17 Stranger Things quotes die-hard fans should know by heart

16. “He put himself in danger to help the party.”

Episode: 1

Context: When Will goes missing, the boys’ group is thrown into flux. Between the three of them, they are pretty torn as to how to react.

Mike seems to be the most contemplative of the group. At the end of episode 2, he calls Lucas to reflect on Will’s final moments with them.

“I was thinking,” he starts. “Will could’ve cast protection last night, but he didn’t. He cast fireball.” Lucas doesn’t seem to quite be on the same page, so he clarifies: “He could’ve played it safe, but he didn’t. He put himself in danger to help the party.”

Commentary: For a show that largely centers around the disappearance of Will Byers, we don’t really get to see a whole lot of him.

His dialogue is all mostly concentrated in episodes one and eight, and he’s not exactly the most talkative kid, to begin with. Consequently, every time we get information about him from another party, we have to assume that it’s pretty important. This little tidbit is brought to us by Mike, who seems to have taken this reflection to heart. He often puts himself in scary and/or dangerous situations in an effort to “help the party.”

He seems to recognize that their game and Will’s disappearance are connected in a way—even if that way is really only that Mike finds real-world solutions to the Demogorgon problem via sci-fi and fantasy. He recognizes that Will’s disappearance is more urgent, more important because of his self-sacrificing nature. This understanding really seems to flesh him out as our young hero.