Vecna’s attack, Nancy and Jonathan

Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1.

Always calculating, always planning, and always confident, Vecna ​​Crawl’s team leader Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) made the mistake of not telling her parents and sister that the monsters were real in the fifth and final season premiere of Stranger Things.

Now, that mistake could cost Nancy and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) their mother Karen (Carabuono), father Ted (Joe Crest), and sister Holly (Nell Fisher) their lives. Vecna ​​acquired Holly and cast the Upside Down on the entire Wheeler family in order to use her in her overall plan for world domination.

In a twisted place like Hawkins, where a giant rift to the Upside Down opened in the ground at the end of Season 4, what was the reason Nancy and Mike didn’t inform the other Wheelers about Vecna’s threat?

“This was actually a conversation I had with the Duffers,” Dyer told Variety. “As we learn what happened afterwards, what did we tell people? What did we explain? There’s a military presence everywhere, and I think there’s a sense of protection, especially within Nancy. I think sometimes in this scenario, especially in the case of her family, you feel like not telling is protecting.”

That turned out not to be the case, and now Karen and Ted are in hospital in critical condition, and Holly has been transferred to Vecna.

“There’s a lot of guilt considering the whole situation right now,” Dyer said. “She’s obviously had losses in her life before, and I think she feels like a failure for her. It’s really, really difficult. She’s trying to do what she feels is right in the moment, and things still don’t work out. But I also think it’s a bonding moment for the Wheelers. I think it’s a energizing moment for what they have to do going forward. I think this was a really impactful way for Nancy to start seeing-saw.” When you have a “I love it” moment, you think it’s going well, but it really isn’t. They don’t understand the situation. ”

Amidst the war with Vecna ​​and the immediate danger to her family, Nancy faces a not-so-serious dilemma, but one that is very important to Stranger Things fans. Her relationship with her boyfriend Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) and whether she ends up with him or with her old flame Steve Harrington (Joe Keery).

“This is a pressure cooker situation,” Dyer said of the lack of intimacy and romance between Nancy and Jonathan in the first few episodes of season five. “Obviously, in previous seasons, they’ve been away for a long time, and then when they come back, I mean, there’s so much pressure and stress. I think that puts it into perspective: what’s important, what you care about, where you spend your energy, what’s asking you to do that. And I think in situations where you’re faced with death and monsters and those elements, you see growth.

“She’s definitely at a point where she’s running at a survival level, but still not understanding herself, not understanding her life, not understanding what life is and even that life exists,” Dyer said. “There’s definitely some friction going on, but I think her focus right now is fighting Vecna, running the crawl, and coming up with a plan.”

After all, does Dyer care whether Nancy ends up with Jonathan, Steve, someone else, or no one at all, even if she makes it to the end of Stranger Things? She is.

“Nancy’s future is important to me,” Dyer said. “After 10 years, you can’t help but feel like you’re really invested in these characters and their stories. You want them to end the way they feel is right. You want them to put out into the world not just the idealistic, most perfect, beautiful version, but what they feel is earned or deserved or makes sense when they’ve lived this.”

“And I think that’s always been my focus,” she continued. “Everything has to feel right.”