Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: TV And Film, Stranger Things
Ali Condon
Stranger Things fans are heartbroken after realising that everyone forgot Will Byers's birthday in the new season of the addictive Netflix series.
Like Will's friends and family, most viewers didn't even notice that Will's birthday had come and gone, until one eagle-eyed fan noticed one key detail. And now we're all crying.
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In case you missed it (shame on you!), it was Will's birthday in season 4, episode 2.
During the episode, Mike arrives in California to visit Will and Eleven, who take him to the local roller-rink.
While Mike is thrilled to see Eleven, and she is busy trying to convince him that she's made friends at her new school, Will is very much the third-wheel, skating just behind the loved-up couple.
Later on during the awkward roller-rink date, things go from bad to worse when Eleven's school bully Angela plots to humiliate her in front of Mike.
Angela pulls El into the middle of the rink, and gets the DJ to play the song 'Wipeout', dedicating it to 'the snitch'.
As the kids skate in a circle around the tormented Eleven, one of Angela's friends films the whole thing on a video camera.
It's here that dedicated Stranger Things fans made the devastating realisation that it had been Will's birthday all along.
On the video camera, the date reads: 'MAR 22. 86.'
Ouch.
How do we know that March 22nd is Will's birthday? Let us take you back to season 2, episode 8, when Will's body became a host to the Mind Flayer. Honestly, when will this kid catch a break?
While Will's mum Joyce tries to get through to him and exorcise the Mind Flayer from his body, she asks him: "Do you know what March 22nd is? It's your birthday."
When fans put two and two together, they were totally heartbroken for Will.
Reacting to a video that one fan made about Will's forgotten birthday on TikTok, one devastated viewer admitted: "I'm gonna cry i didn't even realise this."
A second wrote: "Girl I'm sobbing this is actually so sad will deserves the world."
Meanwhile, others debated over whether the Duffer Brothers themselves forgot Will's birthday, and if the date on the video camera was a mere coincidence.
"I honestly think the writers forgot," wrote one fan.
"I feel like the writers forgot bc there’s no way Joyce of all people forgot his birthday," suggested a second.
But third argued back: "The creators definitely didn't forget. I think Will's gonna tell them in vol 2."
Either way, I'm sure we can all agree that Will Byers deserves better.
Stranger Things Vol 4 is available to stream now on Netflix.