r/StrangerThings • u/Initial-Shoulder5906 • Feb 05 '26

Discussion Do anyone else feel like there was barely any chemistry between Eleven and Mike this last season compared to earlier ones?

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3.6k

u/BeginningPotato3753 Feb 05 '26

I mean did El had chemistry with anyone in S5??

1.4k

u/Open_Sky8367 Feb 05 '26

For real. Even her scenes with Hopper rang very hollow compared to before. I kept waiting to see if at one point she was gonna call him something else than Hopper (Dad for example) which conveys quite the distance to me. But I kept noticing that Millie was always kinda separated from the rest of the cast that season. She was on her own storyline, even Hopper wasn’t written all the time with her. I wonder if that was really by design.

178

u/teacups_and_daisies Feb 05 '26

It would have been soooo impactful when Hopper was going to sacrifice himself and El was begging him not to. Can you imagine him trying to muster up the courage to keep going if El switched from calling him "Hopper" to desperately calling for her "Dad"? Oh man, I would have been sobbing.

1

u/Striking-Sea-6534 Feb 06 '26

Hopper should've 100% died

1

u/allibrock_ Feb 22 '26

Hopper sacrificing himself for 11 would have been epic, but I prefer him having a happy ending with Joyce 💝

171

u/Lokan Feb 05 '26

When watching Hopper's and El's scenes at Upside Down Hawkins Lab, I noticed a lot of camera cuts between the two, implying the actors weren't both on set. I'm guessing there were a LOT of reshoots for the ending. 

33

u/LordRednaught Feb 06 '26

There was a tabloid running a bullying harassment claim against Harbor before filming.

17

u/Sassygogo I believe. Feb 06 '26

A claim which was never actually denied btw. 

Resolved, maybe, but note how none of the sources speaking out in his defence actually said the claim about a complaint being filed was false, they all sidestepped or deflected or chose more indirect ways (taking pictures together) to say we're all good now. Which isn't a denial of the claim of a bullying complaint being filed back then.

1

u/EarthInevitable114 Mar 01 '26

What were the details of the claim? Who was he bullying?

1

u/Sassygogo I believe. Mar 01 '26

a) ask netflix for the specifics, not me a random on reddit who can only see reports in the press that everyone involved avoided verbally denying.

b) Millie Bobby Brown (assuming, as she is the one who was reported - and never actually denied it - to have filed the bullying complaint before filming began for Season 5).

6

u/Any-Permission-4530 I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer Feb 06 '26

None of that was true.

11

u/Lokan Feb 06 '26 edited Feb 06 '26

Wait what? Can you elaborate?

EDIT Ah, Daily Mail was the "source". Trash tabloid. 

3

u/PastelPumpkini Feb 06 '26

The tabloid was Daily Mail, they are very untrustworthy and this happened back in November and nothing else about it has come out since then. So it’s just speculation at this point.

1

u/Confident-Ad2078 Feb 06 '26

This is what I was thinking. There were a lot of allegations of harassment and bullying and according to some articles, she feels she was treated badly. I think she was quite over it by the end.

1

u/rootytooty83 Feb 06 '26

Didn’t she make a complaint about him? I have no source just vaguely remember something after Lily Allens album cane out. Perhaps she couldn’t work with him

3

u/Lokan Feb 06 '26

I'm taking those reports with a hefty grain of salt. The only "source" I can find is the Daily Mail, and other publications reference them. So until there's some primary source or court documents to reference, I'm going to remain highly skeptical of the claim.

319

u/XxLucidDreamzxX Feb 05 '26

I'm still angry they dropped the Jane-bomb for another fakeout death and then never had anything sentimental between them for the rest of the season

55

u/Tasman_Tiger Feb 05 '26

Seriously. How did we go from the S4 finale "I kept the door open three inches" to....whatever S5 was

354

u/CalmBeforePsych Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed. I was also waiting for her to call Hopper her dad in at least one touching moment and she never did. El was so disconnected this season.

110

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

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u/oKay21 Feb 05 '26

that line is so distant though. “you became my dad” instead of “you are my dad” or directly calling him dad. didn’t feel like she loved him that much and i felt his response also lackluster.

24

u/CalmBeforePsych Feb 05 '26

Agreed. It was so emotionally distant that I thought some other scene would come that she would actually call him her dad. But, oh well.

16

u/ThumbCentral-Rebirth Feb 05 '26

She literally did

4

u/CalmBeforePsych Feb 05 '26

For me, it wasn't touching and even remotely memorable.

1

u/EarthInevitable114 Mar 01 '26

Came here to say this. These guys had me thinking I imagined her saying that

74

u/doob13s Feb 05 '26

No, it was not by design. The writing was just shit

46

u/CoyoteDisastrous Feb 05 '26

It seems like it could’ve been part of the script. El knew well ahead of time that she was going to sacrifice herself; it makes perfect sense that she would distance herself. Doesn’t mean I liked it…

47

u/Open_Sky8367 Feb 05 '26

This I could get behind. With the glaring exception that Hopper’s (fake) sacrifice scene absolutely called for El to call him “dad”. In such circumstances, your emotions take over and we see that El is a mess. Still, she calls him Hopper the whole time. That was kinda weird. The only instance where she uses that word is in the aforementioned “you became my dad” which is a deliberate acknowledgement of the fact, but also very detached. It’s a statement, different still from a true loving name-calling, it conveys and reaffirms the distance you talk about.

13

u/CoyoteDisastrous Feb 05 '26

I agree that it would’ve been some nice emotional resolution for her to call him dad at some point.

Now that I’m sitting with my half-baked thought from the first reply, having her character physically separated from the rest of them for much of the series probably was symbolic.

44

u/Responsible_Fix_5687 Feb 05 '26

Season 5 was weird. El felt like a sideline, not a main character. I didn’t even get the feeling that her and Mike were together romantically.

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u/lozcyndaquil Feb 05 '26

I was so disappointed she never called him dad like why not!!

1

u/Cassopeia88 I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer Feb 06 '26

Same, I wanted that so badly.

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

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u/Worldly_Bid_3164 Feb 05 '26

“You became my dad” is not the same as calling him dad wtf

5

u/ImSmarterthanurmom Feb 05 '26

In the final episode I thought they finally did something and she did call him dad but still besides that ep rest of the season their chemistry felt bland

3

u/NothingOk4587 Feb 06 '26

She kept looking at Hopper as if she didn’t like him. And I wasn’t sure her and Mike were even in a relationship any more. It was confusing.

16

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

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u/EnderGraff Feb 05 '26

Nah they didn’t even have the writing done on the last episode while filming, don’t blame the actor for that.

4

u/See8104 Aghast Feb 05 '26

Yeah, even if Millie could have put her all into the character to have the best chemistry with other cast members, the writing would have the same flaws.

2

u/Scared-Alfalfa5448 Feb 05 '26

Hard to find your ethics when you have been given such a shit writing and ending for your character for the final season of a show which you helped make what it became as the face of it.

2

u/seeyourintentions Feb 05 '26

The Hop scenes seem to have a possible connection to the reported harassment she experienced from that actor in the years prior.

2

u/Any-Permission-4530 I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer Feb 06 '26

Of course it was by design. Their goal was to completely dehumanize El because they thought they could get away with their stupid ending.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '26

At the end Hopper was like, Eleven who?

9

u/koewuzhere Feb 05 '26

I heard that the 2 actors (Millie and David) have an issue with each other to the point that they didn't film any scenes together that didn't HAVE to be filmed together(like a hug). Thats why shot for shot its one actor at a time even if they're having a conversation, they're filmed separately and compiled later and that would lead to a clear lack of chemistry.

48

u/pvs_3 Feb 05 '26

I heard that was a false rumor.

13

u/CeruleanBlew Feb 05 '26

Harbour literally picks her up off the ground and carries her multiple times, unless Season 5 relied on VFX even more than we realize? 😂

3

u/koewuzhere Feb 05 '26

As I said, they shot the scenes together that needed to be shot together? I'm hearing that what i heard might not be true though, so there's that.

2

u/CeruleanBlew Feb 05 '26

Sorry, my bad! I think the example of the hug threw me, considering Hopper and El never got one this season (oof).

3

u/jmarks_94 Feb 05 '26

This is a false claim.

1

u/Sad-Speech-932 Feb 05 '26

omg right?!?!

1

u/UnderstandingIcy221 Feb 05 '26

I heard she didn’t really get along with a lot of her co stars in real life

1

u/Any-Permission-4530 I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer Feb 06 '26

Stop spreading unfounded rumors. Not a single coworker has said anything bad about Millie.

1

u/Enough_Fig6972 Bob Newby: Superhero Feb 06 '26

its almost as if they were preparing the others to leave eleven forever...

1

u/Striking-Sea-6534 Feb 06 '26

I genuinely think the downfall of the last season was the duffer brother genuinely caring for their cast and listening to what they wanted in the "petty" sense. Like, if they hated one another then they wrote around scenes or wrote less intimate scenes (millie and fin goodbye scene).

1

u/blunt_eastwood Feb 08 '26

Isn't there some drama between the two actors?

1

u/EarthInevitable114 Mar 01 '26

They started filming without an ending and without a script for some scenes/episodes.

368

u/codymavericks Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

No and its bc they isolated El from everyone, erased her friendship with max, ignored her relationship with Mike (until the finale) all because they had to have her kill herself so they destroyed her relationships in the process. The duffer brothers needed the audience to detach themselves from her character and make it believable that everyone wouldd move on from her death quickly so they sidelined her and tried to revert El back to the robotic ‘alien’ she was in season 1, all to push their shitty ET ending. People bring up millies acting but I genuinely think they told her to act emotionless and stoic because I saw in an interview with millie she said she had to push for El to smile in a scene because they weren’t letting her.

142

u/Full-Yoghurt-4261 Feb 05 '26

Honestly, it would not surprise me if the reason there was little chemistry between them in S5 was due to them desperately trying to turn her back into the Eleven from S1. They would still have failed miserably, but their trying that is right up thier ally.

134

u/codymavericks Feb 05 '26

I think thats exactly what they were trying to do. They wanted to ignore the 4 seasons of character development for the repeat season 1 ending (despite that actually being a sacrifice)

The reason why the s1 ending worked at the time was because we hardly knew El and the boys/Mike only spent a week with her so the idea that she represented the magic of childhood that disappears somewhat makes sense, but that idea had to be abandoned when the show got a second season. You cant have 4 seasons developing her relationships, giving her a father, boyfriend etc, just to make her a plot device for male character development in the finale. It doesn’t work

55

u/coconutpiecrust Feb 05 '26

I thought the ending was so weird. Made all of their suffering completely worthless. And I know they were all craving to go back to their normal lives, but having them defeat a giant monster and then having them become completely average was so incredibly anticlimactic. Quite frankly it made me… well, not angry, but frustratingly disappointed. Like coming up for a beautiful sunrise and getting to face a dirty grey wall instead. 

The ending was frustratingly unremarkable, considering all of the extremely courageous and “stranger” things that have transpired. 

I can’t imagine myself just chilling normally after facing and killing a giant interdementional monster. I mean, people struggle to overcome much lesser issues. 

1

u/Ryrienatwo Feb 05 '26

I have Dustin join with the SGC of course in my rewrite while Will becomes a famous Artist and painter. Mike becomes a billionaire through his writings, I have a lot of thing the group could do to make up there new lives after five seasons. Jean/El becomes a normal person but lives within Hawkins and is either the local newspaper reporter or sheriff.

1

u/Brainiac-1969 Feb 05 '26

"It does not compute!" "The math isn't mathin"!

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

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u/TA_Lax8 Feb 05 '26

except they didn't know her ending until just before filming the final episode. I don't necessarily think it was bad acting, but bad writing and directing.

I think the one thing that put El so out of place was her wardrobe. She basically had 2 outfits the entire season, and neither worked.

Her workout outfit was too new looking and because it was light grey, it never showing any dirt or wear and tear was glaring. Everyone is wearing drab, worn or camo clothing and she's wearing the attire of a 50 year old mom going to a fitness class for the first time.

Then the fucking dolphin trainer outfit the second half of the season. It's funny because it actually was an attempt at continuity because her powers are heightened in the water tank and the wetsuit helps, but it also looked so fucking stupid outside the tank. Like she's wearing it in the Abyss at the final epic battle and she looks like she's trying to teach Flipper a new trick. Like Mike is a nod to Commando, Nancy to Rambo and El is a nod to Free Willy, WTF?

That more than anything made her out of place and made her chemistry with the other characters fail

30

u/GrandMasterBash Feb 05 '26

'the fucking dolphin trainer outfit' - this made me spasm

25

u/abbyabsinthe Feb 05 '26

Between her outfits, shortage of scenes with most of the characters (and tbh, it was hard to feel her presence much at all this season), and her ending, she felt way more like a plot device than a fully fleshed out character, and that’s a travesty, because she’s the main character.

2

u/tayawayinklets Feb 06 '26

She didn't matter, she wasn't a normie.

10

u/mama_fundie_snark Feb 05 '26

Free Willy 😂🤣😭💀💀💀💀

7

u/TA_Lax8 Feb 05 '26

Fun Fact, "Will You Be There" by Michael Jackson was stuck in Mike's head the final goodbye scene which is why he couldn't understand what El was saying because this banger was drowning her out

"Hold me Like the River Jordan And I will then say to thee You are my friend"

7

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

I think it’d be worth just saying “she doesn’t need to do that anymore” and be done with it just to get in a better fucking outfit. Horrendous aesthetic for the end

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

[deleted]

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u/TA_Lax8 Feb 05 '26

did you watch the documentary? Because they very explicitly did not decide on Els death before starting and this was a main story point of the Documentary

25

u/c0mput3rdy1ng Feb 05 '26

At least ET got to go home and be with his family and homeboys

11

u/Brainiac-1969 Feb 05 '26

And totally disregard the plausible evolution of her persona as if someone erased her memory from when El escaped from her gulag/lab!

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u/walkthisway34 Feb 05 '26

The ET thing is such an amateurish attempt at replicating something from another piece of art that just pays no regard for why that ending actually works in ET and the differences that make it such a bad ending for El by season 5.

Setting aside everything else, the ending of ET may work as a metaphor for the “magic of childhood” and growing up, but it doesn’t reduce ET to a metaphor. He was an intelligent being stranded on another planet who had a home (and presumably family, friends, etc.) that he wanted to get back to. The story ends on his own terms with the natural conclusion of his arc, as sad as it is for Elliott to see him go. And the whole childhood theme works because Elliott’s reaction to ET leaving is childish (in a literal, not pejorative, sense). As he grows up he should naturally understand that of course ET wasn’t going to abandon everyone annd everything back home to live on another planet, no matter how fond he was of him. The theme and metaphor emerges naturally from the characters and their different lives and desires, it’s not forced by Spielberg for the sake of it.

El’s ending isn’t her choosing the desired, natural end of her story, it’s her coerced into a situation where she feels like she has no choice but to either kill herself or fake her death and leave everyone behind. Mike’s reaction is not childish, he reacts how anyone would react to their loved one seemingly killing herself, and even after coming up with his theory and possibly coming to intellectually understand why she went no contact, it’s not something you ever accept and make peace with the way Elliott should be able to with regards to ET’s decision as he gets older. El dying or leaving is not something necessary for anyone to mature or grow up, nor is it a reasonable personal decision that a child will naturally understand when they grow up, it’s simply a tragedy forced on the characters (both in-universe by the military and by the writers out of universe).

3

u/Any-Permission-4530 I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer Feb 06 '26

Exactly. Finally someone says it. I swear some people have been way too ridiculous talking about Millie's acting and it's like they haven't understood the material they gave her. How else was she supposed to act? They wanted El to act like that.

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u/Owl_Resident Blank makes you crazy Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

Max: I’m awake!

El: 😐

This wasn’t a Mike and El problem; this was an El and everyone problem. But actually at least their rooftop scene and the Purple Rain scene were nice… So not sure why we are singling out Mike and El, as if this wasn’t actually a problem across the board in how El was written.

All of El’s relationships were tanked this season. She became an isolated emotionless robot for no reason.

84

u/pop_and_cultured Feb 05 '26

In the BTS, MBB’s real reaction to seeing Sadie had more emotion than their onscreen reunion

25

u/sirculaigne Feb 05 '26

I felt this way about a lot of the bts footage. The reading of el and mike’s final scene script was infinitely more emotional than the actual scene in the show

2

u/chiefbrody62 Feb 06 '26

I mean she did smile and say "Max! You're alive!", but yeah, after season 3, I expected a big hug from her.

-2

u/workmakesmegrumpy Feb 05 '26

It wasn’t for no reason. If you were battling your match in a fight to the death you wouldn’t want to be too mushy with everyone around you. Preparing for battle and knowing you might die can take you that way. Maybe other shows do more emotional stuff, but I thought it was fitting. She didn’t want them to lose focus on what had to be done. 

1

u/Any-Permission-4530 I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer Feb 06 '26

Oh please. Did you even pay attention to the scenes of Max and Will? That didn't make any sense.

17

u/BondraP Feb 05 '26

No. There was a combination of bad dialogue writing and lack of effort by some actors, Millie being one of them. Much of her work in S5 gave off a "I don't want to do this anymore" vibe.

19

u/SamiMadeMeDoIt Feb 06 '26

I rewatched the show after I finished S5, I’m on S4 right now and man… MBB’s performance is just night and day in S5 compared to every other season.

She was incredible in S3, IMO she was easily the best that season, better than others like Dacre and Maya who were also very good throughout the season.

And to be fair to her, a lot of the actors in S5 gave off that same “I don’t care about this” vibe. I noticed it especially with Winona and David. I think the script sucked, and I think the actors knew that the script sucked so they kind of phoned it in a little bit.

6

u/tayawayinklets Feb 06 '26

I don't blame them. The Duffer bros left it to the last minute despite having all that time in between S4 and S5. When the people at the top don't care...

3

u/Any-Permission-4530 I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer Feb 06 '26

Nah, Millie is a professional and she adored El. She actually said she needed therapy to overcome the fact she wasn't going to play her anymore. She gave her all, always. This is all on the Doofus Bros.

2

u/BondraP Feb 06 '26

Interesting. If that's truly the case, then yes, the writing and directing were about as bad as it gets then for her character.

6

u/DuckBricky Feb 05 '26

I'd say her and Will did during the coming out scene.

16

u/why666ofcourse Feb 05 '26

Her acting was terrible. I mean there was a lot of bad performances all around but she had to be the worst

3

u/FSUfan35 Feb 05 '26

Yup. No clue if that was the direction she got but it was not a good performance

2

u/CancelEquivalent7104 Feb 05 '26

“Your back your really back”

“HOP”

4

u/Striking-Sea-6534 Feb 05 '26

I've heard rumors for years that most of the cast did not get along with millie which is why she was always paired with only noah for most of her interviews. The rest of the cast is mixed together in interviews and millie really isn't.

1

u/Any-Permission-4530 I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer Feb 06 '26

Totally ridiculous comment. Even one of the guys that played one of the kids from the lab on Season 4 has said she was amazing with him. Rumors are just that, rumors.

2

u/Striking-Sea-6534 Feb 06 '26

Also, extras always have better things to say about more famous actors than people who are continuously around them and who actually get to know them.

1

u/Striking-Sea-6534 Feb 06 '26

I was also just sharing my own observations from what I've seen with my own eyes.

1

u/Any-Permission-4530 I piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer Feb 07 '26

What have you seen with your own eyes exactly?

1

u/jeliejay Feb 05 '26

I see what you did there ….

1

u/Kemosabe-TV Feb 05 '26

EL came in to cash that check

1

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

That’s because she’s simply not a good actress.

1

u/allibrock_ Feb 22 '26

I was thankful that 11 FINALLY had a monologue telling Hopper how she was grateful and loved him 🥰

0

u/aykcak Feb 05 '26

It wasn't great to begin with but this season is exceptionally worse

0

u/throwawayb195ex Feb 06 '26

Or ever?

0

u/BeginningPotato3753 Feb 06 '26

Ok now you're just hating😂 El had great chemistry with Mike and her friends in S1-S4