Warning: SPOILERS for Stranger Things’ final season are ahead!
Sadie Sink may have played an important role as Max Mayfield in four out of five Stranger Things seasons, but the same can’t be said for Max’s mother. Jennifer Marshall only played Susan Hargrove in two episodes of Season 2 and four episodes of Season 4, and was completely absent from Season 5. Considering everything Max was going through in the Netflix subscription-exclusive show’s final season, Marshall had a hilarious take on Susan’s absence.
At the end of Stranger Things Season 4, Max was left in a coma due to the injuries she sustained from Vecna that she initially died from before Eleven brought her back to life. Max remained in that coma when Season 5 picked back up 18 months later, but we only ever saw Caleb McLaughlin’s Lucas repeatedly visiting her at the hospital. Her mother was nowhere to be seen, so Jennifer Marshall went on Instagram to give her thoughts about that:
I had cancer, I get it. But I was in remission during the shooting of season five. Shooting would have helped me obtain my health insurance through the union. Maybe they had too many characters, idk but obv Susan Hargrove is THE WORST MOTHER EVER LMAO.
I mean, I don’t know that it’s necessarily my call to make such a decision, but it is suspect how we not only never saw Susan at the hospital with Max, but she also wasn’t seen at her own daughter’s high school graduation. Let me put it this way: right how, I hold her in even less regard than Ted Wheeler. At least four seasons of that man not really caring what was going on with his children, he tried to protect his family against a Demogorgon early on in Season 5, as did Karen Wheeler multiple times.
In a later Instagram post, Jennifer Marshall took issue with how her previous comment was blown “out of proportion for clicks” by another outlet. While the actress (who’s also appeared on shows like Sugar, For All Mankind and Reacher) would have liked to participate in Stranger Things Season 5, she’s just giving her lighthearted commentary on how Susan Hargrove won’t be awarded Mother of the Year. Honestly, maybe we should cut her slack. She could have had plenty of shining mother moments offscreen on Stranger Things (let’s not forget she was working two jobs to keep a roof over their heads in Seasons 3 and 4), and maybe she was just sitting somewhere out of view during the high school graduation.
Ultimately it’s a moot point, as Stranger Things is now over. Sure, Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 premieres sometime on the 2026 TV schedule, but it’s doubtful we’ll see Susan in this animated prequel set between Season 2 and 3. So she’ll just have to continue existing with that less than stellar reputation.
