When Stranger Things star Sadie Sink was asked to explain the cause of Max and Lucas’s offscreen breakup, the actor unintentionally hinted at their potential season 5 reunion. Stranger Things has not been kind to the show’s romantic couplings. Jonathan and Nancy barely saw each other in Stranger Things season 4 and, upon their reunion, even their respective near-death experiences weren’t enough to prompt some honesty from Jonathan when it came to his secret future plans.
Meanwhile, Eleven and Mike were kept apart by distance for the much of Stranger Things season 4, a mistake that season 5 must not repeat as this left Mike’s story strand feeling pointless in the grand scheme of things. Of course, both of these couples still had an easier time than the saddest Stranger Things sweethearts, Max and Lucas. That couple didn’t even make it into Stranger Things season 4 intact, with Max dumping Lucas some time between the season 3 finale and the season 4 premiere.
While Stranger Things never explicitly explained why the couple went their separate ways, it was heavily implied that Max was the one doing the breaking up rather than Lucas. In a July interview Max’s actor Sadie Sink offered an explanation for the breakup, saying that Mad and Lucas went their separate ways because Lucas wanted Max to face her feelings (with his ) and she couldn’t. While neither of these characters is guaranteed to survive Stranger Things season 5, the comments could still bode well for their future reunion nonetheless.
Stranger Things Season 5 Can Reunite Max & Lucas
The brutality of Stranger Things season 4 forced Max to face her trauma for better or worse, with the heroine almost dying at Vecna’s hands twice. This means that, provided Max makes it into Stranger Things season 5 alive, the couple could reunite since the unspoken grief driving them apart is something that Max has now started to process. Lucas made it clear throughout Stranger Things season 4 that he still cared deeply for his former love interest, a point further underlined by the moving scene of Lucas reading to a comatose Max in her hospital bed.
Sink’s explanation for why Max broke up with Lucas before her showdown with Stranger Things 4 villain Vecna is fairly easy to follow. Per the actor (via Collider), “Lucas is actively moving on and trying to find the new him and wanting happiness and something new and exciting and to be cool, and Max is not ready to do that. She doesn’t want to do it. She has no interest in that whatsoever.” This was certainly true of the isolated, lonely Max seen in Stranger Things season 4, as proven by the memorable sequence of Sink’s heroine blocking out the sounds of her high school by blaring Kate Bush through her headphones. However, this loneliness almost killed Max in season 4 and her survival relied on her friendship with both Lucas and Eleven, both of whom were willing to put themselves in harm’s way to try and save her. As such, Stranger Things season 5 may well reunite Max with Lucas now that the heroine knows how much she needs those closest to her.