Murray should sit all characters down together in s5 to have a therapy session in which they share what would make them vulnerable towards Vecna as an effort to strengthen themselves and form a support group they can rely on without secrets. We get to see what each character is ashamed of.
Murray, of course, feels guilt for not having been able to save Alexei.
Hopper blames himself about Sarah, we know that.
Joyce blames herself for staying with Lonnie for too long and forcing Jonathan to take a parent/provider role.
Jonathan still blames himself for not being there the night Will went missing, and believes he isn't doing a good enough job at protecting his family. He's also worried about college.
Nancy still blames herself for what happened to Barb, and doesn't think she has been a good older sister for Mike.
Dustin wasn't able to save Eddie, and had to see him sacrifice himself and die in his arms.
Lucas, Steve, and El blame themselves for not being able to save Max. Additionally, Steve feels guilty for not having been able to help Eddie because he knows how much he meant to Dustin.
Will is obviously ashamed of his sexuality, perhaps Robin as well. Maybe it is now that he comes out to the party/the whole cast, or perhaps some of them hr already told. Regardless, he finds support in them.
Mike is last, and he says that he feels guilty about the way he has treated everyone in the past months, especially El (and Will). But what he doesn't say is that what he truly feels guilty for is being in love with Will.
This group heart to heart provided all of them with a sort of shield against Vecna, since it shifts up a bit of the shame and blame. However, since Mike lied about his true feelings, he is left vulnerable and Vecna targets him.
We now get to see Byler through Mike's eyes. We see scenes such as Mike biking home in the rain after they found Will's body in the quarry, Mike and Will holding hands in the hospital in s2, the van scene... all from a perspective we hadn't had access to yet. Most importantly, we get the infamous 'It's not my fault you don't like girls!', but when the camera pans, it's not Mike saying it, it's Will.
I love Byler because El deserves so much better than Mike, but Will deserves exactly Mike.
Now, I don't think Will deserves less than El or anything like that. I'm just saying that El would deserve to have Will's Mike, but instead she gets her Mike.
El's Mike calls her ridiculous and can't say he loves her.
Will's Mike bikes under the pouring rain to apologise to him and says stuff like 'Hawkins is not the same without you'.
El's Mike crumples her letters and throws them away.
Will's Mike keeps every one of his drawings.
El's Mike makes her feel like a monster.
Will's Mike makes him feel like he is not a mistake at all.
All in all, El's Mike is an asshole, but Will's Mike is worth falling for.
I kinda want whatever Dr. DOOFENSHMIRTZ and Perry the Patiplus have going on.
Like I would become a villan an gossip over tea with the hero like 'yea tell me bout the agency, how's it going with the new interns', and you knoe question their fashion choices an all, and then I would tell them my newest villanous plan and how I just made a machine that turns all ice cream into vanilla ice cream because it's so bland and no one likes it that much.
Then we would fight and of course the hero would win because I let them win because why would I turn all ice cream into vanilla ice cream, I don't even like vanilla ice cream, and anyways it's not like am a villain for the evil doings, I'm just doing it for the attention.
What if Mike and Will are not as oblivious as we think?
I know most of us think that Mike and Will are going to FIND OUT about their feelings for each other in s5, and there's going to be a big confession. Yes, I agree that everything seems to be lining up for that, BUT I don't think it's the only way things could play out, especially since it's the most obvious route to take in their love story. So, allow me to introduce you to the idea that Mike and Will might actually become aware of each other's feelings much earlier than we expected and not really need a confession at all!
I have some reasons to think this:
1- The bedroom scene: We established that they were flirting here, right? I mean, it's pretty obvious. So how are they actively flirting with each other here if they think a romantic relationship between them is completely unreachable? Mike was very deliberate about it too, he was doing it very much on purpose. The most telling part is their reactions when they're interrupted. This was talked about in this post here, but I want to reinforce that their reactions here were not only an "oops, we got interrupted" one, it was a "oh, we got interrupted, and now we have to readjust our behavior because we don't want anyone else to see us like this." It looked more like they were aware that they were doing something not really platonic there and quickly changed back to their only best friends' dynamic. ALSO, in the same scene, Will decides to take the painting with him after their conversation. Why would he take the painting after this if he thought it was only a platonic conversation and he had absolutely no chance?
2- Mike understood what Will meant: This one depends on your interpretation of the van scene, but many of us agree that Mike did understand what Will meant at first and then thought he got it wrong after Will pushed him to tell El that he loved her. So if he really believed in it at that moment, how is he going to go back to being completely oblivious about it again? Mike is very smart, they're going to be closer than ever again in s5, so how is he not going to consider the possibility again? Especially since the painting lie is so hard to cover and makes no sense if you analyze it for more than two seconds, which leads to my next point…
3- M!leven's breakup: The breakup will probably happen very soon into the next season because of the way things ended up taking a bad turn for Mike and El, El's need to focus on saving Max and because it will be much harder to develop byler if they're still together. So how is Mike not going to realize the contradiction in Will's speech? How is he going to keep believing that El commissioned the painting when she is going to break up with him? It just doesn't add up, he will know that she doesn't need him. Also, there's the fact that she doesn't know anything about d&d. Mike was smart enough to see through Will the first time, now with added information he might as well pick up on it again.
4- Hawkins witch hunt storyline potential: This is speculation, but the HUGE potential for some deep dive into the homophobic environment Mike and Will are going to be dealing with in s5 can't be taken out of consideration. Will is already a target in the town since forever, but now Mike is also a target too for being a part of the hellfire club. There are metaphors being applied here relating to the aids crisis that was happening at the time, "a disease that has been spreading across the country." The possibility of Mike and Will being targeted together this time is REAL, they're both hated now. Will is back right when things started to go south in the town again. If the entire town is making comments about the nature of their relationship and their sexualities, how can they simply not think about what it really means? How can they not reevaluate the nature of it themselves? Especially Will, because he knows from his own experience that those people ended up being right about him after all. What if they're right again?
5- "We're friends, we're friends!": Sure thing, Mike was quick to jump to the conclusion here that Will was talking about them in a romantic way, huh? Why would he immediately think Will was suddenly addressing the Thing™ between them if he really thinks there's nothing between them at all? Mike does this in both of their fights, he brings romantic undertones to the conversation when Will is actually only talking about their friendship. He's the one who brings up the "spend the rest of our lives together" idea into the table even if he is dismissing it (which he regrets doing after Will confirms that he actually does want that). He makes sure to let Will know that he DOES NOT put him and El in the same category, "that's because she's my girlfriend, Will" (even though he contradicts himself later in the bedroom scene, putting Will and El in the same category lol). So since the moment Will asks him "and us?" until he clarifies that he's talking about their friendship, Mike is thinking that Will was just straight up talking about their romantic feelings for each other?? Why would he jump to the conclusion that Will would bring that up if he thought there was no chance that there's anything between them in the first place?
6- Less subtext and more text: The fandom knows all about the subtext and queercoding used in the show to indicate that byler will be endgame, but does the general audience know about that? No. It's the last season, and this is a story they're telling with great care throughout the entire show. I don't think they're going to be satisfied if byler ends up being seen as an out-of-nowhere thing. They're going to need to make it more obvious, to show how it has always been meant to be like that and how much Mike is actually in love with Will. How are they supposed to do that using only subtext? They were able to make a lot of people see it until s3, but byler only started to get big as it is today because of how much more obvious about it s4 was. By being a little more straightforward with it in s4, they actually made a lot of people see it for the first time (me included). I think they're only going to amplify that for s5, so now EVERYONE gets to see it too before it actually happens.
If Mike and Will were already sensing the tension between them in s4 with them only having a few more straightforward scenes, how are they going to be oblivious about it in s5 where everything is going to be MORE? More touching, more looks, more heart-to-hearts, more tension, more EVERYTHING. And if they started to explore sexuality topics in s4, in s5,they're NOT going to shy away from that. So how are they going to remain so oblivious about each other's feelings??
7- Not the obvious choice: Like I said at the beginning of this, the idea of them not knowing is the most accepted way that we think this is going to turn out, and I agree that it makes the most sense, but it is the obvious choice. For an even more surprising season, I think having this dynamic between them being more clear not only for us but for them too would be really interesting.
Anyway, I think we can agree that both of them at least had felt hopeful at some point during the show, and in s4, both of them had moments where they felt this could be a possibility. If they thought of that when they're distant from each other, I don't see how they couldn't actually start to consider it again now that they're going to be super close to each other again. I'm not saying those moments could ONLY be interpreted like that, but it's a different perspective of their dynamic that could be surprisingly good to explore in s5.
Having them slowly realize that their feelings are mutual but also being way too insecure/scared about acting on and being held in the middle of the apocalypse could be a great way to create even more tension between them. Just realizing that they love each other might not be the only issue they have to face in order to be together. I think there are going to be a lot of external factors as well, and this dynamic would be a great way to keep the audience really invested in their relationship.
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