I love that episodes parallels, more specifically the literal and metaphorical break ups of Mike Wheeler. One being framed as a comedy (Mike and El) and the other being a tragedy (Mike and Will). The contrast is insane.
Mike and Els break up is so unserious, down to the loud, not so intimate setting of a bustling mall. The dramatic dump of Mikes bike, the lack of respect for El, Lucas’ echoing of Mikes words. Even Max’s annoyance with seeing them. And finally the famous “I dump your ass”. Even down to how Mike reacts to this. The comedic timing is impeccable, it’s supposed to get a laugh out of the audience, not make them feel sad about it. Every last detail is supposed to be funny and unserious. Even to the point of Mike not attempting to win her back.
Compare that to Mike and Wills fight, or how I like to call it, Mike Wheeler’s metaphorical break up.
The day starts like a comedy, Will in costume, his insistence of it “being a day free from girls”, the boys being abruptly woken up by the medieval l music. That mood changes quickly when Will clicks stop on the backing track (after Mike and Lucas interrupt mid game for the telephone). The silence is almost deafening (apart from the storm we now hear by rolls of thunder). We’re suddenly brought back to reality, into the quiet, but private setting of the Wheelers basement. Its just Mike, Will, Lucas and of course us the viewer.
You can feel the tension between Mike and Will. Mikes mood even changes when he sees that Will is upset. He tries to mediate the situation, by trying to continue the campaign but Will is having none of it. The setting is now extremely tense. We then have Will storming out of the basement (not forgetting to dramatically shove Lucas on his way out) and of course Mike quickly chases after (unlike he did with El).
We see the storm in full effect now, anyone with two cents of media literacy can use this as a metaphor for the intensity of the fall out. It’s much more serious than El and Mikes break up. It’s deliberate.
The fight intensifies the moment Mike says “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls” but it also stops both Mike and Will in their tracks. That is when we get our first note of background music in almost, two and a half minutes. A somber dramatic note fills our screen, it’s showing us Mike knows he’s messed up, he knows he’s probably hurt his best friend’s feelings. So he again tries to backtrack, he says he’s not trying to be a jerk etc. Will here still annoyed, but hurt by Mikes sudden remark, doesn’t accept this mediocre excuse of an apology, so he bikes off into the storm.
Technically Mike doesn’t know how Will feels, but he knows how he does hence the projection (he’s just lost his express ticket (El) to appearing normal). What he does know is that he was a jerk and shouldn’t have said that.
Their fight is a tragedy, it was deliberately directed that way. It’s supposed to show us the deeper connection that Mike and Will have unlike the surface level relationship of Mike and El.
It’s NOT supposed to make you laugh
You might not catch this on your first watch or even your second. But the contrasts and parallels are all there and they all point to Byler being hidden in plain sight. The parallels show us the intensity to the two relationships, one being very surface level and unserious. The other deeper and more serious.
Mike cycling across town to apologiseto Will after the fight is proving to us the audience who Mike has the deeper connection with, who he actually doesn’t want to lose.
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