Stranger Things Season 4 Already Wasted Its Biggest Twist
One Stranger Things season 4 trailer hinted at Mike and Eleven’s imminent breakup, but this potentially devastating twist was already squandered by season 3 of the Netflix hit. Although the show has been consistently popular with viewers since its 2016 debut, Stranger Things has had its fair share of storytelling problems. Stranger Things season 3’s lighter tone and faster pace, in particular, saw the show lose focus and emotional impact, as proven by the pointless subplot centered around Mike and El’s brief breakup.
Stranger Things season 4 hopes to fix a lot of season 3 mistakes (as its episode titles prove), but this particular twist could cost the upcoming outing one of its most potentially affecting stories. While Stranger Things season 4 could break up Mike and El again, the effectiveness of this surprise will likely be blunted by the fact that the duo has been romantically separated before without much fanfare. Since season 3’s breakup was surprisingly lacking in dramatic impact, Stranger Things season 4 will struggle to make the prospect of El and Mike splitting up into the gut-wrenching reveal it could have been.
The latest trailer for Stranger Things season 4, “Welcome to California,” could be seen to imply that Mike and El may break up when they are reunited. The clue to this heartbreaking Stranger Things season 4 twist came in the trailer cutting away from Mike reading El’s letter before revealing the rest of his room in the background, an abrupt cut that viewers felt may have been hiding the presence of a new love interest. However, this theory forgets the fact that season 3 already played the end of Mike and El’s romance for jarringly light-hearted laughs and sapped the storyline of pathos in the process. It is easy to forget that Mike and El broke up before (even season 3 itself seemed to forget the storyline for a few episodes), but the plot still ruins the potential of a dramatic breakup in their future.
In Stranger Things season 1, the more grounded tone of the series meant that Mike’s infatuation with El was taken more seriously than in the show’s more playful, goofy later outings. The duo were small children in season 1 and their tentative attempts to impress each other were cute, culminating in the tragic ending of Stranger Things season 1 wherein El protected Mike and the boys but seemingly lost her life in the process. When she returned in Stranger Things season 2, Mike spent a long time not knowing El was alive, and this led to some classic rom-com misunderstandings when she spotted him hanging around with new (platonic) friend Max, but they were reunited by the season’s happy ending.
The lighter tone and happy ending of season 2 paved the way for season 3, which upped the comedic elements of Stranger Things and dialed down the darker moments. However, Stranger Things season 3 also struggled with too many subplots pulling the story in numerous divergent directions, resulting in a shapeless outing for the show. While Mike and El did break up and make up mid-season, this storyline was lost in the wash along with Jonathan and Nancy’s relationship troubles, Hopper’s attempts to woo Joyce, and the rest of season 3’s half-baked character moments. With body snatchers, secret Soviet agents, multi-story monsters, and a corrupt mayor to follow, Stranger Things season 3 had too many story strands to focus on Mike and El and wasted their break-up’s potential emotional impact as a result.
Stranger Things season 3 got a lot wrong, from messing up Jonathan’s character arc to barely giving the major villain Billy’s backstory any screen time. However, Mike and El’s break-up being played for laughs was one of the biggest missteps in the season, as Mike’s boorish season 3 persona led El to drop him for being overbearing. The revelation that Mike and El were an unpleasant and self-absorbed couple who were better off apart (at least for a while) was a betrayal of their previously sweet story and one that provided little more than an excuse for a scene of El listening in on Mike’s conversations with Dustin, Lucas, and Will via her powers. The decision to make Mike an irritating, arrogant figure was an obvious attempt to make Hopper’s over-protective parenting seem cute or well-intentioned, and the season 3 finale’s sad letter from El’s adopted dad was meant to be more affecting thanks to his intervention protecting her from Mike until the teen gained some humility.
However, Stranger Things season 3’s busy plot spent too much time fighting goo monsters and chasing Soviet assassins to offer Mike any meaningful character development, meaning he and El were soon reunited despite the character barely changing in the intervening episodes. By the end of Stranger Things season 3, they were back together and dating again, but the breakup had little effect on the narrative drive of the season and didn’t fundamentally alter the characters themselves. Luckily, Stranger Things season 4 can save El’s story thanks to the test subjects plot, but it will have a harder time making viewers care about her breakup with Mike, particularly when the couple already broke up before so recently.
Now that viewers have seen Mike and El break up and make up, the prospect of Stranger Things season 4 revealing that the duo are no longer together would be a lot less impactful and is likely to be a retread of the earlier storyline. The big, tragic twist could still potentially work, but it is unlikely given how badly season 3 fumbled the story. Admittedly, the fact that the pair have been separated for so long would make the revelation more moving, and Stranger Things season 4 could make it a lot more poignant by keeping them apart. However, Stranger Things season 4 could also do with some more humor, rather than fewer laughs, given how grim and violent season 3 was at times. As such, breaking up the cute couple who have anchored the action of the series two seasons in a row could be a major misstep for Stranger Things, particularly after how badly the show handled their first breakup.
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