𝔅𝔢𝔞

We know he’s a guy who’s traumatized by the loss of his brother, and, in a way, his parents. So from the very beginning, he shows a tendency to blame himself for things that are beyond his control. And this becomes very evident when he tells Vanessa that he needed to “fix the fact that Abby misses her friends,” “fix his family,” and “fix her.” But I’ll come back to that point later.

Consequently, just as he blames himself for things beyond his control, he also shows a constant need to solve the problems of those around him, and guess what? Those aren’t within his control either. And that creates a vicious cycle.

The fact that Vanessa doesn’t talk about her past only makes the situation worse. Because every time he discovers something she hasn’t told him, he feels even more out of control.

I’d say there’s a certain “savior complex” in him, and that brings me to my next point:

I believe part of the problem with him thinking he has to handle everything on his own is that he doesn’t open up enough to anyone. (And ironically, he doesn’t like it when Vanessa does the same, but anyway…). And when I say he doesn’t open up to anyone, I’m referring more to the second movie than the first.

In the novel, two moments caught my attention regarding this. The first is in the date scene, when Vanessa tells him to be honest with Abby:

“I know you're trying to protect her, Mike," Vanessa said. "But this story that they're broken, that you're going to fix those animatronics somehow? It's only giving her false hope. I think you should just be honest with her."

Mike instantly went from awkward to angry. "Honest?" he snapped.

Vanessa dropped her arms and leaned back. "What?”

Mike got upset when the topic of honesty came up. And a little while later, when he tries to convince her to test the dream theory, to help her to move past her trauma with her father, there’s a brief moment of vulnerability on his part, which only reinforces the idea that he represses his feelings and problems. And Vanessa herself draws an excellent conclusion about their relationship:

Vanessa thought Mike would push her to explain what she meant, but instead, he sounded gentle when he said, "You and I have come a long way, since what happened. But we'll never..."

Mike raised his gaze, and Vanessa had the courage to look directly into his eyes.

There, she saw more emotion than she'd ever seen in him before. What emotion, exactly? Vanessa leaned in, trying to decipher the intense focus of his gaze.

Mike blinked, and his eyes moistened.

Vanessa understood then. She was seeing desperation, plus both grief and anguish - feelings Mike clearly kept buried deep beneath his usual nonchalance. Vanessa wasn’t sure what to say to him. She wasn't sure she was ready for such ... transparent connection.

Mike spoke before she had time to respond. "I just... want us to be able to move past this." Mike looked down. "All of us."

Vanessa thought about Abby. She was sure that's who Mike was talking about. And she had to admit that if she wanted to be in Mike's and Abby's lives, which she did, she was going to have to deal with some of her... neuroses.

In other words, Mike clearly hasn’t gotten over what happened, and he knows that, in a way, even if they try, they’ll never fully forget it. He pretends to be indifferent, avoids talking about it, avoids thinking about it, because he wants to protect Abby and himself.

That’s why he’s torn between not wanting to bring up the subject and, at the same time, holding Vanessa accountable for not telling him things.

And in the end, they’ll only fully resolve things if they’re transparent with each other. Both Mike with Abby, Mike with Vanessa, and both of them with Abby.

Now I need to go back to the “I’m trying to fix you” scene, because I need to point out a few more things.

When he did finally say something, he struggled to get his words out. "No ... matter... what... we do..." Mike drew in a loud and uneven breath. "We're... never... getting ... free of him.”

Then Vanessa tries to warn him that Abby might have gone to the pizzeria, and Mike explodes. Just more evidence of someone who’s emotionally repressed 😭 bro isn’t okay

Mike’s face bunched up again. His face went purple and red. “Abby’s just a kid!” Mike yelled.

Vanessa recoiled. She knew Mike was upset, but this … She was too shocked to even think up a response.

Mike looked away from Vanessa and then turned back. His gaze met hers, and his eyes were wet with tears. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swiped the back of his hand across his eyes.

When he spoke, his voice cracked. “And right now, she’s hurting, and alone, and she misses her friends.” He threw up his hands. “And there’s absolutely nothing I can do to help her. Nothing. Like there was nothing I could do to help Garret. Or those kids at Freddy’s.”

Mike stopped. His eyes narrowed and he leaned, just a bit, toward Vanessa. “Kids like Charlotte.”

And then he confronted her about not having mentioned Charlotte before.

“I’ve been reminding myself that you’re a victim in all of this, too,” Mike said. “You were just a kid. So, what choice did you have?”

Mike’s question was rhetorical. Still, this was a question Vanessa had asked herself over and over and over again.

“But,” Mike went on, “Vanessa, this is one more thing you chose not to tell me about. I had to learn about it from a flyer.”

And finally, the mask of indifference that had been there since the first movie.

He felt so much when he looked at Vanessa that the only way he could manage to talk to her was to wear a mask of aloofness.

His repression of emotions and feelings isn’t limited to trauma, it extends to the romantic side as well. He denied that the dinner with Vanessa had been a date in the first place. And he denied that there was anything more than friendship between them, even though that was clearly a lie. Because admitting that there was something more serious would take him out of the control he tries to maintain.

In the next excerpt, he goes so far as to partially acknowledge his feelings, but that part isn’t developed as much.

Mike felt the heat instantly. A palpable tingle. He lifted his gaze and found himself looking directly into Vanessa’s mesmerizing green eyes. A visceral current of energy seemed to pass between them. And Mike had to face it. He’d felt it at the restaurant, too, but he’d put it down to how great she’d looked. Now, given that she was dressed in faded jeans and a baggy T-shirt, her face was devoid of makeup, and her hair was stringy, he couldn’t use the male reaction to a hot-looking woman as an excuse. He would react to Vanessa the same way no matter how she looked. He just had to accept it. He had to admit how much this woman meant to him, even with everything that had happened.

So, in the end, Mike asking her to stay away from them (as unbelievable and tragic as it may seem) is entirely consistent with his character.

He had absolutely no control over the situation at the end of the movie. He felt guilty for having neglected Abby’s safety, and for her suffering from the loss of her friends. And he was upset with Vanessa for not telling him about her brother, even though she didn’t know what Michael was plotting.

And in the novel, I get the impression that Michael managed to manipulate the situation very well, compared to the movie, to give the impression that Vanessa was also to blame.

“Yes, Vanessa,” Michael said. “You know the truth. You’re just trying to pretend something else.”

Vanessa flicked a look at Mike. Even though he was focused on the animatronics, part of his attention was on her. Judging from the curl of his upper lip, he wasn’t liking what he was seeing or hearing. Without needing him to say it, Vanessa knew that all his doubts about her were resurfacing (if in fact, they’d ever been fully submerged). Whatever goodwill they’d been building was going up in flames.

And that's what leads to the worst part:

The skin at the corners of his eyes was bunched up. He might have sounded mean and unfeeling, but he seemed hurt. “I can’t trust you, Vanessa,” Mike said. “You’re just like your father.”

Side note: I think it’s about time Vanessa taught this guy a good lesson in the third movie.

Mike in the second movie (and novel) wasn't out of character. The novel suggests the opposite: it reveals a side of him that already existed but was previously hidden beneath his “mask of indifference.”

Although I really like Mike, I'm not trying to excuse his behavior. I just wanted to explore what led him to act the way he did. In other words, yes, he’s always been a bit of an asshole, but he’s not a bad person, he just needs therapy (and a beating from Vanessa /jjjjjjj)