#tbh this is a bit unfinished but i will dig into the roles later

[coniangray]

Max's scene with vecna in ep9 the piggyback is symbolic

think of it this way; max was the bait, el was the warrior and lucas was the guardian

lucas was making sure maxs physical form was guarded and safe while max set herself as a bait for vecna. Now idk where they duffers were inspired from while making this scene, but they def handled it like a chess game with el being their queen.

one interesting thing about this episode is the piggyback shot, aka a shot of one character talking to another in front of them, while the person theyre actually thinkong of is standing behind them in the background visually. This happened with mikes monologue, right after will insisted mike was the heart.

Somethimg similar also happens here, but in this case its more metaphorical.

Why would they solely focus on els expression when max says this? Shes sitting there, watchiing and probably also wondering if max deserved to be saved.... by her.

Those words work as a reflection to el as well, because here not only shes sympathizing with max, shes also wondering what is said. Given her previous encounter with brenner toning her down to simply a number and then his death, of course she would still consider less of herself, since her arc of independence and self esteem is not over yet.

The reflexion here could work multiple ways, but a two way mirror is actually in between max and el. Their connection was basically kept on hold after st3, given how they didnt interact with each other till this scene.