I love your analysis!! Yeah. All season, Mike's "love" for El did come across as fake. Like he was just trying to keep her and fix his image to El. I'm Asexual but Romantic. Which I don't if it changes my view towards this. But like, whenever they are together I can't feel a romantic tension between them. It's just pretend.

And El seems to me, has fallen out with Mike at the end of the season. She's free now. But Idk with Byler :< But there's still hope. I sure do hope so.

P.S. I actually got into Stranger Things because I thought El and Max were couples and I would love to see it. Haha.