Ok, before I pick up where I left off
There's something that has been bothering me for a while and I need to get it off my chest.
(Sorry if there's any grammar mistakes, English
there's a moment from 1x02 I didn't talk about and now I feel like I need to.
An anon dm'd a Mileven shipper claiming that Mike's words in 1x02 ("Just listen! In the morning, she sneaks around my house, goes to the front door and rings the doorbell. My Mom will answer and know exactly what to do. She'll send her back to Pennhurst or wherever she comes from. We'll be totally in the clear! And tomorrow night, we go back out. And this time, we find Will") are proof that Mike's love confession in 4x08 was a lie.
Let's talk about this moment. Here we have Lucas and Dustin rambling about how crazy El is. They both make assumptions that she's seriously insane, Mike doesn't say a word. He's the only one since who treats El as a person and not as a freak, like Lucas and Dustin do. Actually, while Lucas and Dustin are talking about her weirdness, her possibly insanity and compare her to Michael Myers, Mike is exasperated. You can see it in his face, he doesn't agree with friends. That's why he doesn't admit, in any moment, that his friends are right. Because they are not. That's why he's the one who brought her into his home. Lucas wouldn't, Dustin wouldn't. Because they believe she's a freak, but not Mike.
Let's remember the previous moments: Mike brings El into his home because he couldn't leave her out in the storm ("so you just wanted to let her out in the storm?" Mike asks Lucas) Mike is the only one who treats her like a person and shows genuine worry about her (" Is there a number we can call? For your parents?" "Are you in some kind of trouble?" "Stop it! You're freaking her out!" "All right that's enough, all right? She's just scared and cold") Mike doesn't judge El, ever. There's not one single moment where Mike judges or questions El's sanity in any way.
So going back to the moment Anon mentioned, it's natural that Mike wants to tell his mom. He's a kid, so he believes that adults would know what to do ("Mom will answer and know exactly what to do") I mean, what else could they do? They have to tell an adult. It doesn't mean Mike wants to get rid of her or that he thinks she's a psycho. It's just mean he's a twelve years old boy who trust his mom would know what to do. Then he says "She'll send her back to Pennhurst or wherever she comes from" That Anon based their claim (Mike doesn't love El) on this phrase, basically. The way they see it is that Mike wanted to send El to a literal asylum (exact words, WANTS)
Mike DOESN'T believe Eleven is crazy or a psycho or that she escaped from any asylum. He doesn't see her as Lucas and Dustin do. Mike doesn't agree with his friends. Not even the slightest. You have all the previous moments to see that.
If you really think that Mike Wheeler wants to send this scared girl who hasn't done any wrong to him to an asylum, I think you don't know Mike Wheeler, neither you understand the character.
Let's think about it? Why would Mike bring her into his home to try to get rid of her five minutes later? Why would he risk getting himself into trouble with his parents for this girl? Why would he stop looking for Will that night for her, to bring her to his house? If Mike believed for a moment, just a moment, that El was crazy, weird o dargerous (as Lucas and Dustin claim) why did he bother at all in the first place? He stopped looking for Will and brought her into his home risking to get grounded for going out that night and not be able to go out again to keep looking for Will. All of that just for a girl he doesn't give a shit about and wants to send to an asylum? It doesn't make any sense to me.
No way Mike believes his mom is going to send El to any asylum, anyway (''Once you're not a secret anymore my parents can get you an actual bed for the basement...'' ''My point is, they'll take care of you'' 1x08) When Mike says this to Eleven in 1x08 El's situation is much more complicated than he ever imagined. Eleven is fugitive from the government who pratically ''created'' her to be a weapon against the Russians. Also she has superpowers and she's connected somehow to the Upside Down. Still Mike says with no hesitation that his parents will take care of her, it doesn't matter if he's right or not, he believes they will. So I can't see why Mike in 1x02 would believe that his mom (or parents) would do anything but help Eleven. And certainly sending a kid to asylum where she doesn't belong to is not helping at all.
So, the way I see it, Mike said that (''She'll send her back to Pennhurst'') just as callback of Lucas' words, so he would stop trying to convince Mike that this girl is crazy.
"And tomorrow night, we go back out. And this time, we find Will" Has Mike forgotten about Will? Clearly, not. Will is one of Mike's best friends and Mike cares deeply about his friends. Meeting El and developing feelings for her doesn't mean Mike's forgotten about Will or doesn't feel like finding Will anymore. And Mike caring for his friend, being worry about him and wanting to find him is not an obstacle to develop romantic feelings for El. I keep saying it: those feelings can live happily together. It's not either caring for your friends or falling in love with someone.
Just think about this: If Mike wanted to send El to an asylum or just get rid of her, he would have told any adult about her. And that's it. And before someone claims "He needed her to find Will!" I added a link (above) to a previous post where I explain how that's not true at all. That's just the part one. I'm working on the part two already.
There's one more thing I have to say before I shut up: Mike fell in love with Eleven in the moment he met her. That's canon, whatever you like it or not. But let's not forget Mike was just a kid, who never felt something like this before. Mike wasn't aware of what was happening to him, let alone he understood the depth of those feelings. He was aware he liked her by the end of the season ("You go to school dances with someone that... someone that, you know... someone that you like" 1x08) But I think Mike was able to truly understand the depth of his feelings for Eleven and what actually they meant during that year without her. And that doesn't mean he didn't love her because he wasn't aware of what was happening to him at the beginning or because he didn't fully understand it. I know it's ridiculous I have to explain this, but apparently I have to.
Anyway, thank you for coming to my ted talk ✌️
