âThatâs because sheâs my girlfriend, Will!â is so funny to me. âWeâre friends! We are friends!â too, because where did all of that come from?
Letâs imagine the scene going a different route.
âItâs been a year, Mike. Meanwhile, El has a whole book of letters from you.â
âI tried calling you, but the stupid phone wouldnât connect!â
Wouldnât this make a lot more sense if Mike had nothing to hide? Nothing that triggered him into going defensive mode straight away? It would be so simple to clear things out in the moment, put all the information out there so this moment of miscommunication doesn't grow to something bigger that it needs to be.
Instead, we get the infamous:
"That's because she is my girlfriend, Will!"
Very defensive, and for what? No one is saying El isn't his girlfriend. That's not the point here, in the conversation, so why does Mike feel like he has to make this point clear and loud?
And then, Mike has another chance to clear things up. What if the rest of the scene would've gone like this?
"And us?"
"We are okay, Will! Look, I tried calling you, but the stupid phone wouldn't connect!"
Again, things could've been solved like that, easily. It's not like it is a secret that Mike tried calling Will, right? I don't think Mike has the intention to hide that bit of information, I think he feels under attack at this moment and his first instinct is to say whatever will keep him and his feelings safe and guarded.
This defensiveness can't come out of nowhere. There's obviously something Mike is trying to hide, whether he is doing consciously or not.
"We are friends. We're friends."
Said twice, as if this wasn't something them and the whole audience already knew. There's no need to say this line, it's a waste of breath and screen time, unless of course there's an actual intention behind it. Which, you guessed it, of course there is.
Mike is clearly being defensive against Will, maybe even repeating the lines he's thought to himself ever since he figured out he might have romantic feelings for Will at the end of season 3. So now, all I can think about is Mike standing in front of a mirror, watching himself as he repeats in a low voice. "He is your friend. El is your girlfriend. He is your friend."
