Lucas fought with the Jocks, not Dustin
Just a little note about Dustin's grief. Dustin was already grieving at the end of S4 and provided some sort of closure to Eddie's uncle. He was already on his way to forgive himself and accept Eddie's death because Eddie obviously chose to die to protect Dustin and the rest of the town.
In Lucas' case, it's different. Max did not choose to die in the finale instead she was ready to risk my life trusting that her friends would come to her aid. This was confirmed after the "Running Up That Hill" scene where she chooses to live and also in the Creel house attic where she says she doesn't want to die yet. Lucas blames himself understandably because it was the jocks he wanted to be involved with who thwarted their plan and cost Max her life/health. He says it himself. "I never should have knocked".
Now let's get into it....
We've all thought about how it is weird that Max is still in the hospital after all that time. I believe that Owens could have been involved. In S4, El tells him to check up on Max calling her "Max Mayfield". He could have had her instituted in a separate facility.
This would affect Lucas greatly because it's not like she's dead and he would end up accepting that she's gone but it is the fact that there is a slight possibility that she may be alive but is out of reach causing Lucas to mourn her absence every day. Yes, I don't believe all of the Lumax scenes we had this season were actually real. I may be wrong.
In the cemetery scene, we see that Eddie has a grave but has been declared missing since his death. The same could apply to Max so what if they made a grave for Max and Lucas visits it often. Maybe her mother thinks she is dead? Idk just thinking.
"Red is Dead". Eddie calls Max "Red" Is Max "dead" or just dead? We'll see.
So in the cemetery, Dustin says this....
Hmmmmm....this reminded me of a scene in the Starcourt Mall in S3.
In this scene, Lucas initially holds a pink perfume but then picks up a violet perfume and sprays Mike in his eyes with it. It's important to note that in this season, Lucas was one of the main reasons Moldleven were still alive and breathing while we were desperately begging the screen to end it swiftly.
Is Mike Vecna's lead acolyte? The Dungeon Master! Does this mean there will be some sort of altercation between Mike and Lucas when CG is realised....? I think so and here's why....
"Wanted to see if you had my back"
"Yeah I have your back" Do you, Mike? You tend to be a bit self-absorbed and clueless.π
Or maybe it's a twist. Lucas is a military man. He knows when to make sacrifices to protect those he loves and has a gun. He figuratively shoots Mike in the back. It could explain why Lumax were happy and Byler and other potential couplings caught dust. I do think it relates to just Byler with all that "why can't there be two Venkmans?" discourse. This could test how strong their friendship is and how much it can endure.
Here is what motivated me to make this post...
Walk with me... Lucas tries to communicate with Dustin (the audience) telling us that "this is Lucas" but Dustin is not listening....
What if this was a way to tell the audience that it was actually Lucas who was ambushed and beaten. I think the word "Dustin" needs a question mark.
Dustin? This is Lucas. Do you copy? Over
"So you think it's Dustin? No, this is Lucas."
We had poor signal before but not anymore.
We copy! Over. It is LUCAS
One final thing. I noticed that the single person shots in the hallway scene in E1 were exchanged between Dustin and Lucas and it would include Mike, Will and Dustin in one shot and then only Lucas in another and this was when they were admonishing Dustin on why he shouldn't have provoked them reminding me of the time in S1 where Lucas went solo to look for Will.
Hmmmmmm....maybe this exists because it was actually Lucas not listening to them. He makes his own decisions. It references what he did in S1 which helped them know more about the Lab. In S2 when he told Max about the party's adventures. In S3 when he stuck with his plan to attack the Flesh flayer with fireworks which ended up defeating it and in S4, when he chose to keep playing basketball and then decided to trick and ditch the jocks to warn his friends. It's undeniable that Lucas is a very confident and gutsy character and also very direct which is why I believe he would have tried to fight the jocks. I want them to explore this more. Perhaps he was conditioned to be direct as a way to adapt considering how blatant racism was in the 80's. They need to explore this!
This possibility makes Lucas a more interesting character than he already is to me. Unfortunately, the character was narratively assassinated like many others this season and I hope CG rectifies this. Also, it still surprises that a character like Kali hasn't been included in multiple seasons when she has a very interesting power and background. I hope all these characters are done justice in CG content. Hope the Duffoons won't disappoint us any more than they have already.
Thanks for reading. Hope this makes sense:)