Is It Early, Michael?!

I don’t think Mike has ever consciously lied to El about the way he feels. I think he does think he’s in love with her, and he cares about her so much. He actually got really emotional during his monologue - he was scared that she was losing the fight and he was going to lose her again.

There’s a lot of love there, but he’s 14 years old. A relationship with El is all he’s ever known and understood. He doesn’t realise that he can still care for her without being attached to her in that way. I do think he’s attracted to her and there’s a lot of attachment because of the experiences they’ve shared, but it’s not as deep and eternal as he thinks.

They’ve only ever really been together in person for 9 months max. They’ve also just spent the last 8 months apart, during which time El wasn’t honest with him in a way you would expect a close couple to be. These two really don’t know each other as well as you’d expect from the time we have seen them age on screen. They’ve already started to grow apart into very different people and they’re going to face that head on next season.

Adding to that, I genuinely believe Mike does have some confused feelings towards Will that he has suppressed. It’s been clear that he’s been unable to balance Will and El in his life since the conclusion of season 2, but yet as much as he pushes Will out, he’s terrified of losing him. Mike feels that he’s on the right path with El, but whenever they are apart he opens up to Will and we start to see his true self rising to the surface again.

When he spoke to Will about feeling like he lost him, he said it in such a hesitant way - I don’t know, maybe, or something. He senses that there’s something there - that he does love him - but he’s not connecting the dots properly. I also don’t think he has any clue about Will’s feelings towards him, mostly because Will has never changed and has always treated him with the same affection over the past 10 years of their lives.

I do feel like he’s going to find out about Will’s feelings quite soon into season 5. Either the painting situation will unravel, or something else will cause Will to tell him the truth. Adding to that, Will is going to be in a lot of danger. This all combined is going to be a huge wake up call for Mike. He’s going to realise the extent of his love towards him in a situation where, once again, he could lose him.

My expectations for season 5 Byler were always really low. I only ever expected that we might get confirmation in the epilogue, both because I expected that El wasn’t going to make it and Mike would need time to grieve, but also because he needed more time to find himself.

Season 4 in general gave me the impression that El wasn’t going to survive, especially because of the love monologue. A mixture of the timing of it and the wording just seemed really bad news for her. But this equally made me suspicious of why they were building up Will and Mike’s relationship. That’s exactly how I ended up here in the first place.

So going into season 5, yes I expected that there would be some more development between Will and Mike based on events off screen during the time jump. And volume one actually suggested that with the way that Will suddenly had hope. I was really taken aback, cos I was equally prepared for them to shut Byler down completely early on. And the ending to the volume was like fan fiction brought to life. There was so much opportunity.

So yes, volume 2 was so disappointing. The coming out scene? Really misjudged. Too many people, awkwardly worded - the comparison to Tammy was insulting, and made no sense after Will and Robin’s earlier conversations. I’m also extremely disappointed that this was supposed to be where things ended for Will and Mike. We’re so lucky that Noah was brave enough to fight this and get the tower scene put in. But yes, after volume 2 I lost all hope.

But the actual finale we got? It played out pretty much how I predicted all those years ago. I hoped for an actual confirmation, but they’ve left the door open for us to decide if Will and Mike end up together in the future. They even put Will’s painting on Mike’s wall (and yes, I’m frustrated that they didn’t have Mike find out the truth about it. I’m just glad that it was included somehow).

I’m not saying that they haven’t seen each other at all, but that Mike has been able to visit El so infrequently that he needs to update her on everything that’s happened since he last saw her.

Sure it’s a different network, but it’s making me confident that we should have a proper trailer for season 5 on/ before Halloween…

Spoilers ahead…

I still can’t believe the casting for young Mike and Will, or the fact that Will could be staying at Mike’s house at the beginning of the season. I can’t believe Will’s interactions with Holly, or the the fact both Will and Mike are sharing scenes with Robin. Everything we got just sounded more and more like a Byler dream.

Obviously there’s still some hurdles to get over. I’m just grateful that at the very least, the boys are spending a lot of the season together, and their storyline will be given the time and respect it deserves.

is Will going to wake up from the flashback like a nightmare? Are we getting a repeat of this, but at Mike’s house this time?

So many GA members and Milkvans like to skip over how Mike was feeling up to then, and only care that Eleven wanted to hear him say he loved her. They completely skip over everything Mike needed to hear El say.

Completely taking Byler out of the equation here - they can’t just move on from this as if all is well and El doesn’t have to say anything herself. That’s not fair on Mike, it’s not fair on Will and it’s not fair on El. The conclusion can’t be that Will spoke for her using his own feelings and that fixed everything.