Early in “Sorcerer,” the fourth episode of Stranger Things ‘ fifth season, viewers get a familiar sight: Max Mayfield ( Sadie Sink ), digitally de-aged to look like she did when she nearly died fighting Vecna at the end of season four. As part of a flashback explaining how her mind lives trapped in Vecna’s memories while her body remains comatose in a Hawkins hospital, Max takes us to another location, at once familiar and slightly off. Max walks out of a darkened high school gym into a busy hallway, where people she knows as adults are now high school students, including future Mrs. Byers, Joyce Maldonado (Birdy).

The scene lasts only a couple of seconds, and exists just to establish that Max is in the mind of Henry Creel, who will later become Vecna . But for those who saw the p

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