Aug 20, 2025
We've been over how in the scene where they share M&Ms it cuts from Mlvn to a dead body, but also
In this scene I just noticed they cut from Mike and El kissing to something gross
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We've been over how in the scene where they share M&Ms it cuts from Mlvn to a dead body, but also
In this scene I just noticed they cut from Mike and El kissing to something gross
Reaction shots inform audience reactions. And this is the one they chose for El dumping Mike:
And honestly, if this were serious, no reaction shot should have gone here at all. It makes this moment completely unintimate by involving a third party.
But really, it has to. And arguably, she isn't. If anything, Mike is. Because even this, even this, isn't about him. It's about El. And her words are a callback (and a fucking punchline at that) to something she's learning about independence from Max.
This moment is entirely about El and Max. If anything, Mike is the intruder. In his own. breakup, yes.
Putting this here at all actually is the equivalent of cutting to Argyle when Will said "without heart, we all fall apart". Completely undercutting. Reminding us that they quite literally have an audience, breaking us out of it.
There wasn't a closeup on Lucas or Will. It was not required to have any but their two. But that wouldn't have made sense. Because it isn't actually about them. It isn't romantic tension for them getting back together. It isn't even about them. (Why do you think we follow El and Max and not Mike? We only cut back to Mike after the get on the bus and high five - and then cut directly from him watching after El to handcuffs but that's for other posts)
Their breakup wasn't about them. And we weren't supposed to be feeling for him. We were El here: satisfied. And we were Max: entertained.
Did y'all notice that Mike telling El he loved her was intercut with a bunch of people dying? Because I noticed. And then we even check back in with him, something done to remind us that the timeline is simultaneous and the deaths didn't happen after but during.
OH MY GOD AND
Do you know what this implies?
He continued talking and it continued to not work.
He didn't continue a full speech, but he didn't stop either. He was still begging her to come back from "fight" to "come on".
And do you know the shot RIGHT BEFORE this one?
Tw: sfx
THIS. THIS IS WHAT WE CUT FROM.
Reminds me of when they cut between the cute m&m olive branch scene and dead bodies scattered as Jonathan and Nancy fight for their fucking lives with a close up on a random dead body initially right after Mike and El, just for good measure.
JESUS, editors. As I say, the people behind this show hate this ship more than I ever could 😭.
Okay but let's talk about how the had just put clips of the known endgame couples - Lumax, Jopper - broken up only by the government/supernatural plot but then instead went to multiple friend groups before Elmike
These happen in immediate sequence. Not Lumax, Jopper, Mlvn. Lumax, Jopper, the teens and Dustin, the party Elmike. Romance then friendship. And Elmike weren't even the transition point in it, they were furthest on the other side of the line.
(I mean, the other groups had Jancy/Stancy and Byler present so makes more sense honestly)
Checked back and, indeed, they cut from the m&m scene straight to a dead body. Not even part of the fight. Just a dead extra in the corner of the hall before panning back up to see Nancy running through the hallway.
Reminds me of my recent rewatch where right after Bob says he's gonna be the "superhero", it cuts to a dead body head on. Hmm...
Are we saying Milkvan's romance fate is Bob's fate? Mayhaps...
Bob saying he's gonna be a hero then cutting to a dead body. Mike starting to use that olive branch but we all know what started dying in season 4...
Oh look, more Milkvan imprisonment symbolism
First being strangled and arrested, now this
Just noticed that in Hopper's speech he says "I started to feel things again"
but, despite El and Mike embracing onscreen, they make sure he doesn't say it during that. It's silence during their embrace, and instead they sync it up with Jonathan and Nancy's embrace the next shot (an actual endgame couple)
Funny how during Mike's love confession to El, they cut to both Will AND Jonathan, making it both even more intimate AND including the established "objective observer" of the situation, while later, when they're begging her to come back after the fight, it only cuts to Will because they're the main two who have put their hearts into saving her here. Hmm. Almost like they could have contained the previous scene to only those it applied to most to make it feel more romantic but didn't. Hmm.
Because once again, the point of that speech was to get her back. Not to tell her he loved her. So why make the less important section the sweeter, more immersive one?