YES! OH MY GOSH! THIS!!
This is a response from the below post:
We don't know how Karen and El feel about each other since season 3. they only talked briefly when El called Mike and both she and ted know
Like, you’re telling me KAREN WHEELER heard that her son hid a whole a** person in their house for a week, who she was told was a Russian spy wanted by the U.S Government, and just…moved on?
Karen saw El’s picture with the shaved head. Maybe they could have played it off as “these are two different people” when El grew out her hair, but Karen has to realize it’s the same person when El steps out of the van at the end of the season. It makes total sense that Karen acknowledges Mike first, because that’s her son, who she probably thought was in a lot of danger. But, nothing for El? I get that the Duffer Brothers can’t show us everything, but this is a really big missed opportunity here. There’s not even a throwaway line referencing it.
I need something to go down between them in Season Five. These are two of the most important women in Mike’s life (along with Nancy and Holly), and I think it would be a really interesting dynamic to explore for El as well. One of her arcs is learning how to be a regular person instead of a lab rat, and part of that life is meeting the parents. We’ve seen Mike with Hopper (and their friendship is adorable), but give me some mother-in-law type content with Karen. I just know she’d treat El like a third daughter. Honestly, Cara Buono is severely underutilized. I love her!
I’m a Wheeler family stan at this point (except for Ted for…obvious reasons).
Thank you, @augustchild for validating my feelings regarding El and Karen!
