Stranger Things may be a show about a group of kids facing off against interdimensional monsters, but over the years it’s also made a point to weave romance into the narrative. With the fifth and final season in production, it’s safe to assume that some of these will-they, won’t-they relationships are going to have actual resolutions by the time the credits roll. While I’m a fan of most of them, there is one character I hope ends up single instead of in another relationship, and that's Nancy Wheeler.
Nancy Wheeler (played by Natalia Dyer) started out as the only teenage girl in the main cast, so it’s no surprise the Duffer Brothers immediately placed her into a love triangle with Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton). For a while it seemed like she had made her choice, choosing to stay with the latter as they bonded over their investigation tendencies. However, the Season 4 ending seemed to breathe life into the dreaded love triangle once again, placing Nancy between both men who have grown and matured after all the horrors they’ve faced.
As a romance fan, actively wishing for a character to be single seems counterintuitive. However, in Nancy’s case, it’s the only ending to Season 5 of Stranger Things that would make sense for her character. Why? Well, I'm glad you asked:
Nancy Deserves An Arc Free Of Romance
When it comes to Nancy’s character, it seems all anyone ever wants to talk about is who she’s going to end up with when the hit Netflix show ends. It’s not enough that she’s faced off against a Demogrogon and won, looked straight at the big bad Vecna while trying to kill him, and often led the charge in the final episode guiding the group to victory. Dyer can’t even go on late-night talk shows without being grilled about the love triangle by hosts and other guests.
While it’s all in good fun, it’s a disservice to how brilliant and fearless Nancy is. She has the potential to be this generation’s next heroine to kick ass like Ellen Ripley, and yet no one wants to acknowledge how badass she actually is. Instead, she’s often stuck trying to be an investigative reporter each season which almost always gets overshadowed by her relationships. Even Season 3 focused more on her relationship turmoil with Jonathan after they got fired than her being the one to put the pieces together about The Spider Monster.
In a perfect world, Nancy would ditch both boys at the start of Season 5, and her arc would center on her putting an end to Vecna and the Upside Down once and for all, while also realizing her worth. She definitely has the intelligence and track record to do just that.
Neither Of Nancy’s Love Interests Share Her Own Goals For The Future
Beyond the fact that Nancy is a badass character who deserves to be acknowledged for that fact alone, the other reason I want her to be single is that both of her love interests actually suck. Don’t get me wrong I love Steve Harrington and think he’s one of the best Stranger Things characters and Jonathan has his own redeeming qualities, but as boyfriends to Nancy, they’re terrible.
We see this disconnect clearly in Season 4 when Jonathan voices his concerns about college life to his new California friend Argyle (who sadly won’t be returning for Season 5), and he opens up about wanting to stay close to his family after high school. Steve doesn’t fare any better after openly admitting to Nancy that the future he envisions for them is spending the summer together with their “six little nuggets,” and a Winnebago.
On the surface, neither of these visions for the future seem bad, but the thing people forget about Nancy is she has very clearly and repeatedly shared her distaste for the nuclear family lifestyle. She doesn’t believe in it, and she definitely doesn’t want that for her life. This alone should strike Steve from being one of her suitors, but that hasn’t been the case since the two have shared several key moments over the years.
As for Jonathan, well, Nancy’s already been accepted into Emerson, and she’s likely not going to sacrifice her dreams to go to a school closer to him. This means the two of them would have to keep doing long distance, which already isn’t working for her. There’s also the fact that Jonathan is floundering with his own personal aspiration, which would drive career-oriented Nancy nuts eventually.
Overall, I just don't think these two are good matches for Nancy.
Nancy Needs Time To Grow And Heal On Her Own
Even if a new love interest was introduced, I still would want Nancy to stay single because it’s what her character truly needs. She’s never gotten to properly grieve the loss of her best friend Barbara Holland, and she’s no doubt going to come out of the final battle with Vecna with more scars of her own to deal with.
Nancy deserves time to process the last several years of hell she’s gone through thanks to the Hawkins Lab and the Upside Down, while also chasing her dreams of being an award-winning journalist. She deserves to get some semblance of the youth that was stolen from her back. In my opinion, she can’t do any of those things if she’s tied down with Steve, Jonathan, or any other love interest that might rise from the ashes of Hawkins.
Time with herself would also allow her to understand who she is as a person and why she has this need to always put herself in harm’s way. It could even do wonders for her platonic and sibling relationships which have both been pushed aside in exchange for subpar romances.
At the end of the day, I know that the likelihood of Nancy turning both Jonathan and Steve down isn’t likely given how much effort has been put into the love triangle by the Stranger Things team. But, I’m not going to give up hope. After all, stranger things have happened, like Hopper surviving the blast in Season 3. Not to mention I still think that Eddie Munson isn’t actually dead. So, really, wanting Nancy to end up single is the least weird thing I could hope for when the series returns.
Season 5 of Stranger Things is currently in production, however, we don't know when it will come out. While we wait, fans can have fun theorizing about the iconic sci-fi series, while also living vicariously through the teasers the cast and crew have been sharing. You can also stream the first four seasons of the show with a Netflix subscription.
