Mike's Love Confession to Will, #Radiogate
Okay ya'll, I've been theorizing that Mike is bringing that portable radio everywhere he goes to monitor the military and Vecna via news reports, or to keep in contact with the party via Robin's subliminal codes in the airwaves. Yet…
What if Mike carries around that radio FOR WILL?
Maybe I'm being redundant here, and this has already been theorized, but so far I've only seen Mike with that radio going to (and at) school, when he's around Will. It seems to have prominence at the beginning of the season, and associated with these two. It could very well tie into the overall theme of the radio tower, sure. Or be a special object set-up for later importance.
Since the party has control of the radio station, one possibility is that the portable radio could be there to play Will's song and avoid possession. However, who else is obsessed with handy portable radios? Answer: Henry Creel and Patty Newby, his love interest, in The First Shadow (Broadway). Henry uses the radio to shadow walk. Later on, Patty uses it to fight off his possession.
To me, this part of the play heavily mirrored the false love confession scene in S4 between Mike and El (both couples are star-crossed types, confessions takes place on a metallic table, and the hand radio prop is present in both). However, this false love confession scene is implied to be a set up for Mike's redemption arc with Will.
Why else would Will be so heavily featured in Mike's confession? He says "I love you" within a shot composition that prominently features Will. As if Will's physical presence behind him also conveys the idea he is in the back of Mike's mind. Moreover, why else would Will be the one to introduce the idea of Mike being the "heart"? If his feelings for El were true, Mike would have come to that conclusion himself.
Friendly reminder: with Lucas and Patty, neither one had special powers for their love to psychically reach their other half, and both were successful in their own versions of the piggyback confession. Therefore, Mike absolutely had the power to save El with love, but couldn't. Why? She wasn't the one he was in love with. So he told her to fight instead.
They are 100% going to redo this scene with the right love confession, Mike to Will. All of us Bylers sensed this, as the filmmaking of the piggyback scene is designed to affect us this way. And Mike's radio in S5 is possibly the most solid proof that it will happen as it is a foreshadowing device meant to payoff later on, outlined with Patty's use of Henry's radio.
TL;DR: This hand radio is Chekhov's Gun for Mike's love confession to Will.
