I just watched Volume 2. Hopefully you have too, because I am here to rant. Again.
If I’m being honest… I feel really empty right now.
I don’t even know how to articulate it. I’m not saying I’ve given up on Byler becoming canon. Not at all. But for the first time in my life (which is a pretty long life!), I feel genuinely gutted because I’ve been so emotionally invested in fictional characters.
Let me address the elephant in the room: the coming out scene.
I cried. And I don’t cry easily at shows. A few days ago I was trying to remember the last time something on screen made me cry, and I honestly couldn’t. I know it must’ve happened, but I just don’t remember.
I understand why some people didn’t like the scene or how it was handled. The room was definitely a bit too crowded for my liking. Family and friends I can understand, but Mr. Clarke, Murray, Vickie… that felt like a stretch.
But even then, none of that mattered, because all I saw was Will. Everyone else disappeared for me.
On a rewatch I thought Dustin looked towards Mike when Will talked about his crush. I was probably overthinking.
And yes, when he said the person he had a “crush” on was his “Tammy”… my heart actually broke. Because there is no universe where that feels true.
It felt more like... well.. ripping off the band-aid? He probably thinks that anyway.
There are still so many unresolved things in the show. Or at least that’s what I thought until the coming out happened. But one specific thing still haunts me: the painting. Finn said the payoff would come in Season 5, and we still haven’t gotten Mike’s POV. El still doesn’t know the painting wasn’t for her. She doesn’t know that the “Tammy” Will mentioned is really Mike.
So yeah… I feel empty.
And as much as I love this show, the wait for the finale, these six days feels impossible. I trust the process, but I also dread the outcome.
But this isn’t Byler doubt. It’s more of a emotional fatigue.
Woah... reading this myself, I may really be delusional at this point.
As for the death predictions:
I’m genuinely not scared for Eleven anymore. I feel like it’s another fake-out death in the making. If anyone dies, I keep thinking it might be Kali (not because I want that, she’s suffered enough too.) Out of all the characters, she seems the most narratively “killable.”
I don’t see the core four kids dying either. Unless they’re feeling especially cruel and decide to kill Will (which I really don’t see happening). Hopper isn’t dying. I don’t see anything happening to Steve or Jancy. I’m slightly worried for Robin and Vickie but honestly… why would they kill them? It wouldn’t make sense.
If I’m brutally honest, the only characters I see dying are military people, Dr. Kay, Vecna (who is way beyond redemption at this point), and maybe Kali. Murray or Mr. Clarke might sacrifice themselves, but killing Mr. Clarke feels pointless.
And honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if no one on the “good side” dies at all. Shouldn’t the story give us hope rather than despair, especially at the end?
Seriously the finale airs on December 31st. Who in their right mind schedules the final episode of such a beloved show on New Year’s Eve… only to end it with tragedy or ambiguity?
That date practically screams emotional closure, not heartbreak. Right?
First off, thank you for sharing all these very complex personal thoughts and feelings. That sounds like a lot of emotion and exhaustion and overwhelm all at once. 😥
Yes, we watched all of volume 2 last night. My daughter and I talked quite a bit about it afterwards. She is also having many complicated and confusing feelings about what happened and is still working through it all. She read something that described the three kinds of doubt as:
1. Byler doubt - when you doubt the signs and clues we've picked up on and analyzed actually mean anything and are doubting if Byler will happen
2. Byler angst - when you doubt the Duffers will do a decent job giving us a Byler culmination we can all feel hap-satisfied about
3. Byler fear - when you doubt Netflix will allow Byler to be presented as the beautiful queer-empowering story we all know it can be
(I'm paraphrasing here. Sorry, I don't know where she saw it so I can't credit the original creator.)
She's struggling with the Byler angst, which I think is where you are too at this point, and is not sure how she feels about the way it's been handled so far.
Personally, I didn't feel nearly as angsty and overwhelmed this volume as I did after the first one. Not sure why exactly. Maybe I'm just in a better place emotionally this time. Also, I've been writing my own separate story for these characters for so long, that version feels just as real (if not more) to me now as the original, and has already allowed me to experience and explore all the tender, emotional interpersonal scenes my heart desires, with many more planned. (Plus, we watched "Spirited" like, three times in the last two days, and that show just makes my heart happy 🥰 I've got that Christmas morning feeling! 😃) So although I wish we'd been given a whole lot more Byler-as-a-team this season than we've seen so far, I'm okay with it being what it is. And there is still one more movie-length epicsode (apparently, from what they've told us) yet to come.
As far as the coming-out scene... I would have preferred if it was only Joyce and Mike there (I actually clapped when Will said, "I think you need to hear this too" as Mike started walking away), but I didn't mind it being the whole group - it wasn't about them, so it really didn't matter who all the listening faces were. It was about Will finding the courage to expose his hidden self to... really anyone. And this way, they don't need to take the time to show every character (or those who need to know) learning about it separately - it's already handled. (Although it would've been kinda fun for Lucas and Dustin to have their minds blown seeing a Byler kiss.)
On the nitpicky stylistic side, I don't think the list of ways Will is like the others needed to be quite so long (seven points would've been enough, not the twelve or fifteen they listed. I actually started getting bored, thinking - okay, we get the point...) I did think a lot them were really cute though and appreciated the sentiment.
I LOVE how Robin nods to encourage him and how, when Will says, "I mean I do (like girls). Just not like you guys do," the reaction shot focuses on Lucas and Dustin, with Mike slightly blurred and a tiny bit out of frame, like we're meant to be unsure if this applies to him too.
Calling Mike a "crush" or Will's "Tammy" I think is meant to be Will downplaying his feelings for Mike more for his own sake. Sharing his truly deep, lasting feelings would have been more vulnerability than he was ready to show at this point. And it's also a way to help himself let go and move on, because he doesn't think Mike is like him. Which should make it even more poignant and satisfying when Mike reveals that he does feel that way about Will - if they handle it well.🤞
The one thing I REALLY disliked was the last part, when Will basically gave Vecna credit for pushing him into this. It should have been framed as him wanting to fully embrace his true self, expressing all his worries for the future as reasons he's held back for so long rather than just things Vecna showed him as a fear tactic. It could have been an empowering step on his journey to self-acceptance but instead, they presented it as a defensive move against Vecna's threats. Maybe there will be some plot-relevant reason for this in the last episode, but imho, it was a questionable choice and actually took away from the impactfulness and sensitivity of the moment.
I don't know about the deaths. Kali, probably. El, maybe (not sure about that one). Vecna, definitely. Probably no one else from the good side (maybe Murray?) After that scene with Dustin and Steve, I think they're both safe. They're not killing off Dustin and there wouldn't be enough time for him to deal with the trauma of losing Steve in a satisfying way.
I agree, there are many things that really need to be addressed that haven't been yet (the painting lie, how El recognized Will in the photo in S1, who slid the chain on Will's front door when he was hiding from the demogorgon, Lettergate - what was that letter with the "Love ____ " at the end, why did Mike jump off a cliff (!) and what was he thinking in that moment, just Mike's whole POV...) so this final episode has a lot riding on it and I really hope the duffers can do it justice.
It has been amazingly fun being a part of this fandom during these last few years (this is my first!), sharing in everyone's wild ideas, imaginative hopes and predictions, and inspired creations. One of the downsides to this though is, with so much creativity and brainpower working together, playing off each other, we've explored some truly incredible possibilities for this show that may far surpass what we actually get in the end. But I think it's been worth it, getting so much out of what could have been just a few hours' escape into a TV show that's watched and forgotten. Instead, it became a whole culture of support and encouragement which has changed us and our lives for the better, showing us all what we're truly capable of.
TL;DR: We're awesome and the Duffers have a lot riding on this finale.
(I might make some of these points into smaller posts, because I don't think a lot of people will read all of this.)
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