The tragic deaths in Stranger Things are almost mythic at this point.
There’s at least one character demise per season that completely destroys us, from Barb’s untimely kidnapping by the Demogorgon and Bob Newby’s savage mutilation by the Demodogs to Joseph Quinn’s Eddie’s tragic death by bat most recently in season 4, arguably contributing massively to Quinn’s current status as a Hollywood superstar.
So as Stranger Things 5 airs, fans are all dreading whose favourite character will be next on the chopping block. But theres a Stranger Things death that I think needs to come before any other – the tired love triangle between Steve “The Hair” Harrington (Joe Keery), Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton). What started out as a rather compelling decision between popular jock vs deep-yet-maybe-a-bit-creepy loner for priss-turned-kind-of-badass Nancy is now just annoying.
I had the honour of watching the first episode of the new season (plus the first shocking few minutes of episode 2) at the Stranger Things 5 premiere earlier this month, and a matter of minutes into the much-awaited new instalment, I found myself beyond irritated at Steve and Jonathan STILL sniffing around bloody Nancy. Don’t worry, no spoilers ahead, just a much-needed rant about an extremely played-out love triangle trope…
We see it in an amusing-if-completely-juvenile race up an electrical power tower to fix an outage. We see it in a (no way innocent but definitely illicit) hand brush between Nancy and Steve while they cook up their latest plan to defeat the evil waiting in the Upside Down. Steve and Jonathan are then thrown together at the last minute for their latest mission, which is clearly awkward for them both as they are (after over nine years and five seasons) in love with the same girl.
My question is: why is this love triangle still a thing? And can it please die a Stranger Things-related horrific death already? As the franchise is set to end, I’d like to see all three characters with a better ending than this petty, uninteresting emotional tug of war.
COURTESY OF NETFLIX
Of course, Nancy and Jonathan’s relationship has taken a few hits, from having to go long distance for season 4, not to mention their differing preferences for college that they seem to have an inability to communicate to each other. But does that mean we regress, and give Nancy and Steve an ending that could be far better for both characters if they moved forward with their lives, instead of backward?