It’s hard to keep love alive amid the deadly onslaught of Stranger Things. The screaming! The gore! The unwanted trips to another dimension! It’s a romantic menace — just ask the adorable pair that is Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin). 

When viewers check back in on the couple in Season 4, something is very, very wrong. Mostly because they stopped being a couple during the school year that precedes the events of Volume 1 — without much of an explanation. Lucas has dropped Dungeons & Dragons nights in favor of athletic stardom, and Max has spent her freshman year fading into the background following the death of her stepbrother, Billy (Dacre Montgomery). During the premiere episode, “The Hellfire Club,” Max mentions that she “broke up” with Lucas, but offers no other details. Thankfully, Sadie Sink, who plays Max, has some helpful insights on the off-screen split. 

Tina Rowden/Netflix

“I’m sure it was that Max started to close herself off and Lucas wanted to dig deeper,” Sink tells Tudum from Netflix’s Los Angeles FYSEE space. “That was too much for her.” She adds that “they’re just in such different places” and that “Lucas is thriving and moving on in a disingenuous way” — at least from Max’s perspective. As burgeoning jock Lucas rages against feeling like a “loser” to Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Max avoids her friends altogether. She forgets her guidance counselor appointments and skips Lucas’ big basketball game. When Lucas tells Max she’s becoming “a ghost” in the premiere, she shuts down. 

“[Their relationship] is scary for Max, and it always has been. Because I don’t think she’s ever had someone care for her like Lucas or see her in the way that he does,” Sink says. “She’s never cared about someone in the way she cares for Lucas either. So she avoids it a little bit or can’t make up her mind about it.” 

But, as fans see over the course of Season 4, these two crazy kids can’t really stay away from each other. Volume 1 kicks off with the Hawkins crew’s fight against Vecna, the latest Upside Down villain to have the sleepy Indiana town in its sights. The battle to save their home brings Max and Lucas together, as one of their lives ends up on the line. In the exact right moment, it becomes clear just how well they know each other. The duo end up clinging to one another, recognizing how close they came to losing someone they care about deeply. Still, it’s not like Max and Lucas are declaring their undying love for each other — just yet, at least. 

“That push and pull continues throughout the season of Max kind of wanting Lucas back into her life, then, ‘Now I don’t know,’ ” Sink explains. “But she’s a very complicated person. She just needs time.” 

Tick. Tock. 

Catch Up with Sadie Sink in the Stranger Things Hair Chair