Stranger Things is a series that excels in its character-driven storytelling. The plot is inventive, and the world is atmospheric, but a crucial reason viewers return season after season is for the show’s incredibly compelling character work. From Hopper (David Harbour) to Steve (Joe Keery) to Max (Sadie Sink) and everyone in between, each character has a purpose, a point of view, and an emotional journey that they are pursuing. However, in the last two seasons of the hit Netflix series, it appears that Mike Wheeler may have been a little left behind. So let’s take a look at how we got here.
Who is Mike Wheeler?
Mike (Finn Wolfhard) was established early on in the first season of Stranger Things as the de facto leader of the group of kids. In the show’s packet used to pitch the series to different studios, the Duffer brothers wrote: “If Mike is the Elliot of our show, Eleven is our ‘E.T.'” Clearly from the very beginning, Mike is poised as the central figure of this group of kids. He’s maybe not as smart as Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), as resourceful as Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), or as sensitive as Will (Noah Schnapp), but persistent to the end. This can be seen in the first season of Stranger Things, as Mike boldly takes Will’s investigation upon himself. He doesn’t see any real progress being made by the adults around him, so he corrals the rest of his group in the search of Will.
Mike is unapologetically devoted to his friends, and that’s what makes him a compelling character to watch. In a way, he somewhat operates like Captain America in the MCU. Sure, he’s not as smart as Tony Stark or as strong as the Hulk, but his unwavering resolve and moral compass make him a great leader. His true superpower isn’t his strength, it’s his unrelenting spirit in the face of seemingly unwinnable odds. That’s Mike. Even with the adults in Hawkins, the town police, and his DND group telling him to stand down, Mike rallies his friends for a search. It’s no man left behind.
Following up with the second season, Mike remains relatively consistent in his characterization. Sure, he continues to wonder about Eleven and hopes to contact her again, but when Will needs help he’s there. This season is notable, however, as the first in which Mike’s function in the group is really tested. The adults, now familiar with demogorgons, the Upside Down, and the factions threatening Eleven, are now working in conjunction with the kids. Mike is still a leader, but that role now takes more of a backseat to his duty as a friend.
The Cracks Start to Show
It is significant that from the very beginning, Mike and Eleven’s arcs are intertwined. He’s front and center to discover her in the woods, and while Dustin and Lucas behave somewhat callously to Eleven at first, Mike is sensitive to her situation. She doesn’t fill his entire focus, but he is eager to extend her an invitation to their group, offering the same level of devotion he shows to the rest of his friends.
It’s the third season, however, where Mike’s character really starts to take a turn. The kids aren’t quite kids anymore, they’re teenagers. They’re coming of age and experiencing all the emotional growing pains that entails. Relationships in the group are complicated now that Mike and El are an item, and so are Lucas and Max, and Dustin has a long-distance relationship with Suzie. However, as the group’s understanding of the Upside Down grows alongside them, they become much more autonomous as individuals. Groups splinter off a bit more than in previous seasons, but most crucially, it seems like Eleven takes the role as the leader of the kids this time. This leaves Mike completely deprived of one of his functional roles, but that means he just has to follow his path as a tenacious friend, right? Sadly, not really.
Mike is kind of a jerk to Will specifically, isolating him further as the only member of the group without a romantic partner. This attitude is even more heartbreaking with the hindsight of Will’s established struggles with his sexual identity in an especially prejudiced environment of the 1980s. The only thing on Mike’s mind this season seems to be Eleven and the many obstacles in their tumultuous relationship, but that’s not necessarily a bad direction for Mike’s character to go. It is incredibly realistic for a pubescent boy to become hyper-focused on a romantic interest and lose sight of his friends. Not every character arc has to be positive all the time, and this could provide interesting storytelling opportunities to explore Mike’s identity within the group. The issue lies in the framing of this conflict.
The only person to call out Mike on his poor behavior is Will, blaming him for ruining their group. Will remarks that Mike doesn’t care about DND or his friends anymore, and Mike responds by saying they aren’t going to be kids playing DND forever. Beyond that conversation, Mike is not punished any further by the narrative. He doesn’t apologize, nor do any of his friends ask him to. From a wider narrative perspective, Mike seems to be justified in his actions by the story that doesn’t take a point of view against him by providing him with consequences. However, that hardly seems to extend to audience response.
In the fourth season, Mike has not only joined a new DND club, but has not written to Will in California whatsoever, only sending letters to El. Not only is Mike not forced to take responsibility for his bad friendship, but the narrative rewards him for it. In the van, Will presents Mike with a painting of their DND group portraying Mike as “the heart.” This kind of gesture would make sense towards Mike’s characterization in the first two seasons, but not necessarily justified by his later outings.
Looking Forward
The Duffer brothers are, without a doubt, demonstrably gifted writers. The issues of Mike’s character seem to lie less in the writing and more in the inevitable progress of a story that has outgrown Mike’s primary narrative function. With the characters older and in full understanding of the dangers in store, the kids are looking to Mike less and less as a leader. With only one more season remaining in the Stranger Things story, we can only hope for a return of Mike’s true character, his most important identity in the series: a great friend.