mike: yeah, im actually not worried about that at all right now, im literally thinking about all the reasons we just don't work.
will: i am the most selfless person alive so im just going to try to reassure you using my feelings but replacing my name with hers, maybe that'll make you feel better and i can get my feelings off my chest even though it's killing me inside.
mike: wow your words made me feel more loved than i have in my entire life, if those are her feelings then i guess maybe it is love, despite the fact that nothing you described makes any sense in relation to her feelings because you clearly aren't talking about her but im oblivious and an idiot so im not gonna pick up on that fact.
wait i just realised that the byers drove all the way to california at the end of s3, and jonathan definitely saw will cry after he had to leave his friends and his whole life and mike behind ... six months go by and they’re driving back to indiana and everything’s different but this time mike is there ... but will is still crying in the backseat ............ now i see why jonathan wants to explode mike with his mind
Mike tries figuring out his feelings while the word "boy" is literally passing by behind him.
No wonder this scene took all day to film.
Credit to @dinitride-art for pointing out the word "boy" splashed all over this scene from the Surfer Boy logo! See a ton more of this in part 14 of their lighting analysis here!!!
Edit: just made an additional post here going over all the times the "boy" shadow is visible in this scene!
Do you ever think about how this face is also because he probably knew damn well that joy he was watching was all his doing. I do believe that he believes El feels what he said, but he also knows that this is thanks to the confidence HE gave Mike. He would never have sabotaged him but inaction would not have been wrong. He knows he pushed them together harder and more quickly than they would have been.
This isn't just him watching them like he did in episode 2 anymore. This is him lying in the bed he's made.
“Will needs Mike in the way Mike wants to be needed.” No. No, that’s not it.
Mike thinks in order to be needed he has to have something to offer. When he and El first met he provided a house, clothes and food for her. He gave her the safety she needed. And then Hopper took care of that. And the only thing Mike then had to offer was romance. But now that he realizes that he cannot actually give that to her, he’s left with not knowing what else to offer. He can’t offer her anything anymore and thus he fears she will no longer need him.
What Mike wants is I will offer you this and in return you’ll need me because he thinks it’s the only possibility for him. Mike basically thinks that he alone isn’t enough. That he’s worthless if he doesn’t have a purpose, something to offer, to give. And being needed for just being himself isn’t an option. He cancels that out immediately because he thinks it’s wishful thinking. Beyond what he deserves.
It’s not that Will needs him in the way he wants to be needed. It’s that Will changes Mike’s perspective on the whole issue. You being you, doing what you enjoy is enough. I don’t need you because you have something to offer to me. I need you because you are you and you are here. You don’t need to have a strict purpose to be worthy of being needed and loved. You just need to be yourself. I love you and I need you for exactly who you are.
And Mike starts to think that being loved/needed for being himself is something he deserves after all.