Stranger Issues’ Coming Out Scene Is Candy, However Corny



Stranger Things is almost over, with its finale set to premiere on Netflix and in theaters on Wednesday, December 31. Its penultimate episode, “Chapter Seven: The Bridge,” included a scene that was a very long time coming: Will (Noah Schnapp) lastly popping out to his pals as homosexual after crushing arduous on Mike (Finn Wolfhard). It seems Will’s identification isn’t merely a footnote on his character sheet, however truly finally ends up taking part in a reasonably main half within the present’s supernatural horror components. Now, after years of retaining the reality to himself, Will has lastly instructed all his pals and some acquaintances who had been simply kinda round that he’s a card-carrying boy liker, and the ultimate scene has obtained a reasonably…combined response.

So let’s break it down. Will, who has a psychic reference to collection massive dangerous Vecna, is in his emotions after discovering out the monster has been utilizing him as a spy since he returned from the  Upside Down in Stranger Issues’ first season. He additionally learns that his connection to this different world created the Upside Down tunnel system that fashioned beneath Hawkins Nationwide Laboratory in season 2, which “infected” the true world and led to the deaths of many harmless folks.

Later within the episode, he tells his mom about Vecna’s hostile takeover of his thoughts, and says that the villain sees “everything,” realizing his secrets and techniques and preying on his fears. So with the intention to beat Vecna, Will says he wants to offer him one much less secret to wield, and desires his family and friends to know the reality.

Will sits down with a dozen folks of various significance to him and provides, nicely, a reasonably easy coming-out confession of the kind that you just’d count on from nearly any well-meaning present from the early 2000s. He goes on about how he and all his pals are nonetheless the identical aside from one little element: “I don’t like girls.” He says that he had a crush on somebody he knew wouldn’t like him again, and that Vecna confirmed him a manufactured future during which this got here between him and his pals, not due to bigotry, however as a result of their overbearing fear for him makes him really feel othered to the purpose of pushing them away. 

As Will begins to cry, his mom and pals, one after the other, promise that they’re not going anyplace after which give him a giant group hug. It’s candy, however possibly a bit overwrought for contemporary sensibilities? There’s so much to unpack about this second and the way it might or might not land.

For some, there’s just a few absurdity to seeing a lot of the forged of Stranger Issues lined as much as take heed to Will inform everybody he has a crush on one other buddy within the room, and it additionally doesn’t assist that a lot of the forged is simply not reacting a lot in any respect to the revelation. However I don’t assume that the silliness of the scene is the one problem. 

By 2025, it looks like some queer folks might have turn out to be a bit jaded towards the normal coming-out story. It’s actually nonetheless a common a part of queer expertise, however when it’s typically the one lens by which mainstream media views the queer expertise, a younger twink tearfully telling his bros he’s “still the same” as he at all times was most likely isn’t going to land with queer viewers the way in which it as soon as would have. Quite the opposite, some queer folks don’t discover consolation in tales the place a homosexual character solely finds solidarity in the event that they deal with how they’re the “same” as their cishet pals. I’d quite see tales about that assist not being given below the situation of what makes me much like others, when it needs to be supplied regardless. 

Within the case of Stranger Issues, I feel I’m keen to supply it some grace as a result of it’s finally an ‘80s period piece, and even though the Stonewall Riots happened nearly 20 years prior, there was still a lot of work to be done in 1987. So if 16-year-old Will has no other framework to communicate his truth to his friends in the late ‘80s, fair enough. Especially if there are still young people living in small towns like Hawkins who are watching shows like Stranger Things and still at that stage in their lives.

That said, the ‘80s setting does have some fans wondering where the hell this universal acceptance is coming from. Yeah, you could argue the Stranger Things gang has been through so much that they don’t have time for homophobia, however when has an apocalypse ever been sufficient to make a bigot admit to the error of their methods? I don’t know, it’s an ungainly line to stroll once you’re together with queer characters in your story. Should you present a very accepting universe, you run the danger of coming off as inauthentic, however in case you painting the truth of the queer expertise, you’ll inevitably have essentially the most on-line armchair advisor calling your work an ethical failing to the gays you hope to characterize. Everybody’s received their preferences, however as hokey because the scene is likely to be, I’ve a tough time viewing it as something apart from well-meaning.

The larger downside I’ve with the scene is one many individuals are having with Stranger Issues’ remaining season, which is that the writing is so easy and inelegant that you must surprise if Netflix is actually telling writers to dumb down their work for the people who find themselves at all times on their rattling telephones. Stranger Issues has moderately complicated mythology and lore, so I don’t assume anybody who’s nonetheless invested after 5 seasons must have dialogue mashed up and spoonfed to them like they’re a child, however that proclivity feels fairly obvious on this scene. On the very least, the polarizing second has received the shitpost pipeline flowing.

Additionally, holy shit. They took 12 hours to shoot that scene after which one other 12 hours for reshoots? Jesus. Anyway, right here’s the superior scene of Robin popping out in season 3 to cleanse your palate. 





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