Holly Helps Max in 'Stranger Things' Season 5, but Does Holly Escape From Henry's Memories?

Spoiler warning: This article contains spoilers for Season 5 of Stranger Things.

When Season 5 of Stranger Things starts off, it's clear that for the first time, Mike and Nancy's little sister Holly has a much larger role to play. She is the first of Henry/Vecna's prisoners in Henry's memories, and she is part of a much larger plan for Vecna to control everything inside and outside of Hawkins. But does Holly escape from Vecna before the season is over?

It doesn't take long for Holly to realize that the place she is stuck at in Henry's memories isn't all it's cracked up to be. To be fair, she has Max's help with that, but she also makes some solid calls herself and even works to try and help other kids who are stuck in Henry's childhood home as Vecna makes plans for their physical bodies.

At the end of Season 5, Episode 6, Holly helps Max find her way back to her physical body. Just when Holly thinks she's getting out, Max drops the bomb on her that this particular exit is for Max only. However, after an epic pep talk, Holly sees her own portal to her physical body. Although she has been stuck inside Henry's memories, she is only mentally present there.

Her physical body is in another place altogether, where Vecna is with the rest of the kids' physical bodies hooked up to vines on a flesh wall. So when Holly is shown running at the end of Episode 6 to a portal that shows her physical body, it's in an attempt to escape this memory world that Henry apparently created.

At the top of Episode 7, we see that Holly makes it out of Henry's memories and into her physical body. But does Holly escape Vecna this time? His hideout, so to speak, is on a different plane and not in the proper Upside Down, so it doesn't have a direct link to Hawkins. Holly ends up finding a way to the Upside Down, however, through the ground, and she escapes Vecna, technically for a second time.

Vecna has the power to get to Holly and even Max outside of the Upside Down. We see this when he sends those demodogs to kill Max in Hawkins, but thanks to Karen, the dogs are killed in the basement of the hospital. For now, Holly is, more or less, safe.

It is explained toward the end of Season 5 of Stranger Things that Vecna planned all along to kidnap 12 children whose minds are weak enough for him to control. He plans to use each of them, both physically and psychologically, to take over Hawkins and the world and rule a new dimension that combines multiple worlds.

By using all 12 kids, Vecna is creating multiple wormholes in the different planes. It's explained during Season 5 that the Upside Down is actually an "inter-dimensional bridge" that connects dimensions.

Without Holly, Vecna might still be able to enact his plan, but chances are, he still needs 12 children to make it work.