No, Nancy doesn't get Vecna's curse in the traditional sense like Max; Vecna puts her in a trance to use her, showing her his plans and making her a messenger to deliver his warning to Eleven, rather than intending to kill her as a victim. He chose her because of her unresolved guilt over Barb, but instead of killing her, he released her with a vision, wanting her to spread his message and be an audience to his power.
Additional note: Nancy Wheeler was put into a trance by Vecna, but was not technically cursed as she did not experience symptoms and the latter did not aim to kill her.
While Nancy Wheeler loses her virginity to Steve Harrington, Barb Holland awakens in a waterless, dark version of Steve's pool, every surface covered in fleshy black vines.
In Stranger Things, Nancy Wheeler evolves from a typical teen to a brave investigator, facing down the Upside Down's threats alongside Steve, Jonathan, and others, ultimately investigating Vecna, surviving near-death experiences in the Upside Down, and ending Season 5 with a mutual breakup with Jonathan to pursue her own path as a reporter for the Boston Herald, embracing independence over romance.
In late 1983, Barb mysteriously vanishes, which leads Nancy and Jonathan Byers to investigate her disappearance. Eventually, it was revealed that she had been killed by the Demogorgon.
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In the Upside Down, a vine/tendril from the hive mind (later revealed to be connected to Vecna and the Mind Flayer) was inserted into Will Byers' mouth, extending down his throat and into his lungs, essentially "impregnating" him to grow larval creatures (slugs) and use him as a living conduit to the human world, which gave him the special connection to the Upside Down that he later developed.
Before they embark into the Upside Down, Will comes out as gay to his family and close friends, explaining that Vecna showed him visions of his failed and distant relationships with his loved ones after they learnt the truth.
Nancy's guilt about her best friend's death has been the driving force of every decision she has made since early in Stranger Things' first season. Before Barb went missing, Nancy was a typical teenager. She was a good kid trying to find who she was and how she fit into the world.
Nancy is also occasionally joined by her boyfriend Ned Nickerson, a student at Emerson College, who is introduced in the seventh book.
Nancy is terrified to stop and face her guilt. She's always moving forward to outrun her past. It's why Vecna's attack on her parents broke her for just a moment.
Yes, in Stranger Things, Will Byers is in love with Mike Wheeler, not Eleven (El); his feelings for Mike have been a key part of his character arc, revealed more fully in Season 4 and continued in Season 5, creating tension with Mike's relationship with El.
Sam Owens's confession, which compelled Hawkins Lab to acknowledge their coverup of Barb's death. They claimed her death occurred due to the leak of an experimental chemical asphyxiant, a cover story that Nancy, Jonathan and Murray reluctantly agreed to.
As the party winds down, Nancy goes up to Steve's room and has sex with him, leaving Barb by the pool where she disappears. When Barb is not at school the next day, Nancy is immediately concerned and increasingly worries that something has happened to her.
001, also known as Henry Creel, became Vecna after Eleven banished him to the Upside Down (Dimension X) where his body was mutated and burned by its energy, transforming him into the monstrous entity that terrorizes Hawkins. He was originally a powerful psychic child who killed his family, then became Dr. Brenner's first subject (001) before being cast into the parallel dimension, where he eventually grew powerful enough to control its creatures and become the Mind Flayer's emissary.
Nancy asked what happened between them, saying that she waited for Jonathan before ultimately ending up with Steve again. Jonathan retorted by saying she only waited a month and he was busy looking after Will.
Yes, the Demogorgon did essentially "impregnate" Will in Stranger Things Season 1 by implanting a slug-like larva into him, using his body as a host to grow and produce more creatures for the hive mind, a process that was later revealed to be part of Vecna's larger plan. Will coughed up this larva, which then hatched into a polywog (stage two of the Demogorgon life cycle), demonstrating how the Upside Down creatures reproduce and spread, as seen with Barb Holland as well.
Note: Due to the intentional ambiguity of Eleven's fate, she is excluded from this list.
Vecna targets Will Byers because Will shares deep psychic similarities, being a sensitive outsider, and became a crucial anchor or "phylactery" for Vecna's power after being connected to the Mind Flayer; Vecna sees Will as a vessel, a mirror of himself, and potentially a key to his immortality, needing him alive to maintain his own strength while also wanting to corrupt and use him.
The Duffer Brothers, confirm that in the coming-out scene, Mike realized he was Will Byers' crush. I liked this scene, Will putting his biggest fear — rejection of self — on the line before (most of) the people he cares about.
Yes, Billy Hargrove from Stranger Things is widely considered a queer-coded character due to his hypermasculine facade, antagonistic focus on Steve, homoerotic subtext in scenes (like staring/lip-licking), and underlying vulnerability stemming from abuse, leading many fans to interpret his aggressive behavior as a defense mechanism for repressed sexuality or identity struggles. His character arc, ending in a redemptive sacrifice against the Mind Flayer, is seen by some as a tragic example of the "Bury Your Gays" trope in media, where queer-coded characters are eliminated.
“He taps into the hive mind, and then he can manipulate anything within the hive. You'll see how far he can take it as you continue to watch. But that's how he's able to manipulate the monster.”
The first character to say the "f-word" in Stranger Things was Will Byers, who uttered it during a heated argument with his friends in Season 1, shocking viewers as he was typically soft-spoken, with later significant uses by characters like Billy Hargrove.
Yes, Dart (D'Artagnan) is a baby Demogorgon, specifically an adolescent stage called a "Demodog," which Dustin Henderson found and raised in Stranger Things Season 2; he's essentially a younger, less aggressive version of the main monsters from Season 1, evolving from a pollywog-like creature into a four-legged, predatory form.
Yes, according to the show's creators, Mike did realize that Will's "crush" in his coming-out speech referred to him, even though it wasn't explicitly stated in dialogue; his reaction shots and subsequent apology scene were designed to show he understood the depth of Will's feelings, though the payoff for their storyline was minimal in the finale.