The Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) viewers meet in Stranger Things Season 5 doesn't feel like the same Dustin we've known since Season 1.
Gone is Hawkins' resident ball of sunshine, replaced with a sulking, angry young man who would sooner graffiti a bully's locker than belt "Never Ending Story" over walkie-talkie. Yet this transformation didn't come out of nowhere. Instead, it stems from a clear point of trauma for Dustin: witnessing the tragic death of Eddie (Joseph Quinn) at the end of Season 4.
Since then, Dustin has channeled his inner Eddie, growing out his hair, donning handfuls of rings, and rocking his Hellfire Club shirt no matter how much abuse it gets him from bullies. But while Dustin pays tribute to Eddie, he's been pushing away his other close friends, especially Steve (Joe Keery).
"He's actively trying to cut himself off from the person he's scared of losing the most," Matarazzo told Mashable during a Say More interview.
Dustin's grief causes serious tension in Stranger Things Season 5.
Matarazzo knew the strained dynamic between Dustin and Steve would be polarizing, as the two had been basically inseparable since Season 2. He also knew the same would be true of Dustin's emotional arc as a whole.
"I was kind of hoping there would be a bit of a conflicted feeling around it," Matarazzo said. "I didn't want it to come across as like, 'Oh, poor him.' Because as much as that's true, and I think a lot of people can clearly see he's going through a lot, he's also being a dick. And I think, no matter how much one is grieving, it doesn't excuse your behavior towards other people, especially those who are in your corner, people who are there supporting you."
That tug-of-war between sympathy for and frustration at Dustin runs through much of Season 5, starting with Dustin missing episode's 1 crawl to the Upside Down after picking a fight with his tormentors. His absence jeopardizes the mission and further strains his relationship with his friends, many of whom have experienced their own losses since Season 1.
He's going through a lot. He's also being a dick.
"Dustin's in a position where there's — it seems horrible to say — but there's almost bigger fish to fry than you losing your friend," Matarazzo said. "Everyone's lost people. Maybe it's the first time it felt so present to Dustin, because it's somebody so close to him, and it happens right in front of him."
Matarazzo contrasts Dustin's own grieving over Eddie with Lucas' (Caleb McLaughlin) grieving over Max (Sadie Sink) being in a coma for over a year.
"Lucas is clearly dealing with something very similar to Dustin, but also seems to be taking it in a route that's less selfish," he said, pointing to Lucas' continued involvement in the Season 5 crawl and the friend group overall.
The differences in the two characters' grieving processes on screen highlights that there's no one way to deal with loss. Grief is not linear, and Dustin's own journey comes with no shortage of mess and tension. That's especially true of his relationship with Steve, which hits its lowest point in Season 5.
Dustin and Steve's more contentious relationship this season altered the way Matarazzo and Keery approached key scenes together, as the pair's friendlier, more fun dynamic as scene partners clashed with Dustin and Steve's conflict.
"Sometimes we'd be goofing off before takes and especially early on, they would yell, 'action,' and I'm like, 'Oh, I'm not centered in the slightest,' because I'm still just joking around with him," Matarazzo said. "That was a different approach. And so we would look at things and look at each other and be like, 'Man, this is really sad,' because we just want to have fun sometimes. That's the natural drive there."
That's not to say there are no fun Dustin and Steve moments in Season 5. Matarazzo points to the scene in episode 4 when Steve drives his car through a rift into the Upside Down, with a terrified Dustin, Nancy (Natalia Dyer), and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) hanging on for dear life.
"[In that scene] there's the normal excitement of us screaming and yelling and insulting each other, but with playful banter, and I think it's one of those moments where in [Dustin's] weird, little pent-up rage, when all is said and done and when everything else goes crazy around him, he doesn't really have time to actively try to be mean to [Steve]," Matarazzo said.
Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 2 centers Dustin and Steve's relationship.
The Dustin and Steve drama comes to a head in Season 5, Volume 2, when the pair investigate Hawkins Lab in the Upside Down. There, the two fully have it out about Eddie's death, with their cutting words culminating in a physical altercation. In prior seasons, Matarazzo would have put a lot of pressure on himself the entire day leading up to shooting that scene.
"But that day, I remember I felt very normal until about 20 minutes before we started shooting," he recalled. "Sometimes I just wander around in a corner with headphones on, not really to build up any emotions or anything like that, but to just weirdly get the head fog out of it and just be at a neutral place, because then you can be open to discovering what happens. There are a lot of different takes. There are takes where we're crying before the fight, there are takes where we're even angrier, and there's takes where's it just at a neutral tone, where we're just saying these things to each other and then seeing how naturally it digs in, and they took a lot from each of them."
However, one scene that Matarazzo did put pressure on himself for was Dustin and Steve's eventual reconciliation, which led to a hug so deep I felt it in my bones.
"I was so scared of it the whole time," Matarazzo said. "I remember the whole season, I read it at the table read, and I was like, 'Oh great, it's one of those.'"
Much of Season 5 was shot chronologically, too, so Matarazzo and Keery came into the scene having already gone through much of the emotional build-up. That just makes the conversation all the more cathartic, as Stranger Things' fan-favorite duo finally lay all their emotions bare.
"I think one of the healthiest things to do in grief is unpacking it when you feel the need to do so and diving in and feeling everything that you possible can feel and that you're naturally inclined to feeling," Matarazzo said.
The reconciliation scene is that to a T, with Steve and especially Dustin dropping any facades and just allowing themselves to be open about how much they mean to one another. It's a stand-out Stranger Things moment in a season full of them, made all the sweeter by the complex twists and turns Steve and Dustin took to get there.
For more from Mashable's interview with Gaten Matarazzo, watch the full Say More episode on YouTube.
Volumes 1 and 2 of Stranger Things Season 5 are now streaming on Netflix. The series finale premieres Dec. 31 at 8 p.m. ET on Netflix and in theaters.
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