‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Episode 6 Ending Explained: Do Max and Holly escape Vecna’s memories?

Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 6 “Escape from Camazotz” might sound like it gives up the game in the title, but the latest installment of the Netflix hit still ends on a bracing cliffhanger.

Do Max (Sadie Sink) and Holly (Nell Fisher) finally manage to escape Vecna’s (Jamie Campbell Bower) mind? How do Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Robin (Maya Hawke), and Vickie (Amybeth McNulty) manage to save the comatose Max from the demodogs in the hospital? And what, according to Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), has the Upside Down really been this whole time?

**Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 6 “Escape from Camazotz,” now streaming on Netflix**

Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 6 “Escape from Camazotz” was written by Kate Trefry, the same Stranger Things writer behind the hit West End and Broadway show, Stranger Things: The First Shadow. That play explains how a young Henry Creel stumbled upon a secret military experiment in the caves of Arizona and, in doing so, developed the psychic powers that would eventually make him first 001 and then Vecna.

Thanks to Holly’s intrepid spirit, she and Max discover this harrowing memory in Vecna’s mind. In doing so, they also find a way out, by following the sound of the Kate Bush tape Lucas has been playing on repeat in the hospital. Just when it seems both girls have made it to freedom, Max reveals that her exit is not Holly’s. Holly can only escape by finding her way back to wherever Vecna is holding her body captive.

Holly isn’t the only Wheeler lady in trouble this week. Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) find themselves stuck in a room besieged by the chaotic matter of the anomaly she shot at the end of Episode 5. As reality literally melts around them, it seems their fate is sealed. Suddenly, deep buried truths come to the surface as the lovers prepare to say one final goodbye.

Meanwhile, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is able to escape the Upside Down with Hopper (David Harbour) and Kali (Linnea Berthelsen). She then uses the tank to pull Will (Noah Schnapp) out of Vecna’s trance, just in time for him to warn his friends that Vecna is sending Demodogs to the hospital to kill Max. Lucas, Robin, and Vickie fight to survive just as Max’s mind edges closer to freedom.

So do Max and Holly escape? Do Nancy and Jonathan die? And what is the Upside Down, really? Here’s what you need to know about the end of Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 6 “Escape from Camazotz”…

Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 6 Ending Explained: Do Max and Holly Really Escape Camazotz? 

That’s the big question, huh? This Stranger Things episode ends with Max and Holly escaping Vecna’s mind and getting to the creepy, blood red landscape that can lead to their freedom, but does it? Just before Max can leap back into her body, the show cuts to black. That said, given the triumphant Kate Bush arrangement and the fact that Lucas has successfully protected her body from the Demodogs, we can probably confirm Max is safe.

Holly, on the other hand, has a whole other series of obstacles to conquer. Even though Max is able to inspire Holly to take heart from “Holly the Heroic” to find her body, she is still being held physically captive by Vecna. Max tells Holly that she should wake up in the Upside Down and that the mirror world is just like Hawkins. Holly is supposed to rendezvous with friends at the Upside Down version of the Wheeler house. But will she get there?

Do Nancy and Jonathan Die in Stranger Things 5?

The two characters who seem in the gravest danger in Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 are undoubtedly Nancy and Jonathan. The two literally prepare to die, with Nancy kicking off a back-and-forth of deathbed confessions that range from the silly to the serious. Turns out she hates the Clash and he doesn’t like all of her newspaper articles.

Jonathan eventually confides that he briefly thought the answer to their relationship problems would be to propose. He finally gives her the John Coltrane cassette case hiding the engagement ring and says, “Will you not marry me?” Nancy accepts his “non-proposal.”

Just when it seems all is lost, the ring flies off the desk they’ve huddled on and lands on the goo flooding the room without sinking. The strange matter coming to kill them has hardened just in time for the two to be rescued by Steve and Dustin.

Nancy and Jonathan live…for now.

Stranger Things Twist: The Upside Down is a Wormhole Connecting Our World to A Different Dimension

We’ve long thought that the Upside Down is a mirror dimension to our own, locked in place from the moment Will Byers was sucked into that mysterious netherworld. Turns out that is wrong. So wrong.

What Dustin discovered in Dr. Brenner’s files is that the Upside Down is not a magical dark echo of our world, but a wormhole linking our dimension with another.

This “Dimension X” was originally introduced in Stranger Things: The First Shadow. A military experiment transported a ship to this place and the only survivor was Dr. Brenner’s father. Thus, Dr. Brenner was obsessed with finding a way back to Dimension X. The Upside Down was that place.

So what does this mean for the fate of Hawkins? We’ll have to watch the rest of Stranger Things 5 to find out.

Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 is now streaming on Netflix, but Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 8 comes out on December 31.