Just like all the other characters go through Strange things In Season 3, Eleven makes discoveries as she grows up and moves away from the child she was in previous seasons. In this season, she and Mike have their first fight. She gets a new friend, Max, and she discovers his fashion style and explores different aspects of her superpower. Eleven/El also temporarily adopts a bad girl persona by using her power to spy on her boyfriend. Children go through changes in their lives. Even the most mature ones have to deal with aspects of growing up.
Unfortunately, kids growing up aren’t always fun for adults. Hopper, in particular, doesn’t much care for the kissing and laughing between El and Mike. After getting frustrated with the situation, Hopper finds Joyce and takes her advice to write down everything he wants to say in order to have a conversation about the situation. Of course, the speech never makes it to the kids, as heart-to-heart conversations aren’t exactly Hopper’s style. What’s in the letter, however, isn’t revealed until the very end of the season.. Eleven discovers the letter after losing Hopper, and the scene where she reads what’s in it is absolutely heartbreaking.
Eleven reads Hopper’s letter in Stranger Things season 3 finale
Hopper’s letter scene takes place at the end of Stranger Things Season 3 finale. The police chief had originally planned to give El and Mike a speech about closing doors and kissing in the house. However, like many fathers, Hopper isn’t really one to talk about his feelings. He had a whole speech prepared but never delivered it. Instead, he did the easy thing: he scared Mike out of going out with El. It worked, and the show doesn’t revisit the letter until the very end of the season.
Hopper and Joyce enter the Russian station to close the gate to the Upside Down. While fighting a villain, Hopper gets a little too close to the machine. With time running out and children still to save, Joyce has no choice but to shut down the machine while Hopper is still nearby. Hopper briefly gives Joyce one last nod before the machine explodes, taking everyone with it. Much like Billy, who sacrifices himself in the battle against the Mind Flayer, Hopper does what a hero does.even if it means he won’t be able to return to those he loves. Hopper doesn’t return home at the end of Season 3. All the love and care he has for El is buried in his heartbut the good news is that Joyce made him write it all down. If Hopper didn’t survive, his letter did, and in this one, El gets to know him in a whole new way, but Hopper is already gone.
What did Hopper say in his letter?
The letter begins with a speech to Mike and El about boundaries and respect. He adheres to the guidelines Joyce gave him: to tell the children that he cares about them and hopes to work together to create a comfortable environment for all parties involved. Hopper also talks about his feelings and his inability to come out of his shell until he had Eleven in his life. It was Eleven who made him feel things again. He wrote:
Feelings. Jesus. The truth is, I forgot what that was for so long. I was stuck in one place… And then I left some Eggos in the woods, and you came into my life. For the first time in a long time, I started feeling things again. I started feeling happy. But lately, I think I’ve been feeling distant from you.
Hopper’s letter then becomes a real heart-to-heart. He admits that he’s having a hard time accepting the fact that Eleven is growing up. She now has her own life and doesn’t depend on him as much as she used to. The truth is that Hopper is having a hard time adjusting to change. For the first time, the Hawkins police chief shows his most vulnerable side. He expresses his fear of the change that comes with El’s growth. As a parent, like any other parent, Hopper has the same selfish wish that El always stays small, even though he knows he cannot stop the change from happening.
In this letter, Hopper expresses his feelings. He admits that his attempt to stop Mike from dating El did not come from a feeling of disapproval but from his own fear. He tries to stop El from growing up even though he is happy for her. The letter is moving and very relatable because it simply tells the truth about what a parent feels. Hopper faces his fear in the letter, and in the end, he is able to speak his mind about what he truly wants for El.:He wants her to live her life to the fullest, to make mistakes and learn from them. He doesn’t want his own selfish feelings to get in the way of El living her life—that’s the selflessness of a parent.
Millie Bobby Brown’s performance is authentic
Millie Bobby Brown didn’t read the letter before filming the sceneShe had no idea what Hopper had written or what he intended to say. On the other hand, David Harbour’s speech was pre-recorded. They played the recording on set while Millie Bobby Brown read the letter for the first time. El’s reaction to Hopper’s letter was genuine. It was also how Brown responded to the letter on a personal level.
The scene begins with El unfolding the letter, intrigued to know what it is about. She didn’t expect it to be something with such an emotional impact, as Hopper is not a person who likes to express his feelings. However, as she begins to read the words, her face becomes serious. The camera cuts to friends saying goodbye as Joyce and her family leave Hawkins with Hopper reading his letter in voiceover. El cries in the car, dealing with the inevitable change in her life. Not only has Hopper been taken from her life, but she is going somewhere far away from Mike and Max, who she has become good friends with. The camera cuts back to El sobbing, heartbroken, as she reads the letter.. Just like the viewers, Millie Bobby Brown didn’t expect the letter to hit her so hard. She ended up being really moved by it.
“They had David pre-recorded and they played him out loud,” the actor recalled while filming the final scene of Season 3 in an interview with Weekly EntertainmentBrown rejected the idea of rehearsing the scene. Instead, she wanted to capture the impact it had on her at the time it was happening. She said:
I didn’t want to read that speech. I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to repeat it. I just wanted to immediately put a camera on me and see how I reacted. And the way I reacted was pure devastation and sadness, and that of a distraught child who has just lost her father, or at least that’s what she thinks.
In the scene, El has lost Hopper, knowing that he sacrificed himself. The letter was the only thing she had of him. It’s a speech she didn’t know existed, and a heart-to-heart moment she knows will never happen. Just as Brown said, the scene is about the intense, devastated, helpless sadness of a child, and Brown felt everything as he revealed what Hopper had meant.She said:
So it was really raw emotion, especially because David Harbour and I are very close. He’s just one of the most amazing men. I think what I admire about David is that he has such great respect for girls and women. It was so… I was so disgusted and I was like, “Oh my God, this is horrible.” So the emotions were running high in that scene, for sure.
Brown channeled the immense sadness she felt at that moment into her character. El’s reaction after reading Hopper’s letter is heartbreaking and palpable.making this scene one of the saddest moments of Stranger things. And the fact that it’s not really a performance makes it even more heartbreaking. Strange things Fans who watched Season 4 know what really happened to Hopper after the machine exploded. However, the season also ends with Eleven losing her power. She must now lead a life so different from the one she lived with Hopper.