ac

the fact that they show WillElMike

then El walking off in front of INSANELY clear pairings

Then her picking up the dead versions of the flowers Mike gave her when they reunited at the airport at the start of the season

Show determined Solo El in front of the pairs again

....only to DIRECT CUT to Byler Alone

then to Jancy getting closer in a protective way

AND THEN to Jopper PLAINLY holding hands

...only to put solo determined El in front of three couples again

And end with Mike and Will dead center of the now handholding Jancy and Jopper (+ far off solo El) for the final shot?

The Duffers could have slapped me clear across the face and it would have been more subtle than this. This is as plain cut an exegesis toward the (full) development of mlvn ending + romantic byler as you could hope for. Perfect fingerprints-on-the-gun, skin-under-the-murderer's-nails level evidence. How were people even arguing the meaning of this? Knowing how the rest of the season went?!

- Angst in my Pants (🥴😳)

… Ahem… alrighty then!

- Don’t Ask Me to Explain, by Montreal

This reads as if it’s from El’s POV… reminder that on her ST2 Netflix playlist, one of the last songs was Jolene…

@greenfiend you may be interested in the blatant sexual references in this play, given your excellent theory that byler will have sex at lover’s lake (x, x)

This, from Promises I’ve Made, makes me nervous for El - recall Millie’s supposed shock at El’s ending. Promises are a m*leven motif, so it’s fair to assign this to that relationship, but otoh the lyrics are very gay so…

Most excitingly, the last song on STurn is Just What I Needed, the last song on Will’s Castle Byers Classics!