#ill repent later

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Mike Wheeler will forever be tied to rainbows. Season 4 is no exception.

I apologize for the image quality, but in El’s room, there’s a poster on her wall of the United States. And on the poster, there’s this rainbow. Now, what’s funny about this poster is that we only see El’s room in four different scenes, but we’re only ever able to see the rainbow on the poster in shots with Mike. The only time El walked past it, they showed the bedroom at an angle that left the poster covered in darkness. When Mike walks by it, it’s in clear view. So, they specifically want us to associate this poster with Mike, right? Right.

Image 1: S4E3

Image 2: S4E4

If you watch these scenes, the poster stays on screen before Mike comes into the room and after he passes it. So it’s there for a while.

Anyway, the first shot happens right before El and Mike have their “talk”. Then the second is when he reads the note she left him. Now, I’m guessing that the reason they wanted to tie Mike to rainbow imagery in these scenes was to offer an explanation for his behavior via subtext (for those who care to look); answering the question of why Mike wouldn’t say he loves El. And it also continues the rainbow trend of Mike Wheeler seen in the other three seasons, which helps prove that those choices were intentional too.

We also know that the posters and images chosen in this show are picked for a reason. As an example from S4 as well, the Cali gang stands in front of a “last supper” painting in the same episode that the Russian prisoners eat their last meal. So, yes. This probably means something. And, ya know, there’s also the rainbow on the Muppets poster in Suzie’s room and the ones on El’s letter.