"I'd like to think that he went back to check on Nancy after he left her blackout drunk in the bathroom and saw Jonathon taking care of her. I mean how else would he know that to be honest?" bc they once again don’t want to acknowledge that he left his girlfriend at a party drunk and didn’t even make sure she got home. anything to defend him lol
This part of the conversation actually got me thinking about how bummed I am that they kind of dropped exploring how the Byers are perceived by the town after the first few seasons. It doesn't help that s3 is set in the summer and then they move away, but gosh I would have really loved if they'd explored more of how jancy as a couple is treated by their classmates at school.
Because, after the party for instance, I can definitely envision some of Nancy's peers rushing up to her at school in pseudo-concern, all "Oh my god, are you okay? It's just that we saw you leaving with *whispers* Jonathan Byers. *shudders* God, he didn't try anything on you, did you?" And the concern is so phony and what they're implying is so horrible Nancy very much wants to punch their lights out (but she refrains) (and also she can't even remember what happened at the party let alone Jonathan taking her home, so she's confused and all the swirling rumors are making it worse.) There's also the "that was your other boyfriend" line from Steve, combined with the slut marquee from the year previous, that definitely gets me wondering how many classmates think of Nancy as slut and latch on to Jonathan taking her home as evidence, and find the whole thing funny and aren't afraid to make it known. She and Jonathan eat lunch together in the parking lot, and I don't think it's just because the weather is warm.
Add to that Nancy actually starting to date Jonathan so quickly after the breakup with Steve...and, well. She left King Steve after her fell from grace and got together with a boy widely seen as a weirdo and creep. The slut and the creep. That'll definitely keep a high school talking.
I know the obvious reason for Robin pushing Nancy towards Steve in s4 is because Steve's her bestie, but I think there might have been another unspoken reason why both Robin and Eddie boost up st4ncy in that they just understand how Nancy could be with someone like Jonathan (meaning, the narrative they have of who Jonathan is.) It could have been really interesting to explore how even other outsiders/"freaks" like Eddie have still internalized a lot of what the town thought about Jonathan and the Byers.
Neither Robin or Eddie really know him, and it therefore makes sense that there's a disconnect between the Nancy in front of them and who they feel Jonathan is. Jancy as a couple doesn't make sense to them. Why would Nancy be with the weirdo kid who never talks in school and eats alone and is known to be a total creep by everyone? On the surface, under that light, she seems to "fit" more with Steve. I would have appreciated Eddie and Robin pushing st4ncy so much more if it was used as a way to explore these underlying biases (even and especially, amongst other outsiders) and then debunk them when Jonathan returned (which I guess they couldn't do with eddie because, well, ☠️ bones 🦴, but they still could have done it with Robin in s5 instead of serving us a giant platter of nothing.) They were capable of doing it with Robin and Nancy, with Robin learning Nancy isn't the priss she thought she was and Nancy learning Robin isn't annoyingly clueless but fun and smart, yet they ignore how the other teens think of Jonathan? Disappointing. There was so much interesting untapped material to work with there.
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