There is so much more to Nancy Wheeler than her relationship status in Stranger Things. There’s no denying that her situation with Steve (Joe Keery) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) has shaped a good deal of her journey and contributed to some of her personal growth, but haven't we moved well beyond labeling it a “love triangle?” That’s what we discussed with Natalia Dyer herself on a recent edition of Collider Ladies Night.
At the start of the series, a more timid, play-by-the-rules Nancy was dating Steve, a high school hotshot who dared her to take risks. As Steve made a string of mistakes, Nancy found herself spending more and more time with Jonathan while trying to figure out exactly what happened to Barb (Shannon Purser). In Season 2, with a little encouragement from Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman), Nancy and Jonathan finally acted on their feelings for one another, and in Season 3, they’re in a full-blown relationship.
However, Season 4 sees the couple struggling to make a long-distance relationship work after Jonathan moves to California with his family. Complicating matters further, Nancy finds herself spending more time with Steve in Hawkins when a new threat from the Upside Down emerges. During the beginning stages of their plan to defeat Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) in “Chapter Nine: The Piggyback,” Steve reveals he still has feelings for Nancy in an especially moving speech that also highlights how grateful he is that she changed him for the better.
Does that mean Steve has a shot again? Does Jonathan’s return to Hawkins put a stop to them rekindling anything? Or rather, does it even matter? Is this situation truly a love triangle anymore or have the characters grown beyond it? Here’s what Dyer said when asked if she views the Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan situation as a love triangle:
“It’s funny. Me personally, those questions are always kind of tough to answer because, I mean, no. I get the concept and I can see that it’s, ‘Oh, we’re pitting things.’ But for me and Nancy, it’s just so much more gray than that and so much more realistic in relationships and how they evolve and how they change and not putting everything in a box. And I think in the context of everything that’s going on, it’s really hard to be like, ‘Who’s she gonna end up with?’ And it’s like, ‘Well, in the world of our characters, the world is potentially gonna end and they just had this giant rift thing, and they just narrowly escaped death again. I don’t know!’ I don’t know. Who’s to say who she’s gonna end up with? It’s a really funny thing, but I like that it interests people still.”
The reason why the Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan situation interests me is the same reason why any layered on-screen relationship grabs my attention; it’s a meaningful exploration of how the connections we make help us grow. So with that in mind, I opted to follow up by asking Dyer for a quality of Nancy’s sparked by her relationship with Jonathan and a new layer inspired by her experiences with Steve that she’s enjoyed digging into while playing the character. She began:
“For Nancy and Jonathan, I think they’ve really bonded through this sort of outsider-ness, I think. Which I think our show really is, it’s a bunch of outsiders and they’re all outsiders in very different ways, but I think all of them have an element of just feeling not the same as the masses. And I think for them, Season 1 they really bonded over this sense of thinking differently than everybody else and I think they sort of helped each other open up. I think there’s a deep bond in the things that they’ve been through together. You know, that shared trauma thing.”
As for Steve, he’s almost a completely different person than he was in Season 1. He wasn’t kidding when he said Nancy changed his life. He went from being an immature jerk to an invaluable leader always willing to put his life on the line for others. He’s grown up and Nancy’s taken notice. Dyer explained:
“I think this season he’s really surprised Nancy. These are two characters who haven’t seen each other in a while and I think there was always warmth from Steve and love, and there was a balance, you know, she’s the smart girl and he’s like the jock guy and there’s something about that dynamic that works in a way. But I think he’s really grown up and I think that impresses her a lot this season. He’s grown up, he’s kind of come to terms with things, and he also cares deeply and is brave, and I think that’s something that she aligns with as well.”
Dyer also added one last little thing that differentiates Nancy's connection with Steve and Jonathan:
“I think both of those relationships are really interesting and they ask her to be different things in a way. Like maybe she feels more, I don’t know, maybe I’ll get in trouble for saying this, with Jonathan maybe it’s more of the caretaker and I think maybe she thinks Steve is a little more care-taking. I don’t know. It’s a funny thing, especially for someone who’s so gung-ho and kind of controlling sometimes.”
Looking for more from Dyer on Nancy’s journey from studious teenager to Upside Down warrior? You can listen to our 40-minute conversation uncut in podcast form below: