El's storyline is so fucking interesting, and I think we aren't talking about it enough.
Ever since she reunited with Kali, she entered a completely different plot from the others - which I think makes so much sense. Kali serves as a reminder that at the end of the day, she is different from the others, no matter how much everyone else says she isn't. Her existence is a threat to herself, to everyone she loves, and to other children. It's so much more dangerous than the others can imagine.
This caused her to distance herself from everybody almost instantly, which is why Hopper hates Kali so much. It's also maybe why we didn't get a heartfelt Elmax reunion, it wouldn't make sense considering where she's at emotionally, and what she plans on doing. I feel like it's building towards everybody being too late to realize what she's doing, even Mike and Hopper. Mike doesn't seem tuned in to the realities of her life, he really does believe in the waterfall thing, and Hopper is too caught up in his own self-sacrificial plan to notice that his daughter is planning on doing the same thing.
And it's so sad because she doesn't wanna go through with it. She wants to blow up the lab and go to the stupid fucking waterfall. But there's no time to come with a plan, and no one helpful to show her another way out.
If no one's paying attention to her, and Kali is encouraging the whole suicide pact, it may end up being El who has to save herself? Maybe she decides that she deserves to live, and is ready to spend the rest of her life fighting for it. At least I fucking hope so. Her dying would be so incredibly unfair.
But, truly I think it's such great writing. It makes sense that no one can comfort her, it's literally the end of the world. Of course Hopper is focused on protecting everyone, he's been one of the only adults since the start. Of course Mike doesn't care as much about the future at the moment, he wants to make sure his sister doesn't die right now. Even Kali is tunnel-visioned, because she saw a literal nightmare, was tortured for more than a year, and every single one of her loved ones were killed. Of course she wants to end it as soon as possible, she doesn't think she has anything else to live for.
It's gonna be so interesting to see what El decides to do, and hopefully the people around her get to see the complexities of her mind.
