Sometimes, the most haunting mystery is not supernatural at all. The final season of Stranger Things delivered scale, spectacle, and emotional highs, but it also left behind unavoidable inconsistencies. As the dust settled in Hawkins, viewers began spotting the gap: characters who vanished without explanation. For a show once praised for its meticulous callbacks, those silences felt unusually loud.

In a series so deeply invested in consequence, disappearance without acknowledgment feels unsettling. And especially when even actors from the show begin asking the same questions.

Jennifer Marshall, who played Susan Hargrove, Max’s mother, faded quietly into the background. She addressed her absence directly, acknowledging both the fan confusion and her own disappointment.

 In a recent chat with TMZ, Marshall shared, “I have not heard from anybody as far as Shawn or the Duffers.. I have heard from a few people on the crew and one cast member…and the theme is, ‘this is gonna get you blacklisted.'"

This comes right after a reel Marshall shared on Instagram after the finale aired.

Delivered with humor and honesty, it questioned why Max’s mother was entirely absent while her daughter lay hospitalized. In the video, Marshall openly mentioned her real-life battle with cancer, explaining that she was in remission during filming, and appearing in the final season would have helped her afford her cancer treatment.

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When a character so closely tied to one of the show’s most emotional arcs vanishes without explanation, it is not surprising fans noticed.

Susan Hargrove last appeared in Season 4, specifically early in the season, as the story continued to explore Max’s life after Billy’s death and the growing strain between mother and daughter. Susan is shown struggling with the weight of her own challenges, working multiple jobs, and dealing with alcoholism. It is the last substantial moment audiences see of her in the narrative timeline, firmly grounding her character as part of Max’s life before the catastrophic events that follow.

Later, the confirmation came from actress Jennifer Marshall herself, as per TMZ,  that a hospital scene featuring Susan at Max’s bedside during her coma was filmed for Season 4, but it did not make the final cut. In the later plotlines of Season 5 where Max remains incapacitated and her friends rally around her, but her mother is nowhere to be seen.

 When the Duffer Brothers publicly addressed several plot holes and unresolved questions raised after the finale, Susan Hargrove’s disappearance was never acknowledged. The show explained monsters, timelines, and mythology, but not the absence of a parent during her child’s darkest hour.

For a story built on connection, grief, and memory, that kind of silence lingers longer than any unanswered supernatural mystery.

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So what do you think? Was Max’s mom an overlooked casualty of an overcrowded finale? Share your thoughts.