Do you want to know, know that it doesn't hurt me? Do you want to hear about the deal that I'm making?
An idea I might come back to when I’m less rusty because I’ve been writing scenes like this (dramatic emotional running to this song) in my head for at least 7 years now and I feel utterly unhinged seeing it actually done.
Regardless of how you feel about Billy it’d be plain dishonest to not admit that he was huge and complex part of Max’s life and that her connection to “Running Up That Hill (Deal With God)” is because of her feelings around Billy. His presence is all through her storyline this season and cannot be ignored. He was her tormentor but he also took the brunt of the abuse at home and his last act was to protect a girl he barely knew against a monster he didn’t stand a chance against. It’s a Lot for anyone, let alone a kid, to process.
It’s hard for me to completely articulate my thoughts about this scene completely but there are things that stand out to me. Billy is possessed for about 5 days, Vecna torments his victims for 5-7 days before he kills them. Vecna tries to kill Max around Billy’s birthday and at his grave. It’s the song that reminds her of Billy/that is clearly narratively tied to her survivor’s guilt about Billy that helps save her life. With her own emotional catharsis achieved she lashes out against her supernatural tormentor just like Billy did.
It all comes together for me to re-contextualize the song as less about her guilt and more a metaphorical message from Billy to her (Let me steal this moment from you now / Oh, come on, angel / Come on, come on, darling / Let's exchange the experience). When I’ve used this song before in my own versions of this scene for other things the song is usually someone saying “Let me take on your pain. I will happily suffer in your place” or standing between someone and a threat and I feel shades of that here in how she’s surrounded by Billy’s presence on a meta level. She asks “if he can hear her” and in a way he can. Regardless if it’s his spirit or just her finally allowing herself to vocalize her grief and thus process it, his presence is there and it does --once again-- put him between her and a supernatural danger.