Warning: This story contains spoilers from Stranger Things Season 4, Volumes 1 and 2.

“We are choking for quite a while, aren’t we? It’s a pretty, well, painful experience, I would imagine,” Stranger Things star Natalia Dyer says over the phone to Tudum with a chuckle, harkening back to one of the most harrowing moments from the Season 4 finale. The episode finds Dyer’s Nancy Wheeler conducting an expedition to kill Vecna — the interdimensional villain (played by Jamie Campbell Bower) behind the constant horror plaguing the formerly sleepy town of Hawkins — in the Upside Down. Just when Nancy, Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) think they’re on the cusp of completing their deadly mission, Vecna slams the trio into the decaying walls of the Creel House. 

“When you start to do things that big, you do catch yourself, like, ‘Wow, this is my job,’” Dyer says with an air of astonishment. Still, Nancy doesn’t give up. Despite the evil vine setback, she and her friends still manage to injure Vecna, stuffing him with a couple of rounds of buckshot and setting him on fire. Nancy’s the one leading the charge. “I’m not a big gun person, but I think what that scene represents for Nancy is just how [far] she’s come from Season 1, and now she’s so incredibly brave and take-charge,” Dyer says. “It’s such a transformation and such an arc that she’s had.”

The arc is poised to continue in Stranger Things Season 5 in a big way. Season 4 ends with Nancy, along with many of the series’ other heroes, realizing that the Upside Down has started to infect their reality at home in Hawkins. Nancy is rightly alarmed, particularly after witnessing Vecna’s master plan during a battle of wills in the Upside Down. Dyer tells Tudum that Nancy’s ready for what’s next — and, yes, she knows you have questions about that Steve-Nancy-Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) love triangle.   I feel like most of the Stranger Things women have ’80s pop cultural touchstones this season. Were there any specific actors, movies or TV shows that inspired Nancy’s look this season? I do think Sigourney Weaver. Alien was thrown around a bit. At this point, I’ve gone through so many years of the ’80s that there’s little bits and pieces of everything. But then you throw in some military gear on top of that. So, yeah, I think Sigourney is definitely one of the references the Duffers kept throwing at Nancy.

So much happens in Volume 2. What was it like filming those huge moments? The last two episodes ramped up a lot, in that everything we were doing was big — just the set or the scale of things was bigger. There were lots of nights for us. Does Nancy even see daylight after you all load up on weapons in Episode 8? Right? That’s a good question. Not till the end of the finale. It was a lot of nights, which can be fun if you’ve got a good group like we did.

You all have been working together for a very, very long time. How does that deepen the work after four seasons?  It’s a lot. What’s been so nice about working on the show in general is that, for actors, it has felt a bit like a playground, training and exploring and trying new things. It’s lovely to be with people that you get to know, and come back to and trust and can explore with as an actor, because it’s kind of a tough thing to hone in on, on your own, in a way.

You can feel all of that time in Volume 2, between Steve’s two big speeches to Nancy. These are people with history.  Joe Keery is such a lovely person in real life and a very fun and generous actor. We had some stuff in Season 2, but Nancy and Steve really haven’t been interacting as much since Season 1. Both Joe and I would agree that it was really nice to see these characters reconvene. They’ve both grown quite a bit. Especially Steve. He’s had quite a transformation, a turn, and to see these two people come together and still recognize that they really do care a lot about each other is great.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a romantic thing. But the fact that there is a bond and they do care about each other, it was just really lovely to get to explore that. Seeing as there’s one season left, there was also a touch of, “Oh my gosh.” They’ve both gotten to go back to where they’ve been, and here they are now.

Watch Nancy and Jonathan Insist Everything’s Perfect in Stranger Things Season 4

Since watching Season 4, a lot of people are Team Steve after a very solid run of Team Jonathan sentiment. Where do you land on the ships? Or does Nancy have bigger fish to fry with reality starting to collapse? There’s a lot of things going on, and I don’t know if that sort of high school romance thing is as important as everything else. These are people, again, who all really care about each other and have a shared experience. But, yeah, I think there are things about both Steve and Jonathan that Nancy really likes. I noticed that there’s a lot of RoNance shipping as well. I love Nancy having a girlfriend. It’s nice.

It’s impossible for viewers not to notice how good a duo Robin and Nancy — aka RoNance — are.  Right? I don’t know if the Duffers thought that as much or anything. We actually have a text thread that talks [about that] a bit. We send each other memes of things regarding that ship, which is funny.

Is the thread just you and Maya, or is it all four of you, including Charlie and Joe?  All four. I think we all thought, “Oh, people would enjoy this duo.” The internet is a very funny place, so there’s a lot of very interesting takes on things going on.

Astrology is another big internet meme topic. Do you have any ideas about Nancy’s chart?  I’m a Capricorn, so I can definitely see that in her a bit. There’s a Libra justice thing too in her — maybe an Aquarian curiosity? I initially tagged her as an Aquarius, partially because in Season 1, she was wearing this amethyst ring. I was like, “Oh, born in February, OK.” But it doesn’t really come up, when her birthday is, so it’s a bit up in the air.

Nancy has changed so much since wearing that ring back in Season 1. At this point, she’s stopping the end of the world. So how has it been to really dig into her as this fearless leader? She’s always had a really strong intuition and is very in touch with her gut feelings. She’s not only intelligent — like, book smart — she really can piece things together. She’s just progressively learned how to follow that voice and that instinct. That really instilled confidence in her and made her grow up. That has forced her to be brave and show herself that she can do things that maybe she didn’t know that she could before.

Whenever you get out of your comfort zone, you prove to yourself that you’re bigger and braver than you ever thought you were. That’s been a lot of her journey: just proving to herself over and over again how strong she is.

Nancy is at the very cusp of what feels like the apocalypse. She’s one of the first people to see it. So what’s going through her mind in the last moments of the finale? Her experience with Vecna rocks her very deeply. But for better or worse, the way that Nancy deals with difficult emotions is to do something about it. Those emotions really fuel her. I’m sure there’s some denial in there and certain compartmentalizing, but I think for her, it’s like, “No way. I’m going to do everything I can before I accept that that is what’s going to be.”

Tina Rowden/Netflix

Season 5 will be the last season. Is there anything you’re excited to explore that you’ve already built with Nancy or that you want to see before Stranger Things ends?  I was saying this to the Duffers: In an ideal world, I want a scene with every single person in the cast because one of the most fun things about this show is getting to see the different dynamics, falling in love with all of these characters and then getting to see how they interact together and how they’ve grown. We get to do that very often due to the way that the Duffers write. Now that it’s the last season, I’m like, “Oh, there’s so much closure to get.” 

I have no doubt the bigger, scarier, action-y plot will be very much there. That’s almost guaranteed. But I really am looking forward to hopefully having some of those nice character moments of these people connecting and showing that they care about each other. That’s the heart of what we like to do. I believe that’s part of the appeal of the show — the heart.

When you say that, it’s hard not to wonder — will Mike and Nancy finally have to explain what’s going on to their parents? I really would love a good Wheeler scene. I really would love to have a Nancy and Mike scene — and Karen. What is she doing? She’s got to find out. The parents! Come on. They’ve got to get in there, for sure. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.