Millie Bobby Brown Reflects on Eleven’s Bittersweet Stranger Things Farewell
Millie Bobby Brown shares her thoughts on Eleven’s fate in Stranger Things, calling the ending both beautiful and cathartic, while also revealing her fondness for Mike’s alternative version.
Plenty of punters were left a bit flat after the much-hyped Stranger Things season 5 finale, but Millie Bobby Brown, who plays Eleven, seems pretty chuffed with how things wrapped up for her character. In the thick of the final episode, Eleven makes the call to remain inside the gate just as Hopper’s bomb goes off, wiping out the Upside Down and everything in it—including herself. Brown described Eleven’s decision as
“so beautiful and cathartic”
and admitted it was something she’d hoped for
“for a very long time.”
Eleven’s sacrifice means Dr. Kay or anyone else can’t use her powers for dodgy purposes again, shutting the door on any future gate mishaps.
“I just think it’s incredibly important that it all ends for her, and the suffering and the pain end,”
Brown explained.
Mike’s Take: A Different Ending
But the story doesn’t stop there. In the epilogue, Mike Wheeler, Eleven’s boyfriend, isn’t buying the official line that she’s gone for good. Instead, he spins a yarn for his mates, claiming Kali projected an image of Eleven at the gate while the real deal slipped away behind the soldiers. In Mike’s daydreams, Eleven is alive and well, living off the grid in Iceland and checking out the waterfalls they’d chatted about earlier. Brown admitted,
“I kinda love that ending, that there is just such a bigger purpose to Kali’s powers.”
Ambiguity and Theories
So, what’s the real story? Is Eleven actually gone? The Duffer brothers, the brains behind the series, have said on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast that they left her fate
“ambiguous”
so viewers can make up their own minds, adding that only they and Brown know the truth. Meanwhile, Sadie Sink, who stars alongside Brown, reckons Eleven really is finished. She told Jimmy Fallon,
“I think she’s dead… I think, like, Mike’s story is just one last story.”
Where to Watch and What’s Next
The full Stranger Things series is up for streaming now, and there’s plenty of chat about the finale for those keen to dive deeper. For anyone after more telly recommendations, there’s a heap of guides to the best shows and what’s new on the box.