One pivotal scene in Stranger Things season 4 sees Will convince Mike that he is the heart of the show’s central friend group, which leads to the question of who is the brains, who is the brawn, and who is the hero among Will, Lucas, Dustin, and Eleven. In Stranger Things season 4, the Hawkins gang is faced with the worst circumstances they have ever endured. Spread across America in various smaller team-ups, Will, Mike, Eleven, Lucas, and Dustin have to face the murderous Vecna while also attempting to evade the U.S. government’s attempts to track them down.
The primary plot of Stranger Things season 4 follows the same group of kids that the show has centered around since its inception. For much of the season, Mike and Will are paired off on a cross-country road trip while Lucas and Dustin are left in Hawkins and Eleven tries to regain her powers alone in a remote research facility. This leads to Mike becoming dismayed with the gang's dissolution and disillusioned about his ability to help, which prompts Will to make a sweet — albeit inaccurate — assessment of his friend’s role in their group.
According to Will in his poignant inspirational speech to his best friend, Mike is the heart of the Stranger Things gang. The problem with this claim is that it is tricky to work out where this summation leaves the rest of Mike’s friends. While Will is clearly the brains of the operation, the question of who acts as the group’s brawn, who serves as the comic relief, and who is the real heart of the series grows less and less certain with further inspection.
Will Is The Brains
While it is hard, despite Will’s claims, to work out which member of the gang is the heart, it is easy to see which of the Stranger Things heroes is the brains of the group. From his longstanding psychic connection to the Mind Flayer/Vecna to the fact that he is consistently the member of the group who cottons on to the villain’s schemes fastest, Will would naturally be the brains. Will even guesses Vecna’s entire plan to once again defeat Eleven at the end of Stranger Things season 4, proving that he can use his mental link to the villain to make connections that are beyond the rest of the show’s heroes. Not only that but the smart, sensitive Stranger Things character is also more emotionally intelligent and articulate than the likes of Mike and Eleven, as season 4 repeatedly proved.
Lucas Is The Brawn (Or Is Eleven?)
In Stranger Things season 4, Lucas’s basketball prowess and newfound popularity make him the brawn of the bunch, and the character’s initial failure to stand up for his friends makes it clear that he is hardly the heart of the gang. However, this tiresome Stranger Things season 4 satanic panic subplot is misleading since Lucas was a more confrontational and less physically adept character earlier in the show's run. In the first two seasons of Stranger Things, Lucas was quicker to anger but remained as reliant on his wits as the rest of the kids. If anything, the overpowered and under-socialized Eleven is the real brawn of the bunch thanks to her superpowers, making Lucas the comic relief in Stranger Things season 3. This too, however, paints an incomplete picture of the character.
Lucas Is The Funny Bone (Or Is It Dustin?)
Lucas’s charming rapport with Max and his goofy overconfidence made him effective comic relief in Stranger Things season 3 but, before that point, Dustin was always the group’s adorable comedic character. His partnership with Stranger Things fan favorite Steve Harrington took Dustin away from the group, but this subplot only started because of Dustin and Steve’s shared breakout popularity among fans. As a result, much like Eleven is the real brawn, Dustin is the original comic relief of Stranger Things. He has since grown out of this original role, becoming a more rounded, moving character in his own right. This makes Lucas the group’s resident hero, which fits his proactive attitude, his increasing maturity, and his undying loyalty. However, this characterization is bad news for Mike.
Dustin Is The Real Heart of Stranger Things
From his heartbroken reaction to Eddie’s devastating death to his hard-to-watch bullying in Stranger Things season 1, and from his undisguised joy at finding a real-life superhero in Eleven, to his high-tech, nerdy means of keeping in touch with Susie, Dustin is the heart of the series. The problems of Stranger Things before season 4 left many of the show’s characters feeling like broad caricatures of their old selves. However, Stranger Things season 4 managed to fix this issue by making Lucas a loyal defender of his friends, making Will the thoughtful, intelligent team leader, and giving Eleven her powers back, turning the show’s heroine back into her powerful old self. However, this leaves Mike at something of an impasse.
Without a real role in Stranger Things, Mike is stranded between the archetypes of hero, brains, brand, and heart. Since Dustin’s reaction to Eddie’s tragic season 4 finale death solidified his status as the heart of Stranger Things and the rest of the roles are already effectively filled, there is not much left for Mike to do in the show’s story. This is something that even the heavily improved Stranger Things season 4 couldn’t cover up via Will's suspiciously specific insistence that Mike has always been the group’s heart, as proven by the fan base’s mixed reactions to the claim. Anyone who has watched Stranger Things from season 1 to season 4 can track Lucas, Will, Eleven, and Dustin’s journey to becoming the show’s hero, brains, brawn, and heart respectively, but this has also unavoidably left the once-central Mike in an unenviable position nearing irrelevance.