I need y'all to see this.
Mike walks into the room and stops short before he gets to Will, then stands there with hands twitching as he looks down at him.
Hands twitching is something that is most likely a specific acting or directing choice. It indicates anxious unsettled energy that you can't express, or the physical need to do something with your hands that you can't do but your body is signaling that it wants to.
It's like Mike's still signaling even when he's trying not to, lol.
Also, when Will was first blown back unconscious outside the tower Mike runs to him and starts to reach for him but again, stops himself from touching him at first. Only to give the most tentative touch to his arm later.
Mike stands at a distance from the couch when Joyce is sitting with Will, just looking.
They are making it stand out so we clock that this is not how Mike usually treats Will. When he is comfortable and feeling connected to Will he is overprotective and touchy-feely. I mean did that boy have any chill whatsoever in V1? No.
We have seen Mike hold himself back from his normal intimacy with Will before, which led to a confrontation and then resolution of their friendship. We all have our theories about why Mike pulled back the last time.
This time I'm still trying to figure out what exactly is going on in his head (just me, the Internet, and every other person Mike Wheeler knows).
Perhaps after he had some time to process the Sorcerer moment he got freaked out by his feelings and realized he needed to chill out and went back to his repressive nature. Perhaps Vecna has been in his head already. Perhaps after gloating about how amazing Will is to everyone he could find he got worried that he was being too obvious and is policing himself because he's scared of what it might look like. Perhaps he's just incredibly worried about this boy and he cannot cope and he doesn't know what to do with his hands and he cannot CANNOT be too close to him or he'll lose it, so he is focusing instead on the little things he can do to be useful so he doesn't go insane.
My prediction is that this "cardboard cutout" Mike that seemed like such an alien when we watched V2 will be explained when we finally get inside Mike's head in the finale (either through his own breakdown or being Vecna'd). It's not bad acting, it may not even be bad writing (remains to be seen), if Mike's lack of character during these episodes was a completely intentional way to show us that he is not being himself, so they can set up a big moment for his character arc later when it's revealed why he was acting this way.
I think he will realize that to become Mike the Brave he needs to be honest with himself, allow himself to be who he is and feel what he feels and do the things he wants to do, and then love will save the day in some miraculous empowering way - and Mike Wheeler will also be saved from his self-abandoning and repressive tendencies.
Of course I could be reading way too much into Mike's feelings and motivations, it just feels like a significant pattern and setup, and as an actor I would never do something so specific as hands shaking or withdrawing a touch without a clear character reason.
We shall see if/how it's addressed soon! Let's pray they have actually given Mike a real arc that explains his V2 behavior change.
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