#I dang near tagged this as stray kids bc it also starts with ��stra’ lol

[thy-lovelylionheart]

inspired by this gifset

it’s still so wild to me that, if they’d focused on Mike’s POV during Rink o’ Mania, it would be so clear how he was just as miserable as Will and El the entire time.

We focus mostly on El struggling to keep up the facade and stressing over it, with some POV moments of Will feeling like a third wheel/being upset about El’s lies. But we don’t get a POV shot of Mike until the wipe out bullying starts and the first real POV shots we get of Mike are when he’s looking for El and arguing with Will.

And that’s when we hear how he’s really been feeling for the first time all day. How hung up he’s been on Will not talking and moping.

But even before that, if you focus solely on Mike, it’s clear that Mike is also putting up a facade. The way he asks questions about their activities that days—questioning burritos for breakfast, even asking if they come to the rink often—is stilted and laced with discomfort. He’s trying to be a good boyfriend and enjoy the day El planned, but let’s be real, does anyone actually think that Michael Wheeler would want to go to a roller rink?? I personally struggle to see him opting to go there if given the choice, but if anyone else thinks differently I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Mike is dressed unlike himself, he smiles when El’s looking and drops it when she’s not, just like she’s doing, he tries to make Will smile or laugh and Will just looks straight past him at El and you see Mike just wilt and try to keep up the facade but it doesn’t hold, it can’t hold.

And if Mike had had a POV focus during Rink o’ Mania prior to wipe out/his fight with Will, it would be so much more obvious to the GA. But I’m personally glad they did it this way. I think it has phenomenal rewatchability as-is and I think keeping Mike’s true feelings more in the background, with them peeking through to the foreground intermittently, is fantastic because that’s what Will and El are experiencing. They’re trying to figure out and understand how exactly Mike feels and where he stands, and so is the audience.

I really want, hope, and frankly expect (knock on wood) that we’ll get more of Mike POV’s when it comes to these feelings in s5. A pipe dream of mine would be for them to have filmed some Mike POV shots during Rink o’ Mania that they’re sitting on for s5, but again, fully aware that’s a pipe dream lol