Mike Wheeler looking concerned while talking to Eleven on the rooftop in Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1Image via Netflix
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Jennie Richardson
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Jennie Richardson is a TV Features and Lists Writer for Collider, and a graduate student pursuing an MFA in Fiction Writing. In other words, she really loves stories.
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Editor's Note: The following contains Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1.Stranger Things has just released Volume 1 of its fifth and final season, and already, it's clear that the stakes are higher than ever before. The entire city of Hawkins has been quarantined for 18 months and is being closely monitored by the government, while Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) has started targeting a new group of children to abduct and use as power vessels for the Upside Down, beginning with Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher).
That said, even amongst the chaos, Stranger Things continues to center its characters' arcs and their shifting dynamics with one another. Steve (Joe Keery) is desperate to put an end to Dustin's (Gaten Matarazzo) reckless behavior in the wake of Eddie's (Joseph Quinn) death, and Robin (Maya Hawke) has become a mentor to Will (Noah Schnapp), especially in regard to his sexuality. Stranger Things has also given focus to its main couples this season, and it's clear at this point that among these pairings, Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Eleven's (Millie Bobby Brown) romance is just not meant to last.
'Stranger Things' Season 5, Volume 1 Shows Why Mike and Eleven's Relationship Just Doesn't Work Anymore
Mike Wheeler and El Hopper hugging in Stranger Things Season 5Image via Netflix
Mike and El only have one scene together in Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1, but this scene is very revealing about the future of their relationship. El has been in hiding from the government for the past 18 months, and she's been spending this time training with Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce (Winona Ryder), and seeing the party in secret when she's able to. Mike is the first to see El come out of her training session that day, and when they spot each other, they immediately hug. In Season 5, Mike and El are getting along better than they have in a very long time, but they also seem much more distant, to the point where it wouldn't be a shock if Volume 2 revealed that they had already broken up for good sometime after Season 4.
Mike and El then have a conversation on a rooftop that continues to leave things ambiguous as to whether they're still together. They look uncomfortable when Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) calls them lovebirds, and their talk is more about the general future of the party than their relationship specifically. They both express concerns for Dustin and Hopper, and then Mike tells El that Will had a feeling earlier where he may have sensed Vecna. When Mike suggests that they might finally defeat Vecna this time, El expresses her concern for the future once the war is won. Mike paints a happy future based on what he knows from his Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, and while El appreciates the hope, she seems to know that it's too good to be true.
Most telling, Mike says to El, "If Vecna's gone, then what's stopping us?" This is a clear sign that, once Vecna has been defeated, Mike and El are going to break up (if they haven't already). They only met in the first place after Will was taken and the monsters of the Upside Down became a threat, and their relationship has always thrived under threats of danger but fallen apart when they're safe. Mike has always idealized El, whereas she hasn't yet gotten much of a chance to figure out who she is on her own. Additionally, when Mike and El faced real problems in their relationship in Season 4, he was unable to do anything to solve it other than call her a superhero. Mike was only able to tell El that he loved her after Will lied and said that she had commissioned his D&D painting, and after that, the two never worked out their relationship problems on-screen. Once Vecna is no longer a threat, there will be nothing keeping Mike and El together, and the best thing for both characters will be to move forward from this relationship.
'Stranger Things' Season 5 Is Already Setting Up a Better Romance for Mike – With Will
Aside from Mike and El's single dooming scene together this season, Stranger Things Season 5 has been hinting at the end of their relationship through what seem to be very intentional parallels between El and Will. It was revealed towards the end of Season 4 that Will was in love with Mike, although he believed at the time that it was unrequited. Mike and El were on the verge of breaking up at that point, until Will gave Mike the D&D-themed painting that he'd made where Mike serves as the hero and told him it was El's idea. Will then confessed his deepest feelings for Mike, but through the lens of saying that it was how El felt about him. It worked at the time, but now, this distance has grown between Mike and El, while Mike's feelings for Will seem to be shifting this season.
After giving up on the hope of Mike ever feeling the same way last season, Will has since started to hope again, and has even asked Robin what signs to look for. In Season 5's fourth episode, "Sorcerer," Mike and Will finally have a proper one-on-one conversation, and this works in direct contrast to Mike's earlier conversation with El. In both conversations, Mike talks about the looming threat of Vecna. He uses the D&D metaphor with El to try to comfort her with the hope of an unlikely future, whereas with Will, he uses the D&D metaphor to inspire him to test his own potential powers. Mike and El's conversation ends with a looming doubt about their future as a couple, whereas Mike and Will's conversation brings them closer together.
Later, this conversation with Mike is one of two talks that inspires Will to finally tap into the hivemind and channel Vecna's powers as his own as Mike, Lucas, and Robin are being attacked by Demogorgons. When Mike realizes that Will used his powers to save him, he looks completely awestruck. A big point of tension between Mike and El last season was El feeling like Mike's interest in her was just because he saw her as a superhero. Will's powers aren't what draw Mike to him in Volume 1's final scene, though; it is specifically that Will took Mike's words to heart in order to find his inner strength that Mike always knew was there, representing how their connection is ultimately stronger and built to last in a way that Mike's and El's is not.
Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 is available to stream on Netflix. Volume 2 will be released December 25 at 8:00 P.M. EST.
Stranger Things
Like TV-14 Drama Mystery Horror Science Fiction Release Date 2016 - 2025-00-00 Network Netflix Showrunner Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer Directors Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Nimród Antal, Uta Briesewitz Writers Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock
7 Images
Eleven looking into an opening of the Upside Down with pink light in Stranger Things season 1
Jim Hopper (David Harbour) grabbing Jonathan's (Charlie Heaton) shoulders in Stranger Things season 1©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
Eleven with cables all over her head in Stranger Things season 4
Vecna looking towards Will in the trailer for Stranger Things season 5 (2025)
Max and Eleven in Stranger ThingsNetflix
Stranger Things season 2, episode 2 "Trick or Treat, Freak".MovieStillsDB
The Upside Down in Stranger Things season 5Courtesy of Netflix Close
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Millie Bobby Brown
Jane 'Eleven' Hopper
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Finn Wolfhard
Mike Wheeler
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