#smalltownboygate

Post S3/Pre-S4 Mike listening to Smalltown Boy on repeat, not understanding why he relates to it so much until he sees Will in California.

Post S4/Pre-S5 Mike listening to Close to the Edge on repeat, struggling in silence with his nightmares and eventually being cursed by Vecna, yet refusing to tell anyone about it until he eventually faces down with Vecna whilst patrolling an apocalyptic Hawkins with Will.

Will desperately letting Mike's mixtape play out all the sons because damn it, why does nobody know his favourite song?!?!

Mike facing his fears and most painful memories, Vecna forcing him to jump off the Quarry again in his mind (to get to the next memory) as "It's a long way down..." repeatedly plays.

Mike escaping to the end of Smalltown Boy playing after accepting himself and his mental health, running towards the sound of "Run away, turn away, run away, turn away", "Cry, boy, cry", and Will's pleading voice.

I just don’t understand what the Duffers were trying to do with Mike. Like???

Note: I wrote the first half of this post while crashing out over Volume Two and it’s been sitting in my drafts for days

We see Lucas reject conformity in favour of loving his friends and caring for the people around him.

El rejects the notion that she needs a purpose given to her by a man who wants to play boyfriend, papa or father and accepts herself for who she is outside of a superhero.

Nancy learns that she does not have to live the suburban life that her parents do, her value as a woman and that her independence makes her strong.

What the fuck does Mike learn.

We haven’t seen Mike on his own for the past 2 seasons and we still haven’t in Season 5?

In storytelling, but especially film and TV, when a character’s perspective isn’t shown and their individual ideas aren’t communicated to the audience it means they have a secret.

There’s a really good post by @gayofthefae on this topic here.

Since season 2, we don’t see what Mike thinks or feels outside of his planning for action or when he’s complaining about El or Hopper to other characters like Will or Lucas.

The closest we get to seeing what happens inside of that noggin is this scene at the end of Season 3:

Pictured: straight boy’s reaction to his girlfriend confessing her love for him (quote from the script: what the hell just happened here)

Unless you count him going to look for people to recruit for hellfire

Pictured: straight boy just being, ignore the queercoding wrestling team in the background

——————

UPDATE

I wrote the above right after Volume Two came out but lowkey.

@evavowie makes a really good point in this post.

My immediate thoughts after Volume Two were just confusion especially to do with the pacing and the fuckass coming out scene and the fact that we still haven’t seen Mike’s POV.

There are a LOT of loose ends. And I doubt that the Duffers will be able to tie them all up successfully in a single episode where they have to address EVERYTHING. I understand that all we need to present Mike’s feelings to the audience is a single scene to recontextualise past scenes and flashbacks etc but there is a LOT of ground to cover.

I’m hoping for the crash out of a lifetime: not just about Will or his queerness but about his parents, not being able to protect Holly or the other kids, how he hurt El, how he’s the leader of the party but he can’t protect everyone. Obviously if his suicidal ideation will be addressed as well ill be jumping with joy but do we have time for that?? Also I doubt the painting will be addressed because the coming out scene referenced both the rain fight and van scene so that might be a rushed way to tie up those loose ends </3

Hopefully the record that Mike picks out is either Heroes or something by Bronski Beat (specifically from the Age Of Consent album), I would not be opposed to The Cure either but like. Bowie though.

Also Mike being jealous of Will and Robin was hinted at but there was so much to play around with there and they just didn’t??? Okay i guess.

Volume One was beautiful. Kinda. The blatant dick jokes were such a great way to not only queercode but gently nudge the viewers and communicate “hey- these kids are growing up”. Which sounds so ironic now that I’m putting it into words but you get the idea.

Mike still stood there. And don’t get me wrong, Finn Wolfhard put his heart and soul into wiggling those eyebrows like he is a genius when it comes to micro expressions but could we not get. More? We had his heart to hearts with Holly and Nancy and they were sweet but could we not get scenes of him not slowly crashing out or something?

We had a lot of characters be strangely nonchalant this season. Mike after his parents were attacked, El after Max woke up from an 18-month trance/coma, literally everyone when Will came out. The plot/character focus ratio was way off and the writers tried hurling way too much information at the viewer in Vol 2. At least now we don’t have to worry about logistics or world-building and can focus on characters. Right?

I need Mike to crash the fuck out. So badly.

We get a weird bunch of shots where Mike just. Lingers. He’s not being perceived by Joyce or Will. He’s just there. This is either a really strange way to hint at his overthinking or montage farming.

He’s also literally Vecna’s ideal victim and ts has been hinted at since before Vecna was even introduced.

See: Mike mocking a flayed Billy in Season 3 and the mf not being happy about it.

They could have done so much with him but he was literally just there. Almost as like a cheerleader?? If that makes sense at all. Like he encouraged Karen and El and he stood there very supportively but. Hoe. I swear you’re like the heart or something.

So in regards to his Vol 2 character arc,,, there kind of was no arc?

He was there and he got his hopes crushed by El when she talked about how this isn’t like one of his campaigns and he found out the love of his life loved him at some point. But all we saw was his immediate reaction. Not like. The toll that those conversations took on him.

I know Mike feels useless and this has to be addressed in the finale but could we not have addressed his self-doubt and crippling insecurity directly a little bit earlier? Because it probably isn’t the easiest thing in the world to fit the endgame couple finally getting together, recontextualising the past 5 seasons, concluding every character’s arc, oh and also a war into 2 hours.

I’m just scared that it will be rushed and half-assed. Mike Wheeler they could never make me hate you.

Oh and also if he turns out to be straight because that means he’s not the most well-written depiction of internalised homophobia and just a dick but like be so ffr.