Up until the final minutes of episode four, this season of Stranger Things seemed to lack a reason for existence beyond serving up more ‘80s nostalgia. What it was saying with its cultural references throughout the seasons seemed to be that nerds and other outcasts make their way through and beyond adolescence with texts and practices that are opaque to adults and other peers. Socializing through playing Dungeons and Dragons or reading fantasy novels and watching sci-fi movies with friends is an alternative to small-town heroics involving athletic prowess or being part of a steady couple that practices husband-and-wife roles. This message would have been fine, even if it is a bit pedestrian.
Instead, Will’s ability to reconcile his feelings for Mike with his own identity development as a young adolescent is what makes him truly Will the Wise. He avoids becoming a villain like Vecna / 001 / Henry Creel because he is able to integrate his desires into his persona. The evilness that led Creel to become Vecna was the rejection of any tendency toward (social or sexual? we’ll find out soon enough…) difference that might have been developing in his young heart and mind. His inability to resist social mores led him to want to destroy anyone else who would challenge those same norms. He’s not OK with being weird, so he wants no one else to be weird ever again.
If nothing else, the scene where Will is able to prevent three demogorgons from harming his friends makes the entire series more intriguing than a mere coming-of-age tale. The tension is high between the characters in these first few episodes. Dustin is alone in his grief for Eddie, which costs him dearly in the form of physical pain. Lucas and Mike and Will are trying to just get along with each other and their peers in high school. Steve and Robin are working at the radio station (an upgrade from the scoop shop and the video store) to play music and spread the word about the latest raids happening in The Upside Down. Joyce, Jane, and Hopper are trying to make things work in their own way with those raids. Everyone still gets along and smiles, but with gritted teeth. They’ve been through a lot of shared trauma and no one has the sense to call a therapist. The feeling of “here we go again” comes through strongly. They are going through the motions and the show seemed like it was as well.
A key moment occurs when Will is at the hospital where Vickie, Robin’s partner, works. He spies them kissing and then runs off when they noticed that he noticed. He speaks to Robin about it later and they discuss how she was able to come to terms with her attraction to Vickie. Robyn tells Will that it took a moment of self-reflection for her to realize she was denying the truth about who she was. A bit of artifact-mediated recall in the form of re-watching a home movie featuring her younger self is what allowed her to realize it’s more important to be honest with herself about her feelings for other girls than try to fit into society’s mold. Will isn’t explicitly asking her for advice about how to come out but she gives him the roadmap anyway. In that climactic scene of episode four, we see that he has a similar moment of accessing faint memories of his earliest interactions with Mike.
Through the years, Will’s desire to be more than just friends with Mike has been difficult for him to put into words. When Will brought it up indirectly to Jonathan, his older brother seemed to understand, but did not have any pearls of wisdom for him. Will haltingly brought up the same feelings to Mike directly, yet Mike remained oblivious. Only through Robin’s words of support was he able to envision a different future for himself that did not compromise any parts of his identity for anyone else’s comfort. By being able to integrate his social and sexual identities into the cognitive, emotional, physical, and psychological developmental changes he’s also experiencing, he can tame the literal demons that are plaguing his town. That is a more interesting explanation for the monsters’ existence than an evil government or corrupt corporation that is trying to control minds for unstated purposes. I’m excited to see how they’ll handle the explanation and impact of this moment of self-realization for Will in the episodes to come.
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