January 02 2026, 08:15 The long-awaited finale of Stranger Things is out and fans are convinced a fan-favourite character was hinted at being queer in the episode’s lengthy epilogue.
Beware: Spoilers for the final episode of Stranger Things lie ahead.
The fifth and final series of the popular sci-fi show, which first premiered back in 2016, came to its epic conclusion with a two hour episode that dropped on Netflix on either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day depending where in the world you are.
The first part of season five arrived in November followed by three more episodes on Christmas Day, the 7th of which saw Will come out as gay to his friends and family.
The last episode, entitled “The Rightside Up”, sees the Party – including El (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will (Noah Schnapp), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) – face off against Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) one last time in the The Abyss, with the hopes of ending him once once and for all, freeing the children he has captured and saving Hawkins and the rest of the world.
After the big last battle concludes which (spoiler!) sees the death of Vecna and the Mind Flayer, the show skips forward 18 months to the summer of 1989 for the final 40 minutes of the episode as to tie off each of the characters stories: Mike, Will, Lucas and Dustin graduate, Joyce and Hopper get engaged, and Jonathan, Nancy, Steve and Robin are living their adult lives.
It is an off-hand remark made during the last scene between Jonathan, Steve, Nancy and Robin that has fans speculating it has a deeper, queer meaning.
As the four friends sit atop The Squawk radio station as the sun begins to set, they each discuss where their lives are now and pledge to meet up once a month – oddly at Robin’s strange uncle’s place in Philly.
Steve is still living in Hawkins and revealed to be teaching kids and coaching Little League, Jonathan and Robin are both off at college – NYU and Smith respectively – with Jonathan making an “anti-capitalist, cannibal movie” while Nancy shares she has dropped out of Emerson and taken up a trainee journalism job at the Boston Herald.
“What about you Nance? How are the babes at Emerson?” Robin asks during the scene.
“Oh, erm… I wouldn’t know,” Nancy admits, before sharing to the rest of the group’s surprise that she has dropped out of her studies.
“Ho, ho, ho! I knew it. You became a Navy SEAL,” Robin jokes.
“Oh no, not quite. I… I took a job at the Herald, which… it sounds fancier like that. It’s a trainee position but I don’t know, I was just sick of school and thought I’d maybe get out there and… try the real world.”
“Nancy Wheeler, still full of surprises,” Robin says fondly, as Jonathan and Steve smile.
Fans very quick to jump on Robin’s language, namely that she asked Nancy how the “babes” at Emerson are.
Many pointed out it was odd for Robin – a lesbian – to describe women in that way to a supposedly heterosexual Nancy unless Nancy is also interested in women romantically.
Coupled with a fresh look for Nancy that includes a shorter haircut and a more masculine clothing style, fans are sure Robin’s pointed question is evidence Nancy has experienced some sort of sapphic awaking at college.
RoNance shippers, in particular, and who has long begged for sapphic Nancy Wheeler, were over the moon with this interpretive crumb which they have said leaves room for the possibility that Nancy and Robin could get together in the future.
“Robin used the word ‘babes’ instead of ‘guys’ for a reason….,” one fan wrote on X. “And she’d never ask about guys that way… I’ll get yelled at for saying this … bisexual Nancy Wheeler.”
“the concept of nancy wheeler dropping out of emerson because she lezzed out too hard,” a second wrote.
“epilogue confirmed bisexual nancy wheeler for me im sorry,” another wrote.
this is actually so gaggy i need a romcom pic.twitter.com/5UUUKS4nvF
— holly wheeler shady facts (@hollyfinalgirl) January 1, 2026
butch femme ronance is actually one of the only things I cared about in this last episode pic.twitter.com/q7h0UO8FTX
— riana (@ria9a) January 1, 2026
WELCOME HOME LESBIAN NANCY WHEELER pic.twitter.com/x2Tc0g9GXg
— hris