I can't live like this, I made a post about how much the group still needs Eddie and @joseph-quinns made a stunning gifset of it which planted my ass FIRMLY back into seething rage territory over the damn flashlight. So hear me out okay, hear me out
That scene? Where he wraps up the flashlight? That's not just a flashlight and that's not just a one-off. Yes, Eddie protected a beacon of guiding light to send with Steve into the dark, but that's not random. That's a purposeful narrative act!!
In 4.05, at 38 minutes in, the party almost in full enters the darkened Creel house, the den of the beast. Lucas tries to turn on the light, and it fails. Dustin pulls out a flashlight and clicks it on- and here's the parallel. Steve asks him where everyone got them, and Dustin (Dustin, who point-blank told Steve "you die, I die" last season, Dustin who is closest to Steve next to Robin, Dustin who is closest to Eddie, the bridge between the two) gives him a reproachful look and asks him if he needs to be told everything, reminds him that he is not a child, and... tells him where to find a flashlight. Doesn't give him the light, doesn't turn it on. Expects Steve to be taking care of himself.
Which is fine, it's fine, he's a kid, a teenage boy. This isn't to speak on Dustin's character.
But it is to draw the parallel line right up alongside Eddie, who (in 4.06 on the lake) doesn't wait for Steve to ask. He doesn't ask if it's needed. He pulls out a plastic bag from within his clothing, dumps his own belongings on the floor, and uses the bag to wrap up the flashlight, to prepare a beacon for Steve. Eddie solemnly hands it to Steve, something I'm not sure it would have even occurred to him to ask for (they are all so used to the darkness by now). The light is already on, shining bright, when Eddie passes it off with the soft, mundane protection of a good luck.
THIS is what they need. In every war, there are medics. There are healers. There are the helpers, the support. There are those who are the home to come back to, the reasons worth fighting. The ones waiting with clean water and a hot meal and a soft blanket. Even in the midst of the worst days of his entire life, Eddie looks at the warriors around him and says "I can give them light, I can give them a home, I can give them protection."
He can wrap up a flashlight, he can steal a vehicle that is most like a home, he can build shields. He can buy them time.
And perhaps most importantly? Dustin, early on, didn't hand Steve the light. But... by the end, he is building a shield alongside of Eddie, learning how to protect others.
And that's why the flashlight is important.
