Stranger Things is known for teaming up its characters, but of all of them, Steve and Robin and their platonic friendship are the best.
Their friendship is a nice antidote to the more outright romantic stuff. No offense to couples like Eleven and Mike, or Joyce and Hopper, or Jonathan and Nancy, but Stranger Things can get a little syrupy and meandering when it goes hard for traditional courtships.
[…] the show strikes gold when it pairs off random characters and tests their platonic chemistry. What would Stranger Things be without Steve and Dustin? Or Eleven and Max, Murray and Alexei, Eddie and Chrissy, Dustin and Dart, or Dustin and Eddie? (Okay, Dustin is great with everyone.) There’s magic in these unexpected team ups. And at the end of the day, these bonds will help Stranger Things stand the test of time. Because it doesn’t play it safe or formulaic, but reminds us that there’s beauty and joy in the most surprising places—and the most surprising people.
I worry for Steve. His confession to Nancy—that he dreams of a future together, with their six “nuggets” in a Winnebago—feels like a speech that precedes a death scene. The kind of “give it your all” declaration that ushers in a grand finale. But I hope that isn’t the case. I hope Steve gets that Winnebago dream. It’s what he deserves after four seasons of evolution and maturation and a whole lot of babysitting. But he doesn’t need Nancy in the passenger seat, because Robin can meet that quota, too. Nuggets needn’t be biological. Family is more than marriage and happily ever afters.
Robin showed Steve that there’s more than one way to manifest a dream; that different roads can lead to the same future. When they sat there on that bathroom floor, he thought he needed love. And he was right—he needed the love only an unexpected best friend can offer.
Because those are the bonds that transcend and transform. Those are the connections that rub your back when your crush’s boyfriend comes home, or look on proudly as you flirt with the girl of your dreams. They’re what we need when the world cracks open and the smoke plumes rise and the fire spills. And they’re who’ll take the piss out of us when we get too cocky about saving the world. (“What does he want us to do, applaud?”) Stranger Things is a better show because it let Steve and Robin be those people for each other.
