a case study on epilogue ronance (and why they’re canon no matter what the duffers now say)
starting with the implied breakup of robin and vickie pre-epilogue. this was shown by robin’s “overbearing girlfriends” comment on the wsqk roof and how vickie was both nowhere to be seen or directly mentioned.
i do have a theory that vickie told dr. kay and the military what was happening (yes, they saw the plans, i know), because while everyone else was getting shoved up against the truck, essentially manhandled by soldiers, she was just standing there with her arms crossed, looking annoyed??? there wasn’t even an ounce of panic or any real emotion on her face. yet, proving the annoyance wasn’t at what was happening around her. robin had told her earlier to shut up over the radio. i think just all those pieces really did a number on them. i don’t believe enzo’s happened and i genuinely think that moment was the end for them. especially since vickie never understood what robin was going through and then you add on the fact that robin’s been ditching her so nancy’s plans wouldn’t fail… yeah, it didn’t last much longer. and it’s very clear in the epilogue that robin has her eyes set on nancy (again)
now, i know this wasn’t in the epilogue, but it very much connects to it. when nancy and jonathan broke up, nancy said something very interesting
nancy didn’t know what she wanted. and whenever this was vaguely brought up pre-volume two release. natalia always phrased it as “nancy trying new things”. well, jonathan and steve aren’t new things. and with how nancy looked in the epilogue, she’s gotten comfortable with herself and her sexuality (nancy wheeler finally free from her comphet storyline) and openly exchanging looks with robin while being with jonathan and steve
now moving on to the the finale episode, just before the epilogue because i have to bring this up again. it’s one of my favorite moments
after robin asks who’s going to be the bait, nancy gives herself up and robin looks absolutely devastated. then, after nancy starts firing at the mind flayer’s physical form and tells the group to go, twice, robin’s face, when they showed her a second time, is even more heartbreaking. she was on the verge of tears. and after going back and rewatching the scene, i noticed that when robin asked the question, she hesitated and her voice even broke a little bit. almost like she knew nancy was going to be the one to step forward. like she wished she could’ve taken the words back instantly after she started saying them
moments later, when jonathan almost runs back towards nancy, who was actively running towards the mind flayer, robin’s the one to grab him and tell him there’s nothing they could do. her voice was so broken. and then the “please” left her lips. desperation. she trusted nancy and her plan enough to not going running after her, but she also needed to rush up to their place because robin couldn’t even handle the mere thought of losing nancy. and it’s much deeper than a fear of losing a friend (i’ll also take this time to point out that when nancy gave herself up as bait, the camera pointed to jonathan, dustin and robin. and robin, is technically the outlier in that situation)
now finally, to the epilogue!!! there was SO MUCH here. i was so shocked and on a high
getting into the details, we know how robin asked nancy “how are the babes at emerson?”. when robin says the word “babes” she always means women. and i, truthfully, have never heard the term “babes” be used for men in the context the term was used. and when nancy used that as a gateway to reveal she dropped out of emerson and took a trainee job at the boston herald, robin just looked… so proud. even teased her about how she knew nancy would become a navy seal. then came the “nancy wheeler, still full of surprises”. these were all extremely flirty dialogues, especially when you add in all the looks and eye-fucking that was going on even without spoken words between them
(i mean look at the receipts)
i have a theory (one of my favorites) that nancy and robin have been dating for at least a few months before the epilogue (which is june 1989 in case anyone didn’t notice). there’s no true backing to this but all their shared looks and robin asking about the “babes at emerson” felt like there was a lot of implications that ran deeper rather than them just flirting with each other. this isn’t out of the realm of possibility as robin goes to smith college in northampton, massachusetts and nancy is still in boston working. that is a little under a two hour drive from one another
but even without my theory of them getting together pre-epilogue and being in a secret relationship, whichever way you want to take it, wether nancy and robin have been together prior to the rooftop scene or they’re flirting and clearly have active feelings for each other, jonathan absolutely clocked their shit (just like the rest of us). and it’s also fitting, because if you read one way or another, you know jonathan also clocked robin and vickie
ronance was VERY HEAVILY IMPLIED CANON with all the epilogue and even the finale as a whole provided, as the open endings lead to and support the canon. it’s really brought a sense of peace (especially amidst this stupid conformity gate bs). and with the duffers not knowing how to respond to anything now and trying to satisfy everyone else who wasn’t happy when their ships didn’t remain or go canon… it’ll stay this way no matter what they say at this point.
and on that note, a quick reminder: if they truly wanted the epilogue to be perceived another way they should’ve written it another way
yousharknotpass
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