By season four of Stranger Things, Jonathan Byers is a certified hero who lends a compassionate ear to his younger brother while he’s struggling with his sexuality. But in the early episodes of the Netflix series, he was a certified stalker creep. In season one, episode two, “The Weirdo on Maple Street” (a.k.a. the one with Barb), he takes picture of the object of his affection, Nancy Byers, while she’s in the pool with her friends — and again when she’s changing in her bedroom, including when she’s in her bra.
You wouldn’t know it from watching the episode in 2022, however.
Insider reports that “in the original cut of the episode, Jonathan lowered his camera for a moment, clearly understanding that he would be violating her privacy even more if he documented this intimate moment.” But in the current cut of “The Weirdo on Maple Street,” the weirdo (Jonathan) doesn’t take any photos of Nancy while her shirt is off.
Some fans have said he raised the camera once more, and claim they saw him deliberately take more pictures of Nancy while she was in this vulnerable position. Instead, he raises his camera and the edit makes it look like he chose to photograph Barb (fully clothed and sitting by the pool) instead.
The “George Lucas’d” scene did not go unnoticed by TikTok.
https://www.tiktok.com/@joshy.bassetts/video/7122885920428330286?_t=8UBFZL04fCU&_r=1
“The Duffer Brothers taking scenes out of s1 to try to make Jonathan look like less of a perv,” it reads.
The creators have not commented on the alleged edit, but Argyle thinks Jonathan being a creep is “not chill.”
(Via Insider)
