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It started with a begrudging babysitter dynamic and Farrah Fawcett hairspray and ended with an emotional promise to die together. We’re talking, of course, about the beloved — and entirely unexpected — bond between Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Steve (Joe Keery).
The pair find themselves put to the test in Stranger Things’ fifth and final season, when Dustin, who is grieving the death of Eddie (Joseph Quinn), lashes out at his best friend. “That relationship is an interesting one,” Keery shares. “A lot of the fuel for my character, I think, is my worry for him and how that might come off.”
A physical fight breaks out between the two in “Shock Jock,” which Matarazzo admits could be a “tough watch” for Dustin and Steve fans. “There was a lot of pressure on that because…a lot of people are really invested in the relationship we have with each other — just as much as we both are,” he says.
Later, the duo share a touching reconciliation, with both revealing important, unspoken truths they’d been hiding from the other. “You have the relationship with Steve and Dustin come to a level of honesty that we haven’t seen,” director Shawn Levy notes, calling the scene “unique and beautiful and deeply moving.”
In celebration of the pair’s enduring bromance, we look back on some of Steve and Dustin’s most essential scenes — and unpack what went into bringing their major Season 5 moments to life.
Season 2, Episode 6: “The Spy”
This is where it all began. Dustin teams up with Steve to track down an escaped Dart and, as the two toss raw meat on the ground to catch their prey, they have their first heart-to-heart. Steve offers Dustin some love advice (“The key with girls is acting like you don’t care…and then you just wait until you feel it” ) along with some hair advice (“When your hair’s damp, not wet, you do four puffs of the Farrah Fawcett spray.”)
Later, Steve catches Dustin trying out his romance trick on Max (Sadie Sink), and throws him a knowing wink. Like a disgruntled little brother, Dustin snaps back, “Why are you winking, Steve? Stop.” And with that, a beautiful friendship was born.
Season 2, Episode 9: “The Gate”
It’s hard to decide what part is most charming about Dustin and Steve in this episode. Is it Dustin using Farrah Fawcett hairspray before his big dance? Is it Steve driving Dustin to the dance and giving him an earnest pep talk? (“You look great, okay? You look like a million bucks.”) Or is it Steve convincing Dustin not to use purring as a flirting mechanism? (Friends don’t let friends embarrass themselves in front of their crushes.)
Honestly, probably all of the above. These two have officially cemented themselves as buddies who have each other’s backs, both on and off the Hawkins battlefield.
Season 3, Episode 2: “The Mall Rats”
True love is Steve and Dustin reuniting at Scoops Ahoy after a long summer apart. Come for their euphoric first exchange — “HENDERSON!!!!” “YOU GOT THE JOB!”— and stay for a light-saber-themed handshake that reminds us Steve has officially joined the ranks of our favorite nerds.
After their greetings finish, Robin (Maya Hawke) asks Steve the all-important question: “How many children are you friends with?”
Season 3, Episode 4: “The Sauna Test”
There are several reasons to re-watch this episode — Erica (Priah Ferguson) negotiating a lifetime supply of ice cream being one of them. But a tender moment between Dustin and Steve establishes it as a classic.
After breaking into a secret chamber below the Starcourt Mall, they discover an elevator packed with mysterious boxes. Steve demands that Dustin, Erica, and Robin step back so he can examine the goods, but Dustin refuses. “No!” he declares. “If you die, I die.” A little dramatic, sure, but yet another beautiful example of these Hawkins teens demonstrating their unwavering loyalty to one another.
(Honorable mention goes to the moment when Steve pushes a frustrated Dustin through an air duct. “Touch my butt, I don’t care, push HARDER,” he demands.)
Season 3, Episode 5: “The Flayed”
Steve hasn’t had the best luck with winning fights. In Season 1, Jonathan beats him up. In Season 2, Billy beats him up. In Season 3, a Russian spy…you guessed it…beats him up. But Steve does end up knocking the Russian spy out, and who better to be there and cheer him on than his proud best bud, Dustin? “You did it! You won a fight!” Dustin gleefully declares.
Season 5, Episode 5: “Shock Jock”
Tensions begin to simmer between Steve and Dustin, who is mourning the loss of his friend Eddie (Joseph Quinn) at the hands of Demobats. Steve hits a nerve when he doesn’t support Dustin’s shield-generator theory, and anger begins to mount with the mention of Eddie.
“Deep down, the reason you’re so goddamned pissed is because you know the truth,” Steve tells him. “Eddie wanted to play hero, and he made a dumb call, and he got himself killed.” That prompts a full-blown brawl between the pair, whose tussle spills into the Hawkins Lab.
The stunt team designed a fight sequence for the duo, which Matarazzo and Keery built upon with their own character choices. “We thought, ‘This is a really great base, and now it’s time for us to get in there and work on clarifying the acting intention behind it,’” Keery says.
Filming the fight inside the Hawkins Lab was “tricky,” Frank Darabont, who directed the episode, tells Tudum. “You’re shooting in what is essentially supposed to be a completely dark environment, and you’ve got a couple of flashlights,” he says. “I thought our Director of Photography, Brett Jutkiewicz, did a great job of cheating light into a place where you only have two flashlights.”
Darabont adds, “Those guys were great at the physical stuff as well as the emotional stuff. We had a couple of stunt doubles at a certain moment doing the flip into the other room … but Gaten and Joe really did most of that work.”
Season 5, Episode 7: “The Bridge”
Friends don’t lie…and friends make up. Ahead of the final battle, Dustin hands Steve Eddie’s sphere as a peace offering and, in turn, Steve apologizes to Dustin for the hurtful words he used. “Eddie, he saved your life — our lives. And I know what he meant to you, I can’t imagine how hard it’s been. Instead of being there for you, I just got angry about it.”
For Keery, Steve’s struggle this season has been feeling like Dustin is “closed off and shut off” from him.“[Dustin] giving me the Eddie sphere and shield is kind of like calling a truce and waving the white flag — it gives my character a moment of pause which brings upon an apology,” he said.
Matarazzo called that moment a “needed” one for the pair. “They can actually verbally express to each other what they’ve wanted to say for a long time and I think it’s cool to let those boundaries break down.”
Putting a final bow on their reconciliation, Steve places a hand on Dustin’s shoulder. “I got angry…because I really missed you, I missed my best friend,” he says. Dustin replies, through tears, “Yeah, I missed my best friend, too.”
As a callback to Season 3, both declare, “You die, I die.”
The first seven episodes of Stranger Things 5 are streaming now on Netflix; the finale, “The Rightside Up” premieres Dec. 31 at 5 p.m. PT.
