Robin Is The Finest Factor to Occur to Steve Harrington

When the Duffer Brothers rehabilitated Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) in Stranger Issues 2, pivoting his character from the smarmy jerk bully of the primary season into the blustering fool who taught Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) methods to choose up women (form of), they correctly realized they wanted to offer him a foil who would take none of his bullshit.

Enter Robin, Steve’s no-nonsense coworker at Starcourt Mall’s maritime-themed ice cream joint, Scoops Ahoy. Performed by Maya Hawke, Robin is simply as jaded as Steve, solely she brooks none of his put-upon suave act and needles him in simply the fitting method. Certain, she’s additionally scooping ice cream in an equally infantilizing sailor swimsuit, however this menial job clearly bothers Steve, and she or he makes use of that data to delectably vicious impact.

As a result of in Stranger Issues Three, Steve Harrington’s humbling is full. Now, he will get to construct himself again up once more to see what sort of man he’ll change into, and his interactions with Robin play a significant position in that.

Stranger Issues Three (Netflix)

In fact, she additionally performs a significant position within the unraveling of the season’s ensuing thriller. Seemingly on her personal, and with zero of the context that Steve, the Wheelers, the Byers, and the remainder of the AV Membership retain, Robin rapidly units about decoding a wierd sign that Dustin intercepts early within the season. Did we point out she is aware of 4 totally different languages?

She does, and as soon as she solves the good Yellow-Blue riddle that’s plagued Reddit since New Yr’s Eve, she’s rolled into Steve and Dustin’s orbit. Collectively, the three — finally, 4, when Erica Sinclair (Priah Ferguson) tags alongside — examine among the, ahem, stranger issues occurring on the Starcourt Mall. Once more, it’s a testomony to the Duffers (and Hawke) at how rapidly Robin is built-in into the broader narrative.

It’s like she’s been there from the very starting.

Stranger Issues Three (Netflix)

And but, it’s her outsider nature that units her other than the remainder of the children. In class, she was invisible to guys like Steve, although that doesn’t hassle her for the explanation you may not suppose. Seeing him humbled on this method, introduced all the way down to her degree by the vagaries of retail employment and no faculty prospects, Robin sees a chink in his armor and the 2 bond. Hawke performs this with scrumptious elan and charisma,

Because the season progresses, it appears clear at first that Robin and Steve are headed for a Romancing the Stone-esque romance, two like-minded and enticing folks getting collectively within the face of maximum circumstances. However as their story attracts to an in depth, and the pair get better from some Russian reality serum in a Starcourt rest room (a la True Lies), we study the true cause Robin resented Steve: his flirtations with a feminine classmate meant that she couldn’t make the identical strikes on her.

Robin’s queerness is actually a delicate reveal (and, relying on the way you learn one scene with Will Byers, not the one revealing sexuality of a Stranger Issues character this season), however a welcome one for a present that hadn’t tackled these points earlier than. Much more refreshing is Steve’s response: considered one of momentary shock, then transferring instantly onto resuming their friendship.

Stranger Issues Three (Netflix)

In different phrases, Robin isn’t caught as a supporting participant in Steve’s story; she’s not right here to validate a person’s bruised ego. As a substitute, she’s a dynamic, three-dimensional particular person together with her personal desires and desires, and her being brazenly homosexual (or a minimum of non-straight) in 1980s America most likely makes her braver than any of the monster hunters round her.

All of Robin’s take-no-prisoners vitality and her sardonic smirk within the face of hazard is in debt to Hawke’s spectacular, endlessly watchable efficiency. The daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, Hawke’s the spitting picture of her mom, with a twinkle in her eye and wit to spare.

This isn’t her first performing job, both. Hawke debuted in 2017’s Little Ladies miniseries, although her flip as Robin will simply be seen as her true breakout position (as is, probably, her half in Quentin Tarantino’s forthcoming As soon as Upon a Time in… Hollywood).

Stranger Issues Three (Netflix)

Generally, it’s laborious to quantify the true mark of a future star — to place into phrases that X issue that may’t be described — nevertheless it’s not possible to disregard. Whether or not it’s genetics, expertise, or some fortunate mixture of each, Hawke has the makings of real greatness. No matter ‘it’ is, she has ‘it’, and we are able to solely hope that Stranger Issues is simply the beginning of her much-deserved rise to prominence.

As for Robin, let’s hope she stays in Hawkins.

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