#also the duffer brothers lieeeeeed

[share-the-damn-bed]

Maybe Joyce put off The Talk bc she knows that Jonathan won't be going anywhere until Vecna is dealt with, so she waits until the end of the season to be like "hey I sent in an NYU application for you & you got accepted & you're going."

I was never a huge fan of the whole "Joyce submitted an application for Jonathan" theory (just felt too after-school-special and not at all realistic) but adding in the time jump just makes that even less plausible. I'm fairly certain college acceptance letters are only good for the singular application cycle so even if Joyce did apply for him and he got in for fall 1986, I doubt that would be good for anytime after and including fall 1987.

Maybe Joyce doesn't realize the extent of it all yet. Who knows if Nancy left for Emerson either (I seriously can't see her leaving when she knows things can get bad again at any moment... especially knowing what Vecna showed her!) Maybe because of this, the college stuff didn't come up again but it will (for some reason) in season 5 which opens up the opportunity for not only Jonathan and Nancy to resolve this conflict, but for Joyce and Jonathan to have their much needed discussion. But like... did Jonathan seriously hide this for 2 years from Nancy? That's a lot and has me worried about their relationship. Maybe it's better if they do start the season broken up...

So much of season 5 seems wild to me now... if the time jump suggestions are correct and season 5 DOES take place fall/winter 1987, this will be the largest time jump in the history of the show (season 2 is the second longest jump and that was only 11 months)... it would be about 19 or 20 months of a jump. Jonathan and Nancy will be 20 and Steve will be 21.

Like I don't know how to wrap my head around this. It's wild!