Natalia Dyer weighs in on Nancy’s love life on Stranger Things

With the literally cataclysmic circumstances of Stranger Things’ fourth season, it’s hard to believe the Duffer Brothers managed to circle back to the Steve-Nancy-Jonathan love triangle. Then again, this was a season of multiple hours-long episodes, so they had a lot of time to retread familiar territory.

As Natalia Dyer points out in a new interview with Variety, “Nancy and Steve have come so far” from their relationship in the first season. And–spoiler alert if you haven’t finished Volume II–Steve (Joe Keery) acknowledged as much when he thanked Nancy for helping him grow up. But Dyer isn’t convinced that’s enough to rekindle a relationship.

“It’s really tough. I don’t know. It feels like she’s been in a relationship for a while so maybe she needs some self discovery time,” she says. Certainly there are more options out there for Nancy than having Steve’s six babies or a long distance, emotionally unavailable relationship with Jonathan (Charlie Heaton)!

The actor admits she “had some crunchy feelings about how the whole Jonathan thing started sort of behind Steve’s back,” adding that she believes Nancy is “stronger” now: “So whatever she decides to do, she’ll do it for the right reasons.”

She did, however, enjoy revisiting Steve and Nancy’s dynamic in the fourth season. “What this season touches on is the fact that these two people do care about each other and that hasn’t gone away. What that is and what label you want to put on that, I don’t know, but we see these characters meeting again after growing up and going through life with it,” she says. “So that was really lovely to play. It was really fun and touching. Truly, I have no idea where it’s gonna go but I do like that they at least still care about each other.” Whatever comes next for the love triangle, we hope for all their sakes it involves getting out of the literal Hellmouth that is Hawkins.