Untitled

billy: hey. hey hey hey hey. i heard you were cool. are you cool. everybody says you were cool. and now you're a little bitch. are you a little bitch. look at me look at me. hey cool cool bitch look at me are you looking

We haven't talked enough about how handsome Dustin Henderson is.

Steve's stressed? Expect him to smell like an entire pack. 'Cause he basically just smoked an entire pack. Him and Eddie? Obviously they'd be trading cigarettes in season four, are you kidding me?

"Oh, shit Harrington, my pack got destroyed in the lake."

"Oh, don't worry, man. I gotchu. Lemme go get a new one while we're getting supplies."

Robin's a worrywart, whatever, sure. But also? Let her hate the fact that Steve and Eddie smoke, but let the smell of cigarettes bring her comfort. Like. "Fucking hate when they smoke. But, great, I know they're alive. Thank god."

The old man is fiddling with his odd device and muttering under his breath, and when he goes to flick at a one of the switches, Steve spots a gold ring on his left hand.

"Hey, so does your wife know where you are?" Steve asks, wondering if he can appeal to a sense of love and duty. Or at least get some information on who to call to collect their dementia-addled husband.

"Wife?" Doc sputters. "I'm--!" He stops, pursing his lips together tightly. His eyes narrow thoughtfully, like he's trying to figure out some kind of problem in his head. The man has a terrible poker face, and Steve watches in odd fascination as a series of emotions cross his face until they settle into something mournful. For a second, Steve is reminded of the way his grandmother looked in her final years alone, reminiscing for the past.

Doc looks back down at his contraption, avoiding Steve's gaze. "My husband died five years ago," he says quietly, as if the memory is still fresh and deeply painful.

Steve can't help but recoil in astonishment. "You're a queer?" What does he mean he has a husband? People like that can't get married. Maybe the guy really is crazy.

The look Doc gives Steve is so withering that he actually flinches. He looks like he's trying not to say anything, jaw working hard like he's swallowed a lemon.

"Yes. Do you have a problem with that?" Doc clips out in an aggressively saccharine voice. He bristles with so much barely contained fury that despite him being more than a head shorter than him and having a full head of white hair, Steve is suddenly nervous that the guy could lay him out flat in seconds if it came to a fight.

Steve puts his hands up in apology, hoping to diffuse the tension. "Nope! Not at all!"

watching a friendship grow; s2

Nancy and Steve are left to be very much in charge - Robin too, but she makes a point of deferring leadership. I also think this is a big part of why Nancy looks so relieved when she sees Steve's car pull up at the trailer park - not because she's in love with him, but because it's dawning on her for the first time that there is another adult in Hawkins who understands what's going on.

But the point is it all goes horribly wrong, to the point I'd probably consider the finale to be the true darkest hour of the whole show. Like if you look at their main objectives for the season:

Save Max - failed. Technically El comes to save her at the last minute, but as far as anybody knows she's still comatose and might never wake up. Also she very much did technically die.

Save Eddie - failed, not only does he die horribly but they don't even manage to clear his name, so other than this small group everyone still believes he was a devil-worshipping serial killer.

Kill Vecna - failed, not only does he get away but in temporarily killing Max he manages to carry out his goals and (supposedly) bring on the end of the world.

And not only that but every single person in their group gets injured in some way. Lucas gets beaten to a pulp by Jason. Dustin breaks his ankle falling through the gate. Steve gets half-eaten by bats, Nancy and Robin get choked by vines, even Erica is tackled by Andy.

And I don't think any of this is anyone's fault, but I absolutely do think it would be extremely traumatic and have lasting impact especially on Nancy (thanks to her pre-existing trauma from Barb which this season made it a point to bring back into focus) and Steve (who has a bit of a hero complex and sees himself as the protector of the group). And while I do kind of wish they had a scene discussing what they went through in s5, there is a bit of a shift in the dynamic that you can read as being informed by this season, even if it wasn't put there intentionally.

Like I think it's notable thay even though Nancy turns out not to be romantically interested in Steve after all, she absolutely values his input in a way that she just doesn't prior to s5. She gives him the go ahead to drive through the gate and defers to his judgement over Jonathan's on at least one occasion. And then on Steve's side even though I do believe he isn't actively pursuing her at this point, I can't exactly fault him for wanting to partner with her when she's the only one not actively putting him down at every opportunity. She's not even that nice to him tbh, s5 Nancy is Nancy at her most emotionally distant, she's just not constantly implying he's an idiot.

And I can also see why Jonathan would clock all this and jump to the wrong conclusion even if he is doing entirely too much about it. Like there's the makings of some interesting dynamics there buried beneath all the tired love triangle clichés.