Thinking about how the truth of the matter is that in season 4 Mlvn's lack of being the classic monster hunting duo like every other couple simple...extended to their relationship.
Because they have never done that, they have no experience solving problems together.
They have never brainstormed solutions before. They have never bounced ideas off of each other. They have never given the other a look to cue them silently in a battle. So how can they be expected to, out of the blue, do that with their own relationship?
Of course they can't. So, instead, Mike goes to the person he does all of those things with.
"Is this all real, or is it like the doctors said - all in your head?" - 2x02
"What?" "It's about D'artagnan" - 2x03
"If you know what he's thinking and feeling, maybe that's how you we can stop him" - 2x05
"What's wrong, Will?" "I think I know how we can stop him" - 2x06
Mike and El can't solve their relationship problems in season 4 because they don't go through life together in the first place. They can't solve their relationship problems because they don't solve any problems together. They don't confront things together. They spend one on one time together in private.
Tangentially, there is an amazing reddit post about how Mike and El were written to be less liked because what we loved about them was that he showed her the world and in season 3 their relationship became actively sheltering to her, taking her home early and keeping her inside.
They don't face the world together. They only face each other. Two individual people spending time together alone. But in a group, they both drift to others. If they want to be together, they leave said group.
Mike and El do not go through life together. They are not life partners.
And I'm realizing that's really what the "monster hunting duo" thing boils down to. They are representing life partners. People who confront things together. Go out into the world and face it hand in hand, head on.
This isn't even about romance. Will is represented as Mike's life partner. Mike has his girlfriend and his life partner - separately.
El is his girlfriend he goes home to - only goes home to. Not out into the world. If he goes out into the world with her he will ignore the world, not experience it with her.
3x01 is a perfect example of this: he hangs out with her alone in her room, then leaves to go to the most topical place in town with Will.
El and Mike experience his basement together. El and Mike experience her room together. Mike and Will experience Starcourt together when it first opens. Mike and Will go on a road trip cross country together. Mike and Will meet Suzie together.
I can picture Mike and El together in their home. But only in their home. And that's a problem too. I can't picture them on double dates, at game nights, I can't picture them a united front arguing against someone else. Honestly, I simply can't picture them a united front. Because they have never been represented to me that way. They fight on behalf of one another sometimes, but never together.
Mike and El are dating. But Mike and Will are consistently represented as life partners. They fight together, they see new sights together, they are a duo both alone and still one within a larger group, they share looks in a group, they confer opinions. Mike and El kiss in her room. That's all they do.
It's romantic but it isn't partnership.
That's the real reason Mike and El couldn't solve their problems together in season 4 without Will. Because people work through their big issues best with their life partners.
So that's what Mike did.
