#shock jock

Like that scene made me sick. My stomach dropped and I felt scared and helpless for him. They didn’t dive into Wills CSA story as much as I had hoped, but that part is still there and I NEEDED to talk about it because the acting was so good and despite Will putting on a brave face you can see he IS terrified of what happened to him.

The picture I’m putting of the scene isn’t even the worst part to watch. Like Wills reaction only gets more fearful from that point. It hurt not to be able to jump through the screen and kill Vecna myself

Robin & Will

Part 2

Hello yes it is me again talking about Mike Wheeler. Are yall sick of me yet? This time I bring you some observations I made about what I think was probably going on with him during this episode. Especially during the WSQK scene.

But first for some context, a lot of people have come to the conclusion that Mike is interpreting Will and Robins closeness as something romantic going on between them, or at the very least he suspects that Will has a crush on Robin. But I haven't seen anybody talk about how that assumption plays into what is going on with him in Vol2 and can actually explain a lot about his supposedly out of character behaviour.

Picking up directly at the start of episode 5, we have the long awaited hug. Yay! We see it all through Will's POV, and obviously we are happy for him. Then throughout the next few scenes with Will & Mike involved, we see Mike hyping up Will again and again. He can literally not shut up about it. And we as the audience seeing it from Will's POV are again very happy for him, because we can see how much it means to Will.

But do you know what nobody seems to notice? But Mike definitely would? How Will actually responds to Mike's praise. And when you see it from Mike's perspective, him hyping Will up and probably/maybe hoping for a similar response from him as in the field flirting scene, well, you would notice how little Will outwardly responds to it. He doesn't say anything about it. Or when he does, like in the tunnel scene, it is more or less talking himself down again.

Just for a moment imagine you're Mike. You're in love with your best friend. You think he is crushing on this cool older girl. You're desperate for his attention and affection, and because you're always paying attention to him you start to notice that he might have powers, too. And you also know he is desperate for some agency in his life. So you try to give him that, for him to see himself the way you see him. And he smiles at you all cutely and shyly, and for a second you think, maybe there is a chance he likes you, too. You start to lean in, and then-

he pushes you back. You panic and leave. And a few minutes later you see him back again with the girl, and they're giggling and he's initiating touch with her. Something he almost never does with you. You're so jealous you break a fucking pipe.

Anyway, went on a little tangent there.

After all that, you do the one thing which got a positive reaction from him before. But even though you were right, and he indeed does have powers, how does he react? Either not at all or by talking it down. How would you feel? Maybe useless? Like your words don't hold any importance or meaning for Will? Because I think that's very likely what Mike thinks. And the scene at the WSQK is the biggest clue for me.

This is not the full scene but let's start with that. First of all, what I've noticed is the camera perspective. When the camera is on Robin, it is conveniently in the very same place we see Mike sitting in on the couch, which to me makes it seem like we are watching Robin through Mike's eyes, meaning he is paying very close attention to her. Makes perfect sense when we assume he is jealous of Will's affection for her. We then have some back and forth, and what I have noticed (and Mike most likely/definitely has as well, because he is always paying attention to Will) is that Will barely speaks at all in this scene. And the two times he actually does? Can you guess? He is responding to something Robin said, and otherwise to nobody else. Even though Mike is the one singing his praises in hopes for some attention from him! And also trying to find a solution to their problems at the moment! Gosh I feel so sorry for him.

Do you wanna know what gets a proper physical reaction from Will in that scene? It's when Robin says this:

and directly after we get this shot of Mike:

he looks so sad and defeated :(

He was trying so hard to get Will's attention and seemingly failing at it, meanwhile Robin says one weird thing that's not even useful for their problem and Will is immediately responding to it. If you were Mike Wheeler and did not know about Will's struggle with his sexuality, how the hell would you not think he has a crush on her???

I'm sure people have said it already, but it's so weird that this is like two different takes.

In the first shot, Will and Mike throw their arms around each other at the same time. You can see Will's hand connect firmly with the back of Mike's head, looks like his hand is in his hair.