Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 Vol. 1.
Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) is one of Stranger Things’ most interesting characters. She subverts societal expectations, her ambitions continue to grow, and she becomes more resilient each season. In the first few episodes, Stranger Things positions her as the quintessential 1980s high school girl, shouting at her brother’s friends to get out of her room, talking about boys and wanting to do well on tests. But her story dramatically shifts when her only close female friend, Barbara Holland (Shannon Purser), disappears one night at a party, and since then, Nancy makes a series of choices that push her away from the life she is expected to lead. Despite her individuality and immense growth, conversations about Nancy’s fate in Stranger Things almost always get reduced to one question: Will she end up with Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) or Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton)? That question fundamentally misunderstands who she has become, and she really shouldn’t end up with either of them.
Steve Can Only Provide Nancy With the Same Life Her Mom Regrets
In Stranger Things Season 1, Nancy’s a smart but naive teenager excited about her first relationship with Steve. When Steve’s parents go out of town, he invites Nancy and Barb to a party at his house alongside his unpleasant friends Tommy (Chester Rushing) and Carol (Chelsea Talmadge). Barb is hesitant and can see Nancy is starting to behave in a way that is not her usual self, but tags along for moral support. After cutting her finger on a beer can, Barb urges Nancy not to go upstairs, as she may do something she later regrets. Barb’s concern is well-meaning, but Nancy is also entitled to explore her relationship with Steve, and she is not wrong for doing so despite what 1980s society says. In Season 1, “Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street,” the Duffer Brothers intercut Nancy’s sexual encounter with Barb being taken by the Demogorgon and suggest Nancy’s disregard for her friend and leaning into her desires ultimately leads to Barb’s disappearance and death. This moral tension floods Nancy with guilt throughout the rest of the early seasons, and Steve’s inability to recognize this or show any concern for Barb leaves Nancy feeling hollow, misunderstood and used. This sours their relationship, and she finds solace in the more thoughtful Jonathan Byers, who shares the same guilt over the disappearance of his brother Will.
Steve is Nancy’s safe choice, and she should have ended up with him in a conventional story. Despite their lack of emotional connection, he is the high school stud with well-off parents and the blueprint for whom a good girl should marry in the 1980s to start her nuclear family. But who wants to settle for normal, especially in Hawkins? Nancy recognizes that her mother, Karen (Cara Buono), married her safe bet, Ted (Joe Chrest), and now is extremely unhappy, spending most of her time reading romance novels in the bathtub, drinking wine and very nearly hooking up with Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery) in Season 3. Steve’s dream of a perfect suburban lifestyle hasn’t changed in Season 5; despite becoming kinder and more emotionally mature, his end goal is still to have six little nuggets with Nancy as mom. If Nancy ends up with Steve, she would be stepping into her mother’s story, one she clearly doesn’t want to emulate.
Nancy’s Ambitions Are Bigger Than Jonathan’s Future Prospects
After becoming distant from Steve in Season 1, Nancy joins forces with the reserved and misunderstood Jonathan, who is seen as an outsider by most due to his parents’ divorce and lack of money. The two have an emotional connection, both seeing beyond the pre-described path of marriage, children and picket fences. Their relationship, as Murray (Brett Gelman) puts it, is built on “shared trauma,” which provides a strong sense of togetherness that no one else can understand, but is that really the basis for a long and healthy relationship? When the supernatural needs defeating, Nancy and Jonathan are an unstoppable duo, and their relationship feels like an exciting rebellion, but it becomes strained when their lives go back to normal.
At their shared summer internship at the Hawkins Post, Nancy is determined and driven to be a reporter, but her male colleagues reduce her to “Nancy Drew,” mock her ideas, and expect her to fetch lunch. Her persistence to uncover the truth in the face of sexism reveals her tenacity and strength, but Jonathan cannot see it. He is more worried about being fired because he believes his opportunities are sparse, coming from a poor background. Nancy is enraged and speaks to her Mother about their fight and her firing in Season 3, “Chapter Four: The Sauna Test,” and, surprisingly, Karen understands her frustrations, indirectly admits she has felt the same way, and urges Nancy to walk her own path.
From this moment, Nancy can see that Jonathan isn’t the partner she once imagined he might be. By Season 4, he has moved away, they’ve gone long-distance, and he hardly speaks to her. We see that he’s drifting aimlessly, smoking weed with his new friend Argyle (Eduardo Franco) and is actively hiding his college plans from Nancy because he knows he can’t keep up with her ambition. It’s key for Nancy to follow her Mother’s advice. The 1980s world is harsh for young women with career ambitions already even if there weren’t supernatural forces that need defeating. Nancy is headstrong and has clear goals and deserves her chance at the life she dreams of, away from Jonathan, who, sadly, has a small-town mentality. He could also fight to leave the societal stereotypes thrust upon him, but he doesn’t seem to have the same desire. Jonathan sees Nancy as the answer to all of his problems, but their relationship is holding her back.
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We’re all in Vecna’s mindscape now.
Nancy Needs To Leave Hawkins To Pursue Her Real Love
Throughout Stranger Things, Nancy is busy fighting supernatural battles while working out who she is and exploring her relationships. She’s turned into a gun nut, facing Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) firsthand, and gets possessed in Season 4, where she is forced to witness his apocalyptic plans. In Season 5 Volume 1, she makes it home just in time to get her horrifically injured parents to the hospital after a Demogorgon attack. Despite new traumas piling up, Nancy remains determined and is a true leader in Season 5, but Steve and Jonathan are just fighting amongst themselves, not looking at the bigger picture.
As Station Manager of WSQK, Nancy is still pursuing the truth and devising plans for the older Party members just like her brother Mike is doing for the younger ones. While she is using the radio station to broadcast secret codes across Hawkins and devising “crawl” locations for Hopper (David Harbour) in the basement underneath, Jonathan and Steve are trying to get her attention. Both their characters seem to be reduced to fighting for Nancy in Season 5, with the highly disappointing scene of them racing each other up the radio tower being the cherry on the top of a very juvenile storyline.
For Jonathan and Steve, securing Nancy is the ultimate goal, but for Nancy, these are the only two eligible bachelors in town, and she’s really outgrown their dynamic. While Steve is trying to show his machismo, Jonathan has taken advice from the slightly insane Murray and plans to propose with a diamond ring smuggled into the quarantined Hawkins in a cassette-tape case. A proposal, right after her parents have had a brush with death and her younger sister has been abducted by Vecna, only underscores how mismatched they’ve become. Proposing is not the answer to securing Nancy from Steve; it’s another way to trap her in suburbia — and she does not deserve that ending!
The more Stranger Things 5 progresses, the clearer it becomes that Nancy’s final storyline is not about choosing between Steve and Jonathan. As viewers, we want to see Nancy triumph and get the life she deserves beyond Jonathan and Steve. She deserves a future outside of Hawkins — one where she can become the journalist, leader, and force of nature she’s been growing into since Season 1.
- Release Date
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2016 – 2025-00-00
- Network
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Netflix
- Directors
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Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Nimród Antal, Uta Briesewitz
- Writers
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Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock
