yua 125

It might however be news to the town though as Lonnie seems to be very well regarded amongst the townspeople. When Earl gets interrogated by Hopper about Wills disappearance he first associates Will with Lonnie. To him Will is Lonnies kid first and foremost. Not Joyce's. This is noteworthy as Lonnie hasn't been around for while and yet Earl still thinks of Will as Lonnies kid instead of belonging to the person who actually takes care of him now.

We get to see something similar happening at Wills funeral. Again, it's Lonnie who gets all the condolences by everyone else (including Karen and Ted) while Joyce just stands to the side and gets ignored as if she's someone who should better be avoided. This indicates that to the people of Hawkins it's not Lonnie who's the screw-up. It's Joyce.

Steve however isn't comparing Jonathan to Joyce at first. He's comparing him to Lonnie who seems to be a (at least somewhat) respected person in the public eye. So why exactly is it that Steve seems to know Jonathans family situation better than almost everyone else? How could he even have any insight into this?

I think he's known Jonathan and they've been at at least friends for while if not more. It's why Steve goes from broad insults ("I always took you for queer" because he might have some insider knowledge on this too? Possibly first hand experience?) to comparing Jonathan to his father (Jonathans worst fears) and then going after the final kill by insulting Joyce and Will who mean the most to Jonathan. Steve knew all of this and then used it against Jonathan to get some reaction out of him.

This would of cause be extremely awful of Steve. I'm not gonna deny that and I am also to blind to the fact that if Steve and Jonathan knew each other before the show started, it'd make Steve's overall behavior towards Jonathan in S1 so. much. worse. Because then he wouldn't just be a bully but a bully towards someone who at one time and on some level trusted him enough to tell him some personal things and then got all that trust smashed in his face in the worst way possible.

Going from one of the worst things to come out of their past relationship (if it existed) to one of the better ones.

When Steve is on his spy mission with Dustin he notices three things. Two guys laughing, two guys consuming food and two (probably) former classmates talking. I think all of these tell us something important about him as a character. Steve craves laughter (with another man,) food (eating with another man) and he wants Jonathan to talk to him again but also thinks he doesn't deserve it because of his past actions. (Look here and here)

It's the first part of this which strikes me if I put it in combination with what he later tells Robin in the bathroom stall. Part of the reason why he fell for and considered Robin a possible partner (very late into the story; I don't think he had any real interest in her before it really looked like she was in love with him but that's besides the point right now) was that she made him laugh in a way he had not experienced in a very long time.

This carries the implication that there was once a time where he used to laugh just as much if not more than he did with Robin. It's unclear when that happened or with whom but considering this is the same scene where he expresses regret about having put so much importance on the opinion of the likes of Tommy H (and Carol) I doubt he's referring to them. Likewise it's not Nancy either as he also claims how he's not in love with her anymore and neither have we seen them laughing a lot when they were together.

It's unclear who this is referring to, yes, but I wonder if this could have also been part of his former relationship with Jonathan. They had fun, they laughed a lot and trusted each either enough to tell the other about their personal issues. This would also come as a bit of a surprise as Jonathan is not presented to us as a funny person but if it's true that they had a past relationship they both couldn't easily forget it also must have given them something worth clinging to. Good things like laughing a lot when they were together.

Steve: I just wonder sometimes you know, if... some other girl had given me a proper thump before we'd met, would things have been different? Like, if we were meeting together for the first time right now, part of me... I dunno, part of me thinks we would've made it.

Steve says these words to Nancy but are they truly about Nancy? Like he only considered Robin as a possible partner after it looked like she was truly in love with him, I think he also only considered Nancy as a possible partner after Eddie told him how it must have been true love which motivated her to jump after him at the lake.

He also uses the word "thump" four times in this entire conversation with Nancy which is an interesting choice if we consider that Jonathan is a fan of Thumper.