mik.

Firstly, him suddenly caring for his girlfriend came out of the left field, they barely interacted this season and none of the scenes we saw indicated that they were happily together. Or even just together, if I'm being honest, since for some reason their relationship was kept stupidly vague until the last episode.

Not to mention, even after all that screaming and crying - he still didn't say "I love you" back.

Secondly, if they decided not to give us the internalized homophobia storyline, then what was even the entire build-up for? Him not understanding how romantic feelings work and missing the clues is something that could've been explained by him being gay and trying to force the conformity onto his straight relationship, but there was also a great opportunity to showcase that he is either completely uninterested in romance or maybe isn't ready for it yet (given that he's been stuck in this never-ending cycle of trauma since he was a child and all, and that his first relationship was rather spontaneous and didn't have any solid ground at the time).

The goodbye kiss we got needed at least two things to be established beforehand:

1) Mike actually loves El (zero evidence this season and, arguably, in the seasons prior; the clipshow and the monolog we got was a joke)

2) Mike acknowledges that his feelings for her are of a romantic kind (we have other couples in the show and they clearly aren't afraid of touching each other, so what is his issue)

Intentionally or not, but he was written as a queer character. After 5 seasons of going back and forth between El and Will, we (as the audience) got an unsatisfactory ending for both of these dynamics and Mike's character lost its depth to the relationships he seemingly didn't care for! Or, at least, not in a way that was intended.

Aroace Mike Wheeler is something that couldn't be possible in a small town in the 80ies, but it is what they ended up making by constantly forcing him into situations he wasn't equipped for.

I really would rather it was revealed that he saw both of them just as friends by the end of the show, because then we could've avoided him purposely being written as a terrible boyfriend and a terrible friend.

Either write him like he knows the difference between being good friends and being attracted to someone or clearly state that he doesn't. If Nancy was able to break off the ties that kept her as a part of a cursed love triangle, then why couldn't Mike? Why was he avoiding both his girlfriend and his best friend the entire season only to then reveal that he supposedly cared about the relationship he didn't put any effort into and that he wasn't emotionally mature enough to handle the coming out scene?

This boy was always shown to be caring and empathetic, passionate and protective... yet, this season we saw none of it until the very epilogue.