i genuinely, TRULY hate when i see people saying steve took â20 steps backwardsâ by trying to get nancy back in season 4. honestly, i think itâs the opposite. donât get me wrong, i truly donât enjoy stancy and i was relieved they didnât bring it back. but that plot was so much more than just steve being pathetically in love with her. that moment felt like the result of him actually growing up & finally being mature enough to look back and realize that maybe if they had met at the right time, things couldâve gone differently. to me, that wasnât regression, that was regret, that was someone whoâs spent so long trying to fix the version of himself that broke things in the first place and now that he finally knows how to tell the difference between right and wrong, what he deserves, and how far heâd go to be better, how could he not wonder if he might finally be worthy of the kind of love nancy once gave him?
i mean, thatâs heartbreaking, and pathetic and so SO human. heâs trying to chase the very same love that pushed him to grow, to improve, to believe he was capable of more. and of course part of him still thinks nancyâs the only one who could give that to him, she was the foundation of the person heâs become. that tiny flicker of hope for a version of them that couldâve worked out? heâll always carry that, even if he knows deep down itâs probably too late & to me, all that emotional conflict made steve way more complex this season. it cracked him open in a really raw way and gave us this vulnerable, needy, kinda desperate version of him thatâs just craving a love that feels real. and thatâs character development. people are just so used to the comedic relief version of him & that is annoying because once they see him making mistakes and acting like any normal person with actual feelings would, theyâll find something to complain about. i love you, totally imperfect, full-of-flaws steve harrington.

















