Castle Byler

will byers with a prosthetic eye in the 90s (insp)

I repeat.

They do not understand their own story.

For his part, Mike comes off as severely emotionally stunted at the end of all this. He's supposedly moving on and leaving childhood behind, but he's clearly fucking miserable a year and a half after her "death." It's the same spot he was in at the start of season 2 because he only feels worthwhile when he has someone who needs him, and that's what she brought to him. I suppose she did represent childhood, in a way, to him because their relationship prevented him from maturing emotionally.

When you think about it, El did not enhance Mike's character or inspire any growth. He's back to where he was five years prior, only now he has no choice but to try to live his life. And her life was limited by her dependence on him, too. She felt she was nothing if he didn't love her, as depicted in season 4.

El was a better, happier person with Max, and Mike was a better, happier person with Will. It's a very odd statement to make about the supposed true love couple of the show.

I still think it’s so gross to establish El as someone who learned about romance from TV - the least conformist source obviously and began to depend on a man to learn how to navigate the world(A man that tried to control and isolate her in turn) Like it reeks of the Duffers possible relationship with women that many other men share. Like the worldview that says men are a sort of sheppard to women because they don’t know any better which could be seen through Mike who is their insert. Does not sit right with me at all.

And at the end of the day he still clung to everything Will represented. So he is both stunted in his maturity and indulging in childish hobbies - an eternal child in a way.

Yes there is a important narrative reason for this. It’s to juxtapose the later scene of how the 3 boys react to the naked guys in the steam room. But before I analyze that scene… some background

The lingerie scene

The st twitter account posted this

singling Mike out (despite all 3 boys having a similar reaction to the lingerie scene).

So besides the obvious parallel- aka to Mike, being with a women is as gross and terrifying as the monster he sees.  I mean, c’mon… that’s 100% what they were going for- because Mike also opened a sauna filled with hairy fat naked men, but they didn’t even use that parallel? Hmm… I wonder why? And , although I can’t find the original source, the Duffers allegedly said the monster the mindflayer created represents puberty. So this parallel, also represent his fear of El looking/turning more and more into a women- and what this fear may represent for his future. Aka being a gay man living in the peak of the aids crisis.

Plus, (in this post) the comments from “stranger things”( the official twitter of the show) and “stranger writers” (the official twitter of the St writing staff ) are pretty much implying Mike is struggling with his sexuality and is gay.

I mean he will always “stay shook” of lingerie (aka not being attracted to women) and because of this  “it’s tough out here (in the 80s) for a young Mike wheeler”. And this fear of being with a girl is “so much to process” for Mike (just like the joke itself).

Then the ‘Stranger things twitter’ and the ‘Stranger writers’ get into a huge text-chain , starting the conversation by saying about Mike-  “give him a break there’s a lot going on.” (Him questioning his sexuality.)

And then the chain just continues with anti-mileven tweets (based on Mike quotes from s3) . But they end the text chain with…

“Can we just play D&D now”. And then in another Mike post…

Most people seem to misinterpret these as jokes. But this is the same account that cryptically gave us Robin’s last name by having 7 random tweets - where the 1st letter of each tweet represented a letter of her surname. So… why not read into this? XD

Essentially, Mike has “a lot going on”-struggling with his sexuality, and faking being in love with El , so he can be in a relationship with her (treating her “like garbage” in the process), so he can use her to try and deny his feelings for Will/ his sexuality.And his love for Will, and trying to deny it is driving him crazy. And again , using a Will quote at the end of all those anti-mileven quotes …makes it pretty obvious Mike has feelings for Will (not El). Especially since D&D has always been a romantic symbol for the byler dynamic.

Mike pretends he wants to grow up,  but he’s secretly terrified to cause that might mean he ‘becomes’ a gay man- which was considered evil, deviant, and generally associated with mental illness, aids, and a painful death/short life. So this is why Mike equates ‘growing up’ with having girlfriends and his feelings for Will as something ‘childish’ he has to grow out of.

- confessing to El : “A feeling … yeah, like, something… like OLD PEOPLE say it sometimes”.

- “And Will too. I was thinking we could all have new presents to play with and *scoffs* Sorry, that made me sound like a 7 year old... (apologizing to El)

- Hopper’s monologue (with Mike being shot alone in frame): “I’ve been feeling distant from you. Like you’re pulling away from me or something” (Will does this both figuratively/literally). I miss playing board games every night (d &d)” But I know you’re getting older, growing, changing. And I guess, if I’m being really honest, that’s what scares me. I don’t want things to change.” 

- And when Mike gets in a fight with Will (after d&d and before the sauna scene),he says: “I’m not trying to be a jerk. Ok? But We’re not kids anymore.” Explaining, this is just the way things are-boys fall in love with girls, get girlfriends, and this is just a part of growing up (heteronormativity).  He tells Will “I mean, what did you think, really? That we were never gonna get girlfriends? We were just gonna sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives?

So the Sauna scene once again illustrates Mike’s worst fears of ‘turning into’ and growing up into a gay man.

Lucas who is straight is the one who first enters the women’s lingerie store (as Will & Mike follow him in) because this is his future not theirs- as a straight man he’s a bit intimidated but not disgusted.

But Mike is a different story. First Mike has an idea and proclaims “boys only.”

And then he’s the first to open the men’s locker room as the camera zooms in and focuses on the word “MEN”.

So the sauna scene of the naked men represents Mike’s fear of becoming one- since such things would be in his future. As he (similar to Lucas) opens the door. Lucas’s first instinct before even hearing them say to close the door is to turn his head and close his eyes. But Mike and Will are horrified and can’t look away (they never close their eyes). 2 men have to yell at Mike to close the door- since he’s just frozen in place . And they even call him “kid” to hammer down this theme of childhood-to teenage puberty- to adulthood.

Mike face does’t even look disgusted he just seems genuinely scared/conflicted with himself . While Will is comedically scared (sorry, but all 3 of the faces Will makes are hilarious) XD

Also love how Mike is in the ‘I might hate myself whenever I think about dudes- but I’m not gay’-phase. And Will is in the ‘god I’m so gay- I hope no one can tell’-phase.

Then when Mike closes the door, the very first thing Lucas says is 

“I just threw up in my mouth”

He’s was intimidated by the lingerie but he’s disgusted by the sight of the undressed men. The distance from Lucas , and pairing of Will and Mike shows they’re on opposite sides of Lucas on this issue. I don’t think they were attracted to those guys but they aren’t disgusted by simply seeing dudes- they have very distinct emotions other than attraction- that seeing the men brought out ( such as fear, anxiety, self-loathing, and paranoia relating to the present/future) .

And neither Mike nor Will address the comment. In fact, Mike who usually tries to emulate Lucas’s teachings completely ignores it . In fact he just ignores the whole experience and jumps right back into where he was interrupted mid-sentence (because of opening the sauna doors). His very next sentence after Lucas’s comment is-

Lol, not going to get too Freudian with the ‘perfect’ line. But how Mike just completely brushes off what happened and Lucas’s comments- could be representative of how he’s tries to brush off and ignore his same-sex attractions/feelings for Will.