Stranger Things Fans Notice Season 1 Jonathan Scene Edited to Seem 'Less Creepy'

Stranger Things fans have noticed a revision to an early scene that paints one character's creepy behavior in a better light.

In the second episode of Stranger Things, titled "The Weirdo on Maple Street," Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) is shown hiding in a wooded area and spying on his crush Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) while she parties with  Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and friends. At one point, Nancy and Steve go inside and are later seen in a bedroom window. Jonathan snaps photos of Nancy through the window, then pauses for a moment before continuing to take photos as Nancy is seen taking her shirt off.

However, it seems the Duffer brothers have edited the scene. In the updated version, which is now streaming on Netflix, Jonathan no longer takes photos of Nancy in that position. Instead, he turns to Barb Holland (Shannon Purser).

To confirm the change, fans re-watched physical DVD sets of Season 1 and found that Jonathan's peeping-Tom moment is still included.

Some viewers are upset about Jonathan's revisionist history, with many taking to Twitter to voice their frustrations.

Apparently the Duffer Brothers have edited parts of season 1 of Stranger Things to make Jonathan taking photos seem *slightly* less creepy and to make Steve seem worse, changing their own narrative for new viewers. Do we see the problem with things exclusively being on streaming?

— Katy 🌻 (@katy_dara) July 22, 2022

I absolutely furious. They re edited ep 2 of stranger things so it looks like Jonathan doesn’t take the photos of Nancy and Steve. I… I hate you differ brothers I really do I

— 🧚🏻🌸 Casey 🌸🧚🏻 (@caseydoingart) July 22, 2022

Y’all telling me i gotta rewatch Stranger Things because things were edited differently? Nah bro Johnathon was weird for that and the Suffer Brothers took too long - I will not retraumatize myself thank you very much #StrangerThings4Vol2

— frankiie.mercury (@glamrockfrankie) July 22, 2022

the duffers really weren’t kidding about going back and changing shit in stranger things the way they fully edited jonathan’s peeping tom moment to make it not as bad 😭😭😭

— ella (@jocyspacey) July 20, 2022

This isn't the first time creators Matt and Ross Duffer have edited an old episode. The duo recently told Variety that they're not above "George Lucas-ing" past episodes, specifically citing a continuity error with Will Byers' (Noah Schnapp) birthday that they went back and fixed.

In the instance of Jonathan's scene, the change seems to be not about continuity, but about editing his early story to make his character more sympathetic.

Stranger Things is currently streaming on Netflix.

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Deena ElGenaidi's writing has been featured in Nylon, MTV News, Insider, The AV Club, and more. You can follow her on Twitter @deenaelg.