We might still be waiting for the Stranger Things season 5 finale, but the show has already stuck the landing in one big way, with a scene that we've been waiting for for a long time.
In season 4, it became pretty obvious that he was struggling with his sexuality, that he was in love with his best friend Mike (played by Finn Wolfhard) and that he was unable to tell anyone about it. Viewers were left in little doubt about what was going on with him after that heartbreaking and widely-shared scene of him attempting to open up to Mike in the car, telling him: "When you're different, sometimes you feel like a mistake," before silently crying while looking out of the window.
Now, in volume 2, he's been able to go one step further, opening up about being gay in a scene that will likely go down in TV history. Will realises that, with Vecna able to see and use his secrets against him, he must open up to his actual family, as well his chosen family. But the part that hits hardest about Will coming out isn't the actual moment he tells them that he doesn't like girls – it's when he speaks about his fears and worries about that moment.
Now if that doesn't sum up the fear of coming out, I don't know what does. With that scene, the Duffer Brothers and Schnapp have perfectly conveyed the lurking fears of what will happen when you finally say it out loud. You might know for sure that your loved ones won't have a homophobic response (of course, not everyone is this lucky), but there's still a voice in the back of your mind that tells you that things are going to change, that everyone will see you differently.
The context of Stranger Things being set in the 1980s also makes this scene even more impactful, considering the intense homophobia and fear-mongering towards LGBTQ+ people at the time as a result of the AIDS epidemic. If coming out in the 2020s is still difficult, coming out in the 1980s, particularly for gay men, must have been absolutely terrifying. As if that wasn't enough, in 1988 in the UK, Section 28 was introduced, banning councils and schools from "promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".
Dustin Henderson actor Gaten Matarazzo said it well when he recently told Attitude: "Sometimes people that are critical of [queer representation in Stranger Things] will say, 'That didn't happen in the '80s.' I'm like, 'It didn't happen to you because no one felt comfortable telling you.' There were out gay people constantly in the '80s. Queer culture existed in the '80s, you just didn't happen to be part of it because there wasn't an opportunity for it to be vocal."
After all, Stranger Things has never really been about the sci-fi or the action, but more about the relationships between beautifully nuanced characters, which have always stolen the show. Without these, I don't think the show would have succeeded in the first place. With that in mind, Will's coming out scene, a striking reflection of the fears that can haunt that process, and the power of chosen family, is perhaps the most important moment in the show's history – more so than the final battle for Hawkins, or whatever the finale will hold.
It should be a reminder to studios, to showrunners, to actors and writers that you can make a big difference with even small moments of representation. There is no doubt that we very much still need it.
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