The Heart-Touching Side of Byler |
"The Mind of Mike Wheeler" Part 3
Last part really wanted me to throw Mike out of the window at some point, for real. But only looking at the notes for this part wants me to give him a really tight hug. Uff.
As always, video comes first and my detailed analysis is below it.
Related Posts: 5/5 Sync, Part 1, Part 2
▶ The Fight Inside Mike's Heart
In the first timeline we have another scene of Max and Holly in the cave ('the heart'), the second one shows Mike (and Nancy) at the hospital. While Holly's looking for a secret passageway to escape Camazotz, Mike's grabbing a coffee, standing in front of an exit sign.
Holly's turning towards the cave opening and asks Max if she'd searched 'out there.' All of it. Which she did not. At the same time we see Mike walking past a hospital window. He's just briefly glancing through it at first, looking the opposite direction immediately, but then he finally stops to take a proper look into the room behind it.
The things Mike sees are a wall, a rainbow puzzle and then the book "A Wrinkle In Time." (Remember, he was getting compared to Meg, the main character of it.) The moment we see the puzzle Holly starts moving, planning to get 'out there.' She's representing the part of Mike that wants to get out, to explore.
After that we get a long close-up of "A Wrinkle In Time." Long enough for Max to say: "You are not going out there. Holly, we're staying here, and we wait for Eleven, end of story." That's the other part of Mike, the scared part that wants him to stay closeted, to be with El.
To end the story with El.
I need to make a quick jump now, but you remember what Mike said in the epilogue, right?
"The storyteller keeps telling stories."
Do y'all understand the message of that? Mike's not ending the story with El. He decided to get out there and explore. Decided for Will.
And that story hasn't been told yet.
Back to the actual scene. Holly thinks there's another way for Henry to get to Max. At the same moment we see Mike in front of another exit sign. While he's at the hospital - just like Max. That's creepy... I think this scene needs another deep dive in a greater context at some point.
But not now.
As Holly finally wins the argument (what a surprise) she starts moving and touches the 'heart.' Meanwhile Mike's totally zoning out and not noticing that Nancy started talking to him. Max says "Your are your brother!" and then starts following Holly. Only after that Mike finally reacts to Nancy, not beings distracted by the fight inside of his heart anymore. So technically Max was right about Holly being her brother.
Skipping ahead we have Mike, El and the others gathering around the comatose Will in the first timeline, while we stay with Mike and Nancy at the hospital in the second. We get some nice visual parallels here.
Mike and Joyce ask El if she can find Will, while the other Mike's saying to Nancy that he doesn't want to have any more regrets. Regrets like letting Will get hurt. Or hurting Will himself.
El's face is giving "I know what you are." ( ఠ ͟ʖ ఠ)
The upper timeline shows Mike and El having a conversation at the cabin, while the lower one's showing Will and Robin talking in the forest.
El's lying to Mike and he wants her to be honest, while Will's looking up at the other timeline, saying he's not feeling anything. El and Will are paralleled through the red collar and their movements, which means that Will's lying about his feelings.
Skipping ahead we have Mike saying "Because this is our story. And it starts with getting Will back." Meanwhile we see the camera zooming in on Will and afterwards the mandala's starting to 'spiral.' Okay, so Mike wants to get him back, it's their story. Nice.
I'm being honest with you, the complete scene still contains more secrets that are left to uncover. There are really weird connections I don't get yet. I only focused on the tiny parts I'm able to understand. You might wonder why I included it at all or why I made exactly those connections. Yeah, I guess I need to tell you something, there's no way around it...
The Season 5/5 Sync's not the only one I have, there's more. Season 5 and season 4 are deeply connected with each other. But I actively decided to keep that out of my focus until I'm done with analyzing Season 5/5, my brain was collapsing under the amount of information. The only reason I'm telling you this now is because I need to make one exception. You need to get the importance.
Adding season 4 on top of the 5/5 Sync we get this:
Will's giving Mike the painting when Mike's saying it's their story and it starts with getting Will back. Moments before Will's lying about his feelings. Boom.
I really, really hope I'm not confusing your minds too much with this right now. But- we will come back to this in part 4. And that's a f**king promise!
In the timeline on top we see Will's coming out scene, almost completely. The timeline below shows us the first conversation of Max and Holly in the woods.
Max is saying to Holly "It doesn't look that deep, I bet it stings though. You can talk to me, you know" while cleaning her wound. Meanwhile Mike's about to leave the room, but turns around as Will asks him to wait. Mike's feelings might not look that deep, since he's not showing them on the outside, but the pain of losing Will still stings though. And now Will's ready to talk to him again.
Holly is representing Mike here, while Max parallels Will. Just take a look of how they're sitting in the exact same way. Max is saying that she'd been to Holly's house a lot. Guess who spent even more time at her house? Will, obviously.
When Will says that he is different, Max and Holly hear a loud noise, scaring them. So the fear's kicking in for both Mike and Will after his last sentence.
While Will's busy rambling about world history, Max is leading Holly towards the cave. Holly's very scared and starts talking about the letter, telling her to meet at the X. 'The heart.' So the sub-context is the following: Will is leading the way towards 'his heart,' but Mike's still afraid of what he might find there.
Max tells Holly that she wrote the note, followed by Will saying how they liked to get lost in the woods. While Max and Holly are kinda lost in the woods. Makes me wonder if Will wrote a note too?
Afterwards Max says sorry and that she didn't wanted to lie, she just needed to make sure that Holly would come to the cave. Another mention of the lie, interesting. I absolutely don't like the fact, that Holly thinks about Max as a monster here, ugh...
Next thing they talk about is the 'orange mohawk' Holly's 'brother' tried 'to get' until her 'sister' tried to stop him. I had some loose thoughts about this. Like, Kali was taken trying to save her friend, the one with the orange mohawk, and she was also portraying Mike the Brave earlier... Maybe there's some connection? I'm not sure.
Anyways, Max still needs to end her sentence -
"- saving him from possibly the greatest social humiliation that a freshman has ever experienced at Hawkins High?" Followed by Will saying "I don't like girls" in front of half Hawkins. Peak humor.
Very self-aware of you, Duffers.
After a longer pause Will starts rambling again, trying to make the situation less awkward. At the same Max is heading back into the cave, not knowing if Holly will follow her. Will's retreating back into his 'heart,' leaving it open to Mike if he will follow him there. Which he does. Personally I think that it's about a conversation just between the two of them.
Will says that Vecna showed him what would happen, if he told others the truth. Showed him a future where he's alone. While Max is showing Holly the cave. The place she's been alone at for two years. We're actually seeing the thing Will fears - a future where he's alone in his heart.
He's also talking about pushing the other's away, followed by Max saying "Hey!" to Holly. So he's not pushing Mike away.
Next thing Will's saying is "And it just felt so real. It felt so real." While Holly's touching the 'heart.'
Max is showing Holly the view, saying it might look nice, but it's not.
"This place, this world... It's a prison." So, who do we see, when she's telling the prison part? Mike of course.
We're going for another round of "Meet me at the radio tower!" And this couldn't be more obvious, I mean - that freakin' tower is in both timelines! In the upper one we have Mike and Will talking on the tower and in the other one we see the both of them (and others) walking over the field in front of it.
Will says: "I didn't even understand it myself for the longest time." At the same moment Joyce is saying "Just give him time. It hasn't been that long." So basically the same sentence. It's fitting both Will and Mike who weren't understanding their feelings for the longest time.
It's followed by Robin saying: "When you look in the mirror, do you see a Navy SEAL looking back at you?" Just for Mike, wearing his army clothes, to simply not and grin. That part send me already, I don't know how I'll survive this. The Duffers were truly in their silly goose era.
I had to rewatch the next sequence multiple times, it all happened so fast. The simple version of it is this:
Will (tower): "- and you still think we can be friends."
Mike (field): *bumps Will's arm*
Mike (tower): "Friends? No thanks!"
Will & Mike (field): *shared look*
Before the Mike on the tower can finish his next sentence we get a change of perspective in the field scene, giving us a close-up of another shared look between the both of them. I wonder what he wanted to say, I suddenly can't remember anymore... Might not've been that important, huh?
The upper timeline changes to Max and Vickie talking at the Squawk. Vickie's asking what's taking 'them' so long. Probably the fact that 'they' are busy flirting. While being a fuckin' slowburn. Will's telling how he could feel the anger of the hive, but the only thing Vickie feels is hunger.
When Mike and Will are talking about the scary movie you can't turn off, Max is living in her own scary movie moment. Seconds later she's kinda looking like a puppet master with Will and Mike being the puppets.
At the moment Max is standing up out of her wheelchair, Will's saying: "Yeah, she's 5' 3". " I got a weird idea and asked Google about this. And it turned out to be right. Sadie Sink is 5' 3". Will was teaching me an actual fact about her. Truly wasn't expecting that.
Now Mike and Will are talking about Vecna as a 'puppet master' and Max is looking like the puppet. How the turns have tabled.
At the moment Will is giving Mike the bump, we switch from Max to Vickie who just got herself some cereal, saying that 'nothing cures anxiety like a bowl--' A bowl--? A bowl what?!? ... Ah. A bowl cut!! To put it short: Will cures Mike's anxiety.
But Mike drops Will after his flirting attempt, just like Vickie drops her bowl. I feel very sad for Will. (But I'm still giggling about my notes saying 'Will = bowl' or 'Will the sad bowl.')
▶ No More Bottling Emotions
To those of you thinking this might be about pipegate - you are absolutely right!
In timeline one we see Hopper in the Upside Down version of Hawkins Lab, being trapped in a vision made by Vecna, in timeline two we see Mike and Will trying to stop the broken pipe from leaking with the special technique 'holding hands.' Ehm.
We hear Vecna say "You are as you fear" while Mike's telling Will to wrap the pipe with his jacket. Mike's trying to suppress his feelings because he's still afraid of them.
While Hopper is trying to shoot Vecna, Mike and Will are showing one of the kids the way to Mr Whatsit.
Just as Hopper discovers that water is leaking out of the tank, the next pipe Mike and Will are holding literally explodes. Derek (aka Mike's queerness) gets alerted via his lunch box.
Hopper starts hitting against the glass of the tank. When it finally breaks a literal flood of water's coming out of it. Meanwhile Ashley discovers what they are doing in the bathroom and Mike comments that with "Shit." He just got hit by the flood of emotions he was holding back for way to long.
El disappears (from Camazotz) when Ashley alarms the officers. Wait... Camazotz is a place in "A Wrinkle In Time." Mike got compared to Meg, the main character of it. We even saw the literal book being a story he was supposed to end with El. Did Mike just erase El from his story? OMG! Almost missed that.
Before Max disappears too, she's telling Holly to get to the cave with the kids. At the same time Mike's warning Lucas that they got spotted, indirectly giving him orders to flee with the kids through the tunnels. We have both Holly and Mike in a leader role here.
Next we see Max wake up at the radio station where she's hiding with Vickie. Max was loud for a moment, so Kay and her soldiers find them, opening the door to their hiding spot. In the other timeline Mike, Will and Derek (the queerness 'between' them) keeping the bathroom door shut from the soldiers on the other side.
Skipping ahead we hear Hopper say "You've been attacked, manipulated, abused by terrible people. Life has been so unfair to you, so cruel." Meanwhile the boys are still fighting to keep the door shut. The things Hopper's saying apply to Mike and Will too.
He goes on: "But you never let it break you. And I need you to fight, kid. I just need you to fight one last time. Fight for the happy days on the other side of this." The soldiers still try breaking through the door and finally manage to do so. Hopper's telling Mike and Will to fight for the happy days on the other side. Living their gay life, not sticking to the rules (soldiers). Not to conform.
Okay, done for now, yeah! My head hurts. That's so much information by now, I really hope you can still follow. If you have questions please ask!
Part 4 and 5 will be shorter than the first three because they were slightly to long for tumblr to put them into one post. But it's probably better this way, especially the next part will contain soooo much important information.
Hints for part 4: the basement and the snowball. hehehe
