no bc the more i think about it the confession was Not the thing that mike was planning to explain to el, because it directly contradicts the conversation with will on top of the car. like “sometimes it’s scary to open up to people like that. to say how you really feel. especially to the people you care about the most… because what if they don’t like the truth?" yes, will is projecting his own experience here, but it’s equally important to note that mike agrees. and it’s not just casual agreement—they use a close-up shot of his face here, emphasizing that he’s truly and wholly identifying with will’s words here. this shot in particular purposefully reveals to the viewer that conflicted expression and that blink-and-you-miss-it nod…
so that brings into question, what is mike afraid to tell el? what is his "truth" that el might not like?
and there’s where the faux confession comes in. that monologue wasn’t a truth that el might not like. in fact, it was just the opposite. it was a lie that mike thought el would want to hear. it was a lie that mike thought would save el… and consequently save the person who could save max, hawkins, his family, his friends, the world. and it was a lie that he told because he was falsely under the impression that el needed him in that moment and would always need him in every moment after that. no pressure, right?
…it’s almost shakespearean to see will’s lie to mike result in mike’s lie to el. it’s a classic case of dramatic irony: the audience is privy to the knowledge of will’s self-sacrificial lie to mike, and all the while mike himself is entirely unaware. and now we’re seeing that lie beget more lies, more misunderstandings, and more drama where nobody in the love triangle is happy. and in proper shakespearean fashion, it’s only a matter of time that these lies get exposed.
(on another, tangential note—i found this interpretation of this scene very intriguing and quite plausible. i mean, why would the writers interrupt a low-pressure scene where mike was going to talk it out with el, if they were just going to let him say the same exact thing a few minutes later but in a life or death situation? if mike had even just confessed when they were sitting one-on-one at the table together, it would come across as much more genuine. but he didn’t, and i actually doubt that it was his intention to confess his love in that scene at all. what he was going to explain to her changed both because of what will told him and because of the severity of the situation they were in. if mike sees it as a choice between telling a scary truth and still having the world end, or telling a comfortable lie and saving the world because of it… i can see why he chose to lie.)
I don't have anything else to add, I agree wholeheartedly.
