I know we’ve analyzed this scene over and over again, and someone else has probably pointed this out, but I thought this was interesting.
Will has blue behind him.
Mike has blue and yellow (and green) behind him. And yellow in front of him.
I know we’ve figured out the blue & yellow = Mike & Will and Byler = green.
(I’m also looking right at Mike’s “I asked for vomit green and I got vomit green.” And green = blue + yellow together [byler])
But, I thought it was interesting that the blue light is next to Will, because the boy he loves is right in front of him. Will is wearing blue. He’s talking to Mike, and the blue is there because he’s thinking of Mike and he’s upset over being a third wheel. (Who wouldn’t be?)
Then, we have Mike.
He’s wearing a bluish purple shirt and yellow over it. Just like the flowers, yellow is overwhelming the purple… I wonder why?
The lights behind Mike’s head and in front of his head kind of clue us in on what the characters are thinking about. Mike is thinking about Will as indicated by the single yellow light between them, (because that’s the thing… somehow, Will has always been between Mike and his failing normal relationship with El), and Mike is also thinking about his relationship with Will differently. The lighting is telling us directly what Mike is thinking of… and that’s why he’s so thrown by the “And us?”. Because Will just wants to know where he stands, he thinks that he can live with it if he just rips the bandaid off and moves on from Mike. But Mike took the “And us?” As something more, as if he’s thought of his friendship with Will as something more…
And I think it’s funny & interesting that after this fight, Mike’s wardrobe shifts. And Will’s does too.
This is the aftermath of the roller rink incident. The colors are definitely muted here, they were loud at the roller rink, but here? The colors aren’t as full force, there’s some yellow in Mike’s flannel and there’s some blue and green on Will’s polo. I think the colors are muted here because of the fight, but it’s still showing that they’re thinking of that fight through the clothing itself.
But once Mike and Will have that heart to heart… the loud colors are back again. The clothing isn’t muted anymore, and these are the outfits that they wear for the rest of the season.
I know that the teal shirt was custom made and designed to look different in certain lighting, but what I started thinking about, was the blend of colors and lighting from before.
Blue and green make dark teal, but yellow lightens it up… meaning that Mike is thinking of being with Will in a relationship (blue and green make dark teal) but you need equal parts of blue and green, and equal parts of yellow and green, to make the teal on Mike’s shirt. (Meaning that I think Mike has come to terms with his love for Will and his feelings shifting from friendship to something more by the end of S4. They still have a lot to talk about and discuss… but there’s also a span of 2 days that we didn’t get to see as an audience.)
But Will hasn’t let himself think of being with Mike as an honest option, after the painting. He ripped off the bandaid, he’s trying to allow himself to move on and give up hope that Mike will ever love him in the same way. . . Which is why I think, his shirt is mostly yellow with blue patterned in lightly. And maybe, if they plan to continue with the color theory, we’ll see some changes again in season 5.
But… I keep thinking that Mike’s monologue was a veiled response to Will’s veiled confession in the van… and it would make sense, because they’ve been using El as a cover for every argument (and almost every conversation) in S4. Mike even uses his fight with El to talk to Will about their fight from S3.
I’m just saying, I think early S5 established or almost established Byler is something we could be looking at.
