We’ve talked about how Steve Harrington gives the love he’s never received, but now we need to talk in length about what his vision for the future represents and what it shows about his character. Steve Harrington is many things, but beyond his luscious, uber-cool (ridiculous) persona is a boy whose dreams of a simple life showcase what he’s missing. Steve doesn’t know how not to give, and he doesn’t know how to step back even when his life is at risk. “I still have hope,” he tells Robin later in the episode—hope for a future, survival, and for something greater than the circumstances at this very moment.
He has hope for a “full brood of Harringtons…like five/six kids. […] Yeah. Six little nuggets.” He has hopes to “just see the country” and to “learn how to surf or something.” But it’s that or something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since Stranger Things Season 4, Episode 8 “Papa” aired. Because “or something” implies that there’s still plenty in him he’s bursting to talk to someone about. It’s so easy to share this moment with Nancy, not because he’s still pining after her, but because during this quiet drive, it’s the one thing genuinely consuming him—the hope for something bigger. This moment, strangely, reminds me of Taylor Swift’s “august.”