is that they spent so long on the emotional heart-to-heart, it’s like they straight-up forgot there’s a demon spider monster lurking around the corner.

If this chat happened earlier, maybe back in the cave, or even tossed out quickly while they were sprinting for their lives, we would buy it. But they hit pause on a literal apocalypse to work through trust issues, and all it did was pull us right out of the tension. Instead of feeling moved, we were just yelling at the screen.

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Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 is now streaming on Netflix.

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