A favorite duo, in watercolor ๐
STEVE HARRINGTON AND DUSTIN HENDERSON
โ IN STRANGER THINGS (2016 - 2025)
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I have a vast appreciation for Dustin Henderson as a person and as a character. You go king!
Joe Keery widening his stance unnaturally to lessen the height difference between him and Gaten and putting Dustin right at heart level on Steve is so important to me actually
Tell me that Dustin isnโt listening Steveโs heartbeat and then apologize because youโre wrong
You know, out of all my brother's friends, you're my favorite.
You've always been my favorite.
NANCY WHEELER and DUSTIN HENDERSON in STRANGER THINGS
That scene in the Squawk basement...
Steve, Nancy and Dustin's final scene together is so endlessly fascinating. First of all, this is the first time that Nancy and Steve are speaking by themselves all season, and then it's basically a redirect to Dustin and the apology scene between Steve and Dustin in the armory.
Nancy walks into frame to immediately tease Steve for his choice of weapon, calling out his lack of experience with guns. Guns, of course, being Nancy's weapon of skill. It's a pretty flirtatious moment, with Nancy literally grabbing and holding onto the gun and then taking it out his hands, which you can see in the next screengrab. I think the audience is meant to read the scene as flirtatious, provocative - Nancy is perhaps trying to instigate a moment with Steve now that she is no longer dating Jonathan.
And then, Dustin enters the scene. Visually speaking, Dustin emerges behind Nancy, stepping into frame to be compared to Nancy. He stands behind her, but they're on equal footing, even look visually similar with their long dark brown curly hair. In fact, he literally pulls focus in the shot. The shot starts with Nancy in focus and then shifts so that Dustin is in focus and Nancy is blurred in the foreground. The screenshots below demonstrate this shift.
(it's a little hard to see in screenshots, but it's much easier to see in gif of video format)
By contrast, Dustin does not tease Steve for his lack of experience with guns, rather choosing to emphasize and support the part of Steve's dialogue that demonstrates his skill and prowess: Duck Hunt, by him saying "he is remarkably good at it." It's funny, and a bit goofy, but it's notable because it's a departure, not just how Nancy is treating Steve in this scene, but for how Dustin has treated Steve all season. Rather than belittling his skills and intelligence (which he was doing through most of vol. 1), here Dustin is trying to support and validate Steve, which will set up his approval of Steve's plan and acknowledgement of his intelligence in the scene directly following in the armory.
So the scene first establishes Nancy's dynamic with Steve, then parallels Dustin with Nancy visually, then pulls focus to Dustin, and finally marks a contrast between Nancy and Dustin within Dustin's dialogue.
And then, Dustin redirects Steve away from the gun as a choice of weapon. He redirects Steve away the weapon completely associated with Nancy, to offer a different solution instead, one which is associated not just with Dustin, but with the conflict that has driven a wedge between them all season. The spears represent the conflict over the memory and legacy of Eddie. When Dustin offers a spear to Steve, it's a symbol that he is giving up the perfect memory of Eddie that he's constructed in his head, and a symbol that Dustin cares just as much (if not more) for Steve than he did for Eddie.
(sidenote but I think the fact that Dustin directs all of his dialogue toward Steve - as in he's making eye contact with him the entire time and not even looking at Nancy, not even the back of her head - really adds a charged quality to this scene)
For Dustin to step into that scene between Nancy and Steve that highlights the total mismatch in skill level with one particular weapon, validate Steve's skill, and then offer another option that is much better suited to Steve and represents a level of equality between him and Steve feels like a total encapsulation of the dynamics at play between Nancy, Steve and Dustin throughout the entirety of the show.
It's not the first time that Dustin literally intercepts Steve in the middle of a moment or story line with Nancy (we see this in s2 especially). Dustin is constantly intervening in Steve's story, redirecting Steve's preconceived notions about popularity, friendship, relationships and what truly matters (we see this a lot in s3), and offering him a new way of looking at the world and at himself.
It's really interesting that this moment happens during the first and only time that Nancy and Steve interact one-on-one in season 5, a season marked by the incongruity of the outside perceptions of that relationship (namely Jonathan and Dustin) and the reality of it. The scene serves to reinforce the idea that Nancy is no longer the focus for Steve. Dustin is.
