#dear billy script

"anticipation"

"denied. the disappointment"

"suddenly interested again"

"not just listening, but hearing"

"his eyes glisten. yes! yes it makes total sense!"

"lock eyes"

"heart beats out of his chest"

"will's eyes well up"

"his happiness is palpable"

"his mouth dry as a california summer"

in this post i will be comparing the “cool. cool” scene script from episode 4 and the van scene script from episode 8.

before i start, i would like point out something that already ties these two scenes together and has nothing to do with the script - it’s the fact that in both of these scenes, some variation of “the first lie”/“the first i love you” plays. in the ep 4 scene, it’s “on the bus” and in the ep 8 scene it’s “being different” (which has a riff that sounds very similar to TFL/TFILY).

going back to the scripts - one thing i’ve noticed is similar words/phrasing in between these scripts. for instance, the fact that in both scenes will turns to mike with ANTICIPATION.

there’s also this:

in both scenes, mike says “the truth is”. he is opening up to will about a truth.

there is an introduction of us, the audience. in episode 4, we have the audience being able to see the disappointment will has while in episode 8 we can see his relief. even though, in the two scripts this is being used for two different purposes. for episode 4 it is being used to draw our attention to mike’s cluelessness. while for episode 8 it is being used for emphasis.

2 times mike says “it’s just…” while opening up about two different people. in episode 4, he is talking about will and is able to continue on with his sentence. but in episode 8, he’s talking about el and he is not able to continue with his sentence. he just cannot get the words out. he is able to communicate so easily when it comes to will, but not when it comes to el.

i have hit the image limit so i will continue the rest in a second post (which is here). let me know your thoughts!

Meanwhile his monolog/"love confession" is based on what he thinks El wants to hear, what he thinks she needs to hear, built over Will's feelings, a bunch of lies and romance cliches that are not true words, and just Hero worship. Not only that, he had to be pushed to say it, only doing so after Will once again proving how selfless and how much he loves Mike Reminds him that he's the heart once again sacrificing his own happiness for the good of others. He said what he thought El wanted/needed to hear and it didn't work, not only because the feelings weren't genuine but also because El doesn't need him, she doesn't want the kind on love Mike is giving. She fights for Max, but at the end of the day they still lose. Mike's love is not genuine, because he doesn't love her romantically, that's why they lose.

The love Mike wants and needs is the love Will feels for him, and so is the other way around. Mike NEEDS to realize this in s5, otherwise he, El and Will will be stuck in the state of unhappiness that they are as of right now. All of this just reminds me of Caleb McLaughlin saying Lumax love is real, unlike Mike's and El's. Will has true love for Mike, and once Mike realizes that the painting and the feelings related to it are Will's not El's, my darling, they're gonna end up together. And El will finally be capable of being her own self, not being held back by a romantic relationship that doesn't give her what she would need out of one.

Some great posts to check out that made my brain go brrrr and come to this conclusion: