james is N★T CUTE

"do you, um, by any chance, remember tammy thompson?"

immediately she starts with her original crush which will & mike reminded her of.

"i mean, the first time i saw her, oh my god, like, time slowed down." ... "and, uh, it was right then and there that i knew she was the one."

so, for robin, her crush on tammy was "love at first sight" - she didn't really know much about her at all. she saw tammy and thought this was the girl for her.

...if, in a meta sense, we're trying to parallel will/mike with robin/tammy, it's not really working out. will didn't fall in love at first sight with mike, nor did he not really know mike when he fell in love. they'd been friends, best friends since kindergarten. and by now, will has been in love with mike for years. it's not just a crush anymore. in fact, if there was a robin/tammy parallel anywhere...

while will/mike...

but, anyway.

"there was always this part of me that kind of scared me, you know? but i thought that if tammy loved me, all of me, you know, i wouldn't be so scared anymore."

we see will's face when she says this part. this resonates with him.

in the van scene will literally said that mike makes him feel like he's better for being different. he doesn't even need mike to love him to feel this way, he just needs mike there. even though this is the closest hitting line from robin we've gotten, it still doesn't match the two up perfectly. right now they're seeming like inverted parallels. keep that in mind.

"and then he showed up, steve 'the hair' harrington." ... "tammy feel for him hard. and my entire fantasy life with her, along with the rest of my life, pretty much imploded before my eyes."

yikes. now that really resonates from will's pov. at first, it felt like it was just him and mike. then el showed up and mike acted like his world revolved around her. will's fantasy of never getting girlfriends and playing d&d with mike for the rest of his life was falling apart.

"i found this 8-millimeter film reel." ... "i got it up on the projector, and all of a sudden, i was looking at this little version of myself." ... "[this little version of me] was so carefree and, like, fearless. she just loved every part of herself."

this is super important because, in the final minutes of the episode, we literally see a film-reel like montage of will's memories from when he was little and carefree and just so happy all the time. we will get back to this almost immediately, so also keep it in mind.

"and that's when it hit me. it was never about tone-deaf tammy. it was always just about me."

so, in robin's little movie, she saw herself in it alone. therefore, she realized she had the answers all along.

...can we talk about how the exact opposite happened with will? like i mentioned, we saw will's own "movie" - what let him accept himself and realize his powers. however, it wasn't just him in it. his mom was there, his brother was there, and mike was there. opposite to robin who found her answers in her moving on from her feelings for tammy, will found his answers within his love for his family and for mike. once again we see robin and will being inverted parallels.

"i was looking for the answers in somebody else, but... i had all the answers."

maybe i'm wrong about this, but will didn't really do that, did he? he did the opposite. robin tried honing in on her crush and will tried pushing those feelings away (van scene). clearly robin failed in doing so and gained her confidence after pushing her feelings for tammy away - moving on. will also failed by trying to push his feelings away (sobbing up a storm in the van) and gained his confidence - and figured out his power mind you - by accepting the feelings and love he has for mike.

"i just needed to stop being so goddamn scared. scared of... who i really was. once i did that, oh, i felt so free."

we see this with will in the final minutes of the episode! like the duffers confirmed, his self acceptance arc ended with him gaining his powers. that arc ended this episode. he finally accepts himself, and that doesn't mean getting over mike. that means accepting the fact that being gay doesn't make him a mistake and that his feelings for mike are real and so meaningful.

so all in all, robin doesn't truly know the dynamic between will & mike and assumed it was like her & tammy. however, this speech was NOT telling will to get over mike. in what world would robin tell a younger gay kid to stop believing in his feelings for the boy he loves becuse it won't result in anything? it was her telling him to look inside himself and feel happy with himself for once. to not feel scared anymore.

if this speech really just meant that mike is will's tammy, we'd see memories of will where it was just himself. or even memories with his family and none with mike. but we do get memories of mike. not just the swingset memory, even. those feelings for mike are important and will 100% be touched on again.

robin found her answers outside of tammy. will's answers were joyce, jonathan, and mike.

i fully believe will and robin are inverted parallels because of what we've seen. robin and tammy's story didn't result in being together. will and mike's will.

oh, and the fact that they had robin be one of the people attacked by a demogorgon and not, for example, murray? we're so getting a scene where her and will talk about this and she realizes just how different the situation is with will & mike.

and for anyone who thinks i'm reading too much into this, or that some of the parallels are just coincidences...