Byler kind of HAS to end this way in Season 5 - Let's talk #Castlegate
Let's have another Gate, shall we? =D
We're all freaking out and speculating how Byler will culminate. I've already given my best guess how it'll happen. But it's still a guess.
But I'm PRETTY SURE on a scene that would happen late in the season, If Byler is endgame. It's almost borne by NECESSITY.
I'll explain:
In s2 we saw Mike donating his toys, like his parents told him to...
In s3 we saw him tell Will, "We're not kids anymore. I mean what did you think, really? That we were never gonna get girlfriends? That we were just gonna sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives?"
And Will destroyed Castle Byers...
As someone points out in the comments, this wasn't just Will thinking he was "stupid" for wanting to play games, but for wanting a life with Mike...
A theme for Mike has been telling himself to put away "childish things," to "grow up" and be "normal." But he doesn't really want to: in s4 he's playing D&D again. He tries to bury his feelings for Will, but he gives up on that also.
If he and Will get together in s5, then there's no use trying to be "normal" when you're a boy with a boyfriend in small-town Indiana. They will start defining for themselves who they are. And that could include "playing D&D and Nintendo for the rest of their lives."
That's why, at the end of Season 5, after Mike and Will get together, they have to rebuild Castle Byers. They get to rebuild their childhood dreams and hope for the future.
We've already seen that Castle Byers will be featured in the season 5 BTS video:
Castle Byers is probably important in s5 for a number of reasons. It's where Will hid in s1 while in the Upside Down.
It's a possible place for the planned Miwi flashback(s) of young Jonathan, Mike and Will. Jonathan helped Will build Castle Byers when Lonnie left. Young Mike and Will must have spent a lot of time there playing pretend, playing out stories that became their D&D games. (I'm hoping for a flashback of a young Mike playing a paladin swearing allegiance to Will saying he'll always protect Castle Byers!)
When Gaten Matarazzo read the script for the final episode, he called it a "full circle" moment. I'm sure there'll be several moments. I'm willing to bet money we'll see the Original Four playing D&D together. I'm pretty sure another will be Mike and Will going to Castle Byers together and rebuilding it.
And of course, they'll kiss there!
This, more than anything, is a way to show they've fully accepted who they are, who they've always been, and always will be.
It's a perfect way to culminate the "childhood friends to lovers" trope: they end right where they began.
-teambyler
