Work Text:
Tower Scene in the Upside Down
They clear up the painting during this scene, and Mike acknowledges how he was weird in Lenora, or references that they got over these things in the 18 month time skip, leaving everything out in the open, no lies. They could then leave it at:
Will: “What matters is you’re here, and you still think we can be friends”
Mike laughs and nods, but corrects Will: “Best Friends”, and gives Will a real hug, no more awkwardness from Mike.
The finale moves forward the same, until the government arrest scene at the MAC-Z.
Remove the god awful yelling audio from Mike, instead just doing a slow camera transition of Mike realizing Eleven was caught, and show him trying to break out of their grasp with music or the Kryptonite noise playing over muted* yelling.
Dream state conversation
Eleven does NOT say Mike knows her better than anyone else, realistically that’s Kali and Will. Instead she says she knows how much effort he has put in to understanding her, and being her friend, which meant more than anything else. No one else has believed in her like Mike. Now, she needs him to continue believing, so that one day he will understand her decision.
They remove the kiss, and just make it a cheek kiss, or a hug with the two crying because both actors were clearly uncomfortable kissing, which took away from the moment. As they are hugging one last time Mike finally whispers “I love you, Jane” sincerely, revealing he really has been on a journey to understand her. Mike does not view her as Eleven ‘El’ the superhero anymore. She is Jane, someone who he loves. He trusts her decision, even if he doesn’t understand it right now.
Post-18 month Time skip
We’re back to graduation and D&D night, go through the game and epilogue stories, except for the story of the Mage. The gang decide to go to Stacey’s party after putting away their binders. Dustin, Max, and Lucas go upstairs, but Will and Mike stay behind, saying they’ll catch up in a minute.
Sweet Jane begins playing quietly in the background here, instead of during the older group reunion scene. Will would have some lines speaking as her brother who understood her, and experienced similar trauma. They cut to a flashback of a never before seen Will and Jane conversation at WSQK post-coming out.
WSQK Flashback
Jane makes a subtle comment about Will being the only one to ever hold her feelings to such high regard and reaffirm her, referring to their time as siblings in Lenora, and alludes to the fact that she realized Mike was his first love, but put his love aside to support her. She tells Will he deserves to put his love first in the future instead of leaving room for fear or regret.
Jane and Will share a few words on their fears, and hopes for when everything is over. She ultimately asks Will to make sure Mike doesn’t lose hope for the future, implying she doesn’t expect to come back. Unfortunately, Will understands her too well.
In reality, Will believes he will die with the Hive, but doesn't have the heart to tell the group this. Will was preparing for the worst, and we learn his coming out was a eulogy of sorts, which is why he wanted everyone to be there, no matter how mortifying. He makes Jane promise to keep Joyce and Jonathan above water if he doesn't make it.
They share a look of understanding. It ends with Jane calling Will ‘Brother’ directly for the first time. For Will this is the 2nd time calling her 'Sister'.
Back to the present
Will provides a few words to Mike about how he understands why she made her decision, and shares the last words she shared for Mike to help Mike process his emotions, and feel hopeful about the future.
They close out with the duo looking at everyone else’s Binders on the bookshelf. Mike picks up Jane’s character statue for the Mage.
This prompts Will to finally ask: “The Mage- what happened to her in the end?”
Mike then shares the real story between just the two of them. As Mike shares his theory, he mentions Kali’s mortal wound being an illusion. We see there was no or very little blood on Jane’s hands when she left the room, implying Kali actually survived with minor injuries, and finally found her way to Jane at that special place. They were waiting for one another all this time.
Will tears up, and he delivers Max's line: "But this is just a theory, right?"
Mike's smile is bittersweet: "Maybe I'm going crazy, but I believe."
Will: “Well I think we'll just have to go crazy together, then?"
Mike puts his hand on Will’s shoulder, slowly dragging down the length of his arm, finally resting on his hand, squeezing.
They share teary laugh, delivering one final shared look as Mike responds:"Crazy together."
The camera pans back to their binders next to each other as we hear the younger kids start running downstairs, transitioning to the next generation.
End Credits
Outside we get a scene of the house- it's raining. As the camera pans out, we see Mike and Will catching up to the rest of the gang, getting in the car and going to the party. As they drive out of frame, we hear a familiar buzz of electricity; the lights flicker outside the house, blinking briefly to a light tinge of purple before returning to normal.
Cue Heroes, and we get a cute comic book styled post-credits, with annotations in the margins that hint that Will (the Artist) and Mike (the Storyteller) stay best friends, and end up making comics/graphic novels together in the future, and the gang all stay in touch.
Epilogue + Mike's Future Stories
As an aside- they should have let Mike stay styled like he was in V1, and not give him that fuck ass hairstyle that makes him look like his conformist father. He continues exploring his identity, until he lands on an alternative/indie style reminiscent of his favorite bands of the early 90s, mixed with some nerdy, writer elements. He is still a hopeless nerd, but instead of being alone in his dorm at his typewriter, surrounded by images of a past which are haunting him, he remembers the past with a hopeful, bittersweet outlook while engaging his interests. In his epilogue, he is standing off to the side in his classmate's musty basement as a local band performs, quickly writing down an idea for a story on a notepad. He sees a familiar wave of hand calling him back, and puts his notepad away, taking his place next to them with a brush of shoulders. (it's Will... obviously)
For the epilogue scene for Will- he also keeps his cute haircut instead of the one Mike imagined. His epilogue takes place at some type of book/music/comic book lounge where he’s completing a sketchbook assignment. We don’t see the epilogue boyfriend, just see them come into frame out of focus, putting his hand on Will’s back. Will looks up at him from where he is sitting and smiles, putting his sketchbook into his bag before leaving together, holding two tickets to Jonathan's debut film. They link their pinkies together, hiding a secret beneath their sleeves, shared for the two of them (it's Carlton <3.... could you imagine. no. it's MIKE WHEELER, OBVIOUSLY.)