So I don’t think this has been mentioned before, and if it has it hasn’t been mentioned enough. So in an interview, The Duffers said that they tell their actors what’s going to happen to them in the season prior to the one they’re filming at the moment. Basically what relationships they’re going to be in, what choices they’re going to make, who’s going to upset them, etc. They do this so that their actors know how to act around certain people, add in little things that hint towards how their relationship is going to be with that person in future.
As an example they mentioned that they told Noah Schnapp, while filming season 2, what sort of things would happen to him in season 3. This means that Noah knew his character would have a break down because of heart break in season 3. This also means that Noah must have been knowingly making his character show signs of being in love with Mike in season 2. You can find proof for this in the ‘crazy together’ scene Will has with Mike. In that scene Will looked really happy at Mike’s statement, that they’d go ‘crazy together’. Even though Will was going through a lot in that moment, and felt unsafe and horrible in general, Mike was able to make him smile. They shared a loving look, and Will looked as if he was questioning himself the moment Mike looked away.
Noah must have known to act like this, as his character suffers heart break because of Mike in season 3. With this knowledge, we can pay attention to how certain characters act around certain people, for telling how their relationships will be in future. Taking a look at Mike and Eleven’s relationship in season 3, we can pick up signs that they won’t get back together in season 4. If Finn Wolfhard knows that his character will admit that he doesn’t love El in season 4, then we can find evidence for this at the start of season 3, when Mike leaves El’s house to join Max, Lucas and Will on a double - date. He’s talking to El over his cerebro, and she’s saying that she wishes she was with him. When Mike responds with an ‘I know, me too’ he sounds very fake. You can even say he sounds slightly annoyed at El, and just wants to get their conversation over with. You can say he was very focused on riding his bike, or something like that, but if this is really the love of his life making a sappy remark, shouldn’t he sound sappy and be all romantic too. The script told Finn to say ‘I know...’ but he might have added in sounding completely uninterested himself, knowing that it wasn’t really the “love of his life”.
Now let’s take a look at one of Mike and Will’s scenes in season 3. A very famous one is the scene in the cinema, where Mike asks Will if he’s ok. Now, if both Finn and Noah know that their characters are secretly in love with each other, then they’d know to show little signs of it in season 3. In this specific scene, Mike and Will keep making little glances at each other’s lips. Now if this wasn’t meant to be intentional, The Duffers most definitely would’ve made them retake that scene. It’s very obvious to anyone watching, that Mike leaned in to Will a little too close, their eyesights wondered off to each other’s lips for a little too long, and it was a little too obvious. Anyone watching would think they’re about to kiss, as these are usually the signs in a movie/ t.v show that two characters are going to kiss. From my experience, whenever two people are slowly about to kiss in movies/ t.v shows, they always look at each other’s eyes, then down at each other’s lips, then back at the eyes again. Mike and Will where doing exactly this. Finn and Noah know this, as they are professional actors. We can use this scene as them implying that they’re going to confess love for each other in season 4, or at least they’re going to let the audience know for sure.
There are other signs in other scenes referring to how Mike and El’s or Mike and Will’s relationship will be in season 4. I can analyse this topic more in future posts.