Doing some thinking abt byler and I realized something about their motto - “friends don’t lie”
In s3 max makes a point to tell El “boyfriends lie” , implying how Mike lying about his grandma will not be the last lie he tells, which sets us up quite nicely for mileven’s arc in s4 AND lumax’s AND byler’s!
In s4 , it starts with El lying to Mike. The entire opening sequence is El lying to mike about how her life in Lenora is going. This indirectly shows the audience how their relationship is currently, setting us up for its inevitable downfall throughout the season. It’s built on lies from the start.
We then get Mike lying right back when he arrives in Lenora, which is an often overlooked detail that I wish people spoke about more.
This ugly outfit is there for a reason. Argyle himself says the shirt he’s wearing is “a shitty knock off” - which can be seen as having two meanings. One is it’s literally a knock off (even though he can afford the original) and the other is that Mike is being a shitty fake version of himself and who he really is. He’s trying to be someone he’s not in the same way El is.
Will makes a point to tell El how much Mike hates being lied to (“when he finds out he’s gonna be mad”) and El holds her ground. El is so determined to be someone she thinks Mike wants she goes as far to even tell Angela to apologize to her in front of Mike just to do this. This once again highlights how unable they are as a couple to communicate. El is desperate to not have Mike know the truth or have to explain it, which is what results in her hitting Angela with a roller skate.
Of course we then get the whole Mileven argument, where it once again reiterates how they can’t communicate. What’s important in this scene, is the emphasis on Mike not saying he loves her. Mike won’t lie if he can help it, he hates doing it. Him not saying he loves her is DELIBERATE. He’d be LYING and refused to lie to her. I mean, he literally gets mad at Will for not telling him that El was being bullied even though Will didn’t even know until literally that day she was lying.
THE LETTER.
Nobody talks about this nearly as much as they should so I WILL!!! In what was possible the last letter to Mike, she uses “from”.
Yes, it’s petty! But is that all it is? NO!
El has just been called out for lying and it’s resulted badly. It’s taught her a lesson about lying and why it’s bad, especially with Mike. She won’t do it again because it’s stupid and El is not stupid. So, she writes “from”.
Do I think she doesn’t love him anymore? No.
I do think however that she realized Mike doesn’t love her in the way she wants to be and let go of her wish for that. She let go of the lies and accepted the truth - they aren’t working.
Now, onto Lumax! This bit is brief. Ironically, Lucas is the most honest boyfriend we see on screen! He’s the one who tells Max about everything in s2 and constantly trusts her and the two have a very healthy and loving relationship throughout the show. So Max saying “boyfriends lie” is really funny because Lucas literally never does, if anything, she does! I think this line was more to set up Mileven’s failure in s4 and highlight the difference between a healthy couple and communication to an unhealthy one.
In the van scene, Will lies to Mike. He lies to him despite our AND his understanding of how much Mike hates being lied to. This lie (or playing cyrano trope) is what causes Mike to tell El he loves her in the pizzeria. There’s already so much proof Mike is lying in this scene so I’ll keep it brief. Ironically, the song playing in the background is “You’re the heart” (I think) which again reinforces the idea that this is all built on Will’s feelings and his lie.
We also know that the lie will “pay off” in s5 thanks to Finn, implying that Mike is going to find out about it and could very well get angry at Will. However it could also cause him to realize his feelings for Will or just that him and El aren’t working.
What’s important is that this is the first time Will ‘successfully’ lies to Mike. Every other time he’s literally been incapable of it, folding after telling one or just not lying to him at all. (It was a seven) It creates a running theme that shows that it’s likely this lie will also fail.
Friends don’t lie.
But boyfriends do.
Will - as a friend - doesn’t lie.
Will - wanting to be more - does lie.
And that’s the difference between the two phrases and how they foreshadow Byler and Mileven’s arc in s4 and s5. In conclusion, Byler and Lumax endgame!
