The Scripted Makeover Scene: Mike, Makeup, and El—HE'S THE SHE!
📸 credit: @alienstardustt, go like and reblog the og post!
Friendship Parallels, and Mike's Deleted Queer Coding
In this scripted scene from season one, there are heavy implications that Mike has already played with Nancy's makeup! He knows just the right amount of blush to add. He "carefully applies lip balm," knowing the trick to pucker one's lips (or "smack" one's lips) to evenly coat them. Those who have never worn makeup before do not instinctively know this—as illustrated by El needing to be taught how to apply lipstick for the first time. He demonstrates. These nuances are missing in the screen translation. Moreover, the final montage intersperses shots of Dustin and Lucas, two friends playing dress-up in a chest full of costumes. Oh, the friendship parallels don't end here, folks.
Who plays with makeup together? Besties at a slumber party, older sisters using their younger siblings as guinea pigs and test subjects, or younger kids who are questioning their sexuality and gender expression. This is a makeover montage, just like the one we got between Max and El in Season 3 at the mall—we have a direct parallel between El and Mike and a pair of girlfriends exploring their individuality, or who they want to be.
Mirrors, Conformity, and the Script's Makeover
They put on makeup in front of a vanity mirror, which is not what ends up being in the scene's final shots! The key word is "vanity"—the regard for one's self or ego. A mirror is a symbol often used for being conscious of one's self-image. After the montage, in the same sequence during the episode, the vanity mirror is swapped for a bigger mirror in the hall, one that fits both characters into a two-shot. They appear to stand side-by-side from the camera's angle, directly comparing the two. There is a lot of headspace between them and the top of the frame, with a zoom-in, two types of filmic codes to indicate inner conflict and contemplation. The intentionality is even more obvious when you realize that in the blocking, Mike follows her there, landing on his mark (you can even see Finn look for it).
This change from script-to-screen makes audiences less conscious about Mike's desire for self-expression. Rather, we are more aware of how he masks it.
All of this mirror symbolism also recalls Cocteau's Orpheus (1950), a queer-coded, star-crossed lovers story that deals with its own Upside Down—the Underworld—based on the Greek myth. In this comparison, Will is Eurydice and El is his chauffeur to guide Mike to him. Cocteau sees mirrors as insidious, a reminder of death, which ended up being true for El until her story was rewritten so she could live on. Here, this idea also relates to the death of the ego; the fading of a personal identity.
As they look at the mirror, Mike, in a baby-blue shirt, awkwardly stands there, fidgeting and squirming, surrounded by pink flowery wallpaper—a gaudy, reflexive construction of institutional gender roles trapped in a frame (a frame of mind). "Pretty…good," El repeats his compliment, reflecting his ideal and sense of self—but her tone isn't happy as the camera creeps in. Mike and El are literally, metaphorically, and emotionally mirroring each other. Perhaps Mike is awkward because she's wearing his self-expression he painted onto her. Or perhaps, it's supposed to be clear that this false ideal he has isn't perfect. It recalls the nuclear family, the loveless relationship of his mother and father, whom they look an awful lot like here (especially with the blonder hairdos Karen sports in seasons to come).
Elaborating on this idea, we later see Eleven when she's alone, staring at her own reflection in a rippling pond. She takes off the facade with a downturned expression, indicating she's either no longer happy with it or doesn't think it suits her. Then screams creating turbulence. This idea doesn't belong to her; it belongs to Mike.
Gender Swap, and Mike's Transference of Will
Then factor in that El and Will are constantly mistaken for each other by eyewitnesses and Hopper. Mike transfers his feelings of missing Will onto El. His hot-and-cold emotions are reflected onto her whenever he feels hope or despair in his quest to find Will after he goes missing. Later on, in Season 4, even Will himself uses El, and her pronouns, to confess his love for Mike, blurring the boundaries between who is actually who.
In this scene, he transforms El into a girl after she is confused for a boy because of her shaved head, which once represented masculinity, and worn Mike's clothes. Boy into girl. Will into El. I talk more at length about this idea in other posts, here and here.
El, who looks similar to Will but is a girl, is Mike's wish fulfillment. Possibly, he wished Will was a girl, and on one stormy night, they swapped places. Even more so in the script, this makeup mirror montage symbolizes this idea of transference, his unconscious feelings for Will, and a desire to explore his gender and sexuality. Yet, the magical spell of this moment is broken when Mike and El are placed in front of others and their own reflection, while Will is waiting just on the other side of that mirror (symbolically, of course).
This original script re-contextualizes that mirror scene and "pretty" line that Mil*vens love to point out as proof of Mike being straight. Instead, now it has all the intent of a Byler endgame, just as Season 1 concluded. 🕵 #scriptgate
