In Season 5, one of the primary ways Dustin deals with his grief over Eddie's death is by emulating him, holding onto his memory by imitating everything from his clothes to his hair to his mannerisms. And one interesting element of that which spills over into his fight with Steve is when he's lashing out and calls Steve "fake." Because I think, while this is clearly said primarily to hurt Steve and is also just the result of the tensions finally boiling over, on some level (even subconsciously) this is still Dustin thinking that he's channeling Eddie while defending his honor. After all, Dustin's primary understanding of Eddie's interactions with the "jocks" at school comes from the antagonism we see in the very first episode of season 4, and he's projecting a lot of that onto Steve by proxy.
But...that isn't how Eddie interacts with the "preppy, popular" kids one-on-one. That isn't how he interacts with Chrissy, and it certainly isn't how he interacts with Steve himself. In those moments, Eddie proves he is self-aware enough to let go of his assumptions about other people and openly admit when they're proven wrong. Of all the characters in the show (prior to the back half of season 5), Eddie is probably the one who openly praises Steve to his face the most, calling him a "badass," saying he's a "good dude."
And I just think it's such a bittersweet, complex snapshot into grief that that private conversation gives a glimpse of Eddie Dustin isn't privy to at all but Steve is. There's so many layers to that, the ways that the people we lose are complex and multi-faceted in ways we wouldn't expect, that those around us might have pieces of their memory and who they were that we have yet to discover. And I just think there's something lovely and poetic about it, as it's so clear Steve is going to the one there trying to help Dustin heal, that he might be able to do that in part by letting Dustin in on new sides of Eddie he never even got to see.
