So it's Pride Month (hopefully it still is by the time I upload this, otherwise, its Pride Year, every day is Pride, fuck it) and I'm still stuck in Stranger Things brain as we wait for the finale of Volume 4, so guess who needs to gush about the Tammy Thompson scene and, by extension, queer representation in media? This non-binary bisexual, that's who. But, if you want some videos about the subject, Rowan Ellis has an entire YouTube channel dedicated to queer media I highly recommend it.
The Super-Speedy Context
Stranger Things Season 3 was released July 4th 2019 and is set six months after the ending of Season 2. The kids are growing up, the teenagers are working and the new mall that opened up in town has a secret Russian lab built underneath so the Soviets can get in on the Upside-Down action. That Russian lab is discovered by Dustin after he sets up a long-range radio in order to talk to his girlfriend, but accidentally picks up a Russian transmission. He takes this knowledge to mentor, babysitter to the stars and the love of my life, Steve Harrington, whose working a summer job at Scoops Ahoy in the new Starcourt Mall. With him is former classmate, band kid and love of my life, Robin Buckley, who relentlessly teases his abysmal efforts at flirting with customers. Once they get roped into the plot of the season, both end up captured by the Russians to allow Dustin and Erica to escape and Steve is interrogated. He's then left with Robin and attempt an escape. After that fails, Robin confesses she used to be obsessed with Steve in sophomore history class. She knew everything about him and yet, Steve doesn't even remember her since he hadn't had his redemption arc yet. They've a brief conversation about high school social dynamics and a genuinely nice bit of "despite the situation, I'm glad I'm stuck in it with you" banter. Then they get drugged with truth serum, get saved by the kids and eventually wind up in that goddamn bathroom suffering from a come-down.
The Goddamn Bathroom
I could give the play-by-play of this scene but luckily, everyone and their mother has uploaded it to YouTube so instead, I get to pretend to be every substitute teacher and just stick on a movie for you to watch instead.
All the credit in the world goes to Maya Hawke and Joe Keery in this scene, both are phenomenal actors who add so much to the whole series. Steve's confession of his love for Robin is done so simply and, without the bravado his previous flirtations had, shows how sincere he's being and mature about his mistakes getting caught up in popularity in school. Personally, Steve's character arc across the whole show, this fallen King of Hawkins High who ends up the one at the end of each adventure the most beat up, doing his best to protect these snot-nosed kids that become like his little siblings and coming to terms with adulthood is the type of arc I will never get tired of experiencing and Keery does it the best.
Robin's slow realization that Steve is talking about her, the small smiles at the compliments and the horror that creeps across her face, that horror I'm sure a LOT of queer folk feel when they know that they're gonna come out of the closet to someone close and they don't know how well they'll take it, never mind the fact its Regan's America and their unofficial stance on the ongoing AIDS crisis as God's punishment... look, there's a lot more going on other then "my new friend might not like me" and Hawke deserves so much praise for her acting and portrayal of that. Her explanation of her self-proclaimed obsession with Steve, not one of love but of disbelief and jealousy is so moving and resonated with me so much.
Steve was a douchebag and yet Tammy Thompson, the girl Robin was head over heels for, couldn't take her eyes off his stupid hair even though the stupid head it was attached to never gave Tammy a second glance. When Robin says she went home every night and screamed into her pillow, I fuckin felt that. The whispered "Steve..." after the dumbass doesn't piece it together, the unsaid "I am confessing something so beyond important to me so can you please just use your stupid brain for five seconds" and Steve's realization is an emotional one-two punch that never fails to knock me completely out cold. The silence as both people process what's occurred, Steve's crush in his friend diminishing and Robin's silent anxiety about how Steve's going to take it.
The solid 10 seconds of empty space as the camera just lingers on the two of them in full sailor uniform, sitting in a shitty mall toilet stall after both have poured their hearts out to one another before Robin breaks the silence, you can feel the energy between the two change. Steve just thinks for a bit and immediately falls back into bantering with his best friend, making fun of her crush, mimicking her singing as Stranger Things's absolute godly original score swells in the background, titled "The First I Love You", as both of these characters just effortlessly shift from a friends who might fancy each other into being the closest friends they can be, it's- ok, time for the slight soapbox preaching session.
The Thing about Queer Media
LGBTQ+ representation in media is its own entire genre of literary critique so I'm not going to get into all of it here. What I do want to touch on though, is the trend of media not allowing queer characters to just exist and be happy as queer characters. Off the top of my head, a recent scene in a Superman comic book where Jon Kent comes out to his mother as bisexual and for some fucking reason, there's a panel where it looks like Lois Lane is about to come out out as a bigot, or pretty much any show or movie where a character's entire story arc is them dealing with bigotry. These stories do matter, of course, but personally, it's can border on misery-porn sometimes. Like, I don't need to see another scene of another unsupportive parent disowning their kid or a bully in school throwing around slurs, these events are real occurrences and sometimes you just don't wanna see that in your media. Sometimes, in shows such as Sense8 or Our Flag Means Death (both of which I've not seen an awful lot of, admittedly) you just wanna see queer characters being happy. That's what this scene is to me. Yes, there's the moment of horror in Robin's face when she things she's made a mistake. Yes, there's an extremely cynical part of me that thinks the pause was a weird moment of tension to make the audience think that series regular and good boy Steve "The Hair" Harrington was about to say a slur. Yes, Robin does sorta take a backseat alongside Will and Lucas once their arcs have concluded and plays support during the final conflict. But, to paraphrase The Haunting of Hill House, all of that is confetti. A queer character came out to someone who genuinely cares for her and loved her, that character simply shifted that love from romantic to platonic because of how much the queer character meant to them and they both just went back to being dumbasses together. It's really that simple sometimes.
Closing Thoughts, AKA God, Season 4 is fucking great, isn't it?
At time of writing, the finale of Season 4 is still around a week away, with the first full trailer coming out today. So far, FINALLY getting to see Robin interact with the wider cast, especially her dynamic with Nancy has been a highlight of the whole series. If there's any main takeaway from this essay, let it be this. Sometimes, the only thing queer people wanna see is other queer people being happy.
also here's a compilation of Robin from Season 4, Happy Pride!
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