I refuse to believe the Stranger Things writers actually believe they gave Steve and Nancy a good ending
Okay, let’s start with Steve.
From the beginning of the show Steve is the kinda guy who gets what he wants. He gets the girl, gets the popularity, gets the crown. He doesn’t really deserve all this, though. Not until later seasons.
It makes him selfish, uncaring. But he learns. Nancy Wheeler gives him the biggest thump of his life and he changes for the better.
He knows humility. Knows the pain of rejection. He fills in as a father figure to all the kids, showing that his goals have changed and evolved.
Then we are given s3. Steve’s crown has tipped. He’s a loser now, the show says as much. The characters want you to believe Steve peaked in highschool, but the narrative says otherwise. This isn’t like Steve, right?
He’s still caring, funny. He’s still the character we know and love.
Then we have s4. And Steve is lonely. So lonely. He talks to Robin about how he wants to find connection, the type of love he had with Nancy Wheeler. So he dates. And he dates. He has meaningless sex, meaningless conversations. He doesn’t want any of this. He says it himself.
And then a light shines at the end of the dark, dark tunnel. Nancy Wheeler, the girl he’s been pining for since season fucking 2. The girl he has a connection with that he doesn’t share with any one else. And she feels the same.
We see it through her body language. Through her lingering looks. Through the way she also gets flustered around him. Through the way she defends him to her boyfriend after no prompting.
Finally, Steve is getting what he has proved to deserve: Love. And no, Nancy isn’t his ‘prize.’ But does someone who has changed their ways, learned from their mistakes, became a better person not deserve love because of their past actions?
Then we get to season 5. Season 4 set up a reunion that could be so perfect, so beautiful. They built Steve’s entire character up to this moment, this wonderful epilogue where he finally gets what he’s been longing for for years.
Steve is rejected. Again. (Through Nancy’s ex boyfriend, mind you.)
He’s just a desperate loser who was searching for love anywhere he can find it, and his victim in s4 was Nancy.
She never loved him. How could a badass woman like her ever be brought down to Steve Harringtons level? A boring one-time jock with a cushy job saving for a house in a cul-de-sac.
So, Steve has given up on the girl he’s loved since he was 16. He knows love is not in the cards for him. After all, he’s just a glorified babysitter who’s perfectly content dealing with snot nosed, sticky fingered kids for the rest of his life.
Despite longing for it over the length of the entire show, he doesn’t find that connection with anyone else.
When I first heard him say “I don’t know, I think Kristen’s the one.” The Stancy side of me booed, but the Steve side of me cheered.
Finally, something Steve has been craving, after all the humility, after all the rejection is given to him.
But, no. Kristen’s just his third girlfriend of the year. He’s throwing himself into meaningless relationships and meaningless sex, hoping one sticks. The thing he was doing in the beginning of season 4.
Steve Harrington, the character who deserves the most, is given the least. He’s given regression and rejection. He truly is just a new Ted Wheeler, with his beige suit that doesn’t fit and his hair that looks like a lego piece.
What a great ending for good ol’ Steve Harrington.
And then we have Nancy Wheeler.
From the very beginning of Stranger Things, Nancy Wheeler is a beautifully written female protagonist with complex emotions and aspirations. She is curious when others dismiss danger, driven when others hesitate, and ambitious in a town that quietly expects her to shrink herself.
Nancy grows from a rule-following suburban teenager into a fearless investigator with academic and professional aspirations beyond Hawkins. But she’s not just a cold writer just trying to chase a story.
It’s proven with Mrs. Driscoll. She develops a sort of bond with the woman, wanting to help her, to prove that she’s not crazy. Then we see it again with Mr. Munson. Nancy isn’t only hungry for a what a hit piece a pile of broken bones and stolen eyes is. She cares deeply, wanting to help Mr. Munson prove to the world Eddie isn’t some crazed psychopath.
We Stancies have said time and time again, Nancy isn’t just some gun slinging, leather jacket wearing hard ass. She’s empathetic, emotional, feminine.
And Steve sees that. He sees her empathy, how she digs deeper when no one else would. She’s not miserable like the rest of Hawkins, because she actually cares. He sees it and Jonathan doesn’t. It’s said to us multiple times in season 4. Thrown in our faces.
Season 4 sets up the idea that Nancy has strong career ambitions. She wants to go to college, become a big time writer. But she’s still craves connection and love. She wants Jonathan to come with her, to support her on her journey.
The narrative has set up Steve being this support system and connection she craves. He would follow her to the ends of the earth, he’s proven as much in earlier seasons.
Season 4 tells us that Nancy can go to college, she can have a career, while also having love. Having connection with a partner.
But season 5 flushes that all down the toilet.
She can’t have love, can’t have connection. She’s Nancy Walk Em’ Down Wheeler, not an icky feminine woman who just like every other human wants love.
I mean seriously, strong women can’t have love. You’re stupid for thinking otherwise.
Oh, also, Nancy has given up. Shes dropped out of her dream college with barely any explanation whatsoever. She’s lost, floating and wandering through life hoping she’ll find what she’s been searching for.
You cannot convince me that Steve or Nancy are happy.
You cannot convince me Nancy is seriously ONLY just a strong badass who shoots at things.
You cannot convince me Steve Harrington WANTS to stay in Hawkins. That he doesn’t want to follow his best friend Robin in her travels. That he wants to stay in the town that tormented him for years.
The Duffers have ruined two of their best characters, regressed them into a ball of mush and for what?
So they can say they’re feminists and women don’t need men?
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