The "starring lady" of Jonathan's photos
... is Steve Harrington
First off, I must make it very clear that I am not the first person who found out about this. @anime97-99 already made a post about Nancy's, Jonathan's and Steve's queerness here where they mentioned how it's very likely that Jonathan did his photos in S1 not because of Nancy but because Steve.
This post is meant to support their theory with more evidence.
screenshot taken from @/anime97-99
This first point was also already made by @/anime97-99. When Jonathan is in the darkroom and hangs up the photos for drying we get a clear picture of what they're actually showing us. Yes, Nancy is there and she is clearly shown to us in the forefront but she isn't the only one portrayed here. Steve is always with her and unlike with Nancy we get to see his front and his face.
What really stands out about this screenshot though is the second picture hiding behind the first one. This is what really gives it away as it seems like Nancy is disappearing behind the first photo while Steve's face remains visible.
While this instance of Nancy disappearing might be the first, it's by no means the last time of it happening. We get to see this quite often when it comes to Jonathan, Stave and Nancy which is especially noteworthy considering they only share so little screentime together to begin with. There are a lot moments where it seems like Nancy just disappears or blinks out of existence when they are all together. See here.
When Tommy comments on how the the "starring lady" is here we don't get to see Nancy. The camera lingers on these three people showing us Tommy, Steve and Carol. It's Steve though who is in the middle here. He's front and center because the "starring lady" doesn't need to come to them (like Nancy does.) The "starring lady" is already here.
Nancy Wheeler might be the perceived "starring lady" but the actual "starring lady" is Steve Harrington.
When we look at what Jonathan says about why he took the photos of Nancy and Steve we should also realize that Nancy may not be the only one who fits Jonathans description. Yes, we have Barb saying to Nancy that going up to Steve's room isn't like her but Steve most certainly isn't Tom Cruise either.
Both "Risky Business" and "All the Right Moves" are movies featuring Tom Cruise as the main actor and we all know that Nancy is a fan of him during Season 1. She has a poster of him up on her wall after all. So what Steve was trying to do in order to distract Nancy from her missing friend was not only trying to make her watch a movie of her favorite actor. He also implies that he looks like Tom Cruise and could even be this much beloved actor for her. This gets further evidenced by the fact that Steve is singing a song from an iconic scene featuring Tom Cruise from "Risky Business" as he leaves the carpark. See this video here. (Huge credit to @somethings-wrong-with-nana for pointing all of this out to me)
So in other words: Steve is a pretender. He doesn't just want Nancy to pretend like everything is okay, he himself also pretends quite a lot. He pretends to be Tom Cruise when he probably doesn't even care for him that much and who knows what else he's also pretending to be?
Well, I think Jonathan might actually know something about that given what he says to Nancy later in the same episode. Maybe he also saw that Steve was pretending to be someone he's not but in that one moment he also looked lonely or alone and Jonathan just wanted him to be himself.












