Warning: Stranger Things spoilers ahead.Hawkins, Indiana, 1987, where Stranger Things season 5 takes place, has a lot going on. The town is quarantined, the military is hunting a 16-year-old girl, interdimensional portals open up without warning, kids are going missing, and a psychic monster is trying to take over the world. It makes sense that coming out wouldn't be at the top of one's to-do list. This is even more true for character Will Byers (out actor Noah Schnapp), who, in addition to all of that, has to worry about the powerful psychic connection he has with Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), the big baddie of the show.As season 5 shows, you can't save the world, or even the people you love, if you can't fully accept yourself. Once you do, however, it'll be like you can fly.Stranger Things fans have long suspected that Will might be gay, especially after he was told by his best friend Mike (Finn Wolfhard) in season 3, "It's not my fault you don't like girls!"Then, in season 4, Will started to talk more openly about his sexuality (and his crush on Mike), including telling his friends that he was afraid they wouldn't "like the truth" if they found out about it, and another scene where his older brother comforts him that he'll always be loved, no matter who he is.Schnapp later confirmed that the character is gay and "does love Mike," and later said that "Will's sexuality will come up again in the final season as a major plot point."Season 5 of the show is being released in three parts by Netflix, with the first four episodes released on Thanksgiving. The next episodes won't be released until Christmas, with the finale coming out on New Year's Eve. Viewers are already getting a big payoff in the saga of Will's sexuality. Only this time, it's not coming in the form of a romance or a coming-out scene, but in a scene of empowering self-love.In season 5, episode 1, "The Crawl," Will catches lesbian character Robin (Maya Hawke) kissing her girlfriend Vickie at the hospital, where Vickie volunteers as a candy striper, and clearly sees something he wishes he could have for himself.Later, in episode 3, "The Turnbow Trap," he and Robin are in the hospital when he asks how she knew Vickie felt the same way she did. She tells him there were "signals.""Yeah, you know, like a brush of the knee, a bump of the elbow, a shared look," she says. "It all just kind of accrued, like a snowball rolling down a hill until it was obvious.""How obvious?" Will asks.In episode 4, "Sorcerer," the final one released in this first batch, Will and Mike have a heart-to-heart. Mike tells Will that he's stronger than he thinks, and that in real life, he's like a sorcerer, "because your powers don't come from a book of spells. They're innate."During this conversation, Will is desperately searching for any of the signals Robin mentioned, but none are there. When Robin sees the situation, she knows she has to say something.At this point in the show, its clear that Will's crush on his best friend Mike is one-sided. Even Robin sees it. Will is the only one who doesn't. So she tells him about Tammy Thompson, a straight girl she had her first crush on in ninth grade. Robin says she thought the only way her life would be happy was when she got with Tammy. "I thought that if Tammy loved me, all of me, you know, I wouldn't be so scared anymore," she says.However, as viewers of the show know, Tammy had feelings for Steve (Joe Keery), not Robin, and soon Robin's life began a downward spiral. Then, she says, she found an 8-millimeter film reel of her when she was young."All of a sudden, I was looking at this little version of myself. And that little me, I could hardly recognize her," she says. "You know, she was so carefree and like, fearless. She just loved every part of herself. And that's when it hit me: It was never about Tone-deaf Tammy. It was always just about me. I was looking for answers in somebody else, but I had all the answers. I just needed to stop being so goddamn scared. Scared of who I really was. Once I did that, oh, I felt so free. It's like I could fly, you know?"Thank god for gay-lesbian solidarity!It's this exact speech from Robin that ends up saving the day at the end of the episode. When Vecna sends a group of Demogorgons into Hawkins to kidnap children and kill anyone in their way, hope seems lost. The Demogorgons are overpowering the soldiers and have caught up to the main characters, while Vecna taunts Will about how weak he is.But Will remembers Robin's words. More than that, he internalizes them. As we see flashbacks to his carefree childhood years and hear Robin's speech again, Will learns to love all parts of himself, including the gay parts that have made him feel alone and alienated throughout his teenage years. All parts of him combine to make him powerful. And now he knows.As soon as Will accepts all parts of himself, he fully steps into his power. He's not literally flying, but he's using his mind to control the Demogorgons and save his friends' lives.A Will who hadn't accepted his sexuality and identity as a gay person wouldn't be able to do this. It's only once he's learned to love himself in full that he becomes just as powerful as Eleven and Vecna. Now, he truly is Will the Wise.Will knows he's special and deserves happiness, even if it's not with Mike. Now, he's become the man he was meant to be. Even when the world is ending, being true to yourself and loving yourself are desperately important. After all, as RuPaul says, "If you can't love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?"Mey Rude is a staff writer for Out. Find her on Instagram @Meyrude.Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit out.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of Out or our parent company, equalpride.