Originally appeared on E! Online
Warning: This article contains major spoilers for “Stranger Things” season five, volume three.
On a scale from one to 10, Millie Bobby Brown’s reaction to the “Stranger Things” series finale was an 11.
One week after the series’ final episode dropped on Netflix, the actress shared a behind-the-scenes look at her initial reaction to her character Eleven’s fate.
“Thank you for all these years,” Brown — who played Eleven on all five seasons of the show — said through tears after watching the footage from a studio, as seen in a video posted to her Instagram Jan. 9. “I appreciate it.”
Sniffling as she removed her headphones, the 21-year-old continued, “F–k. This damn show!”
Brown captioned the video, “Watching THAT scene for the first time.”
As for the scene in question? It was the one where her onscreen boyfriend Mike (Finn Wolfhard) told pals Will (Noah Schnapp), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Max (Sadie Sink) a story of how Eleven escaped death after destroying the Upside Down.
READ Did Stranger Things’ Eleven Die in the Series Finale? The Duffer Brothers Say…
Amid a montage of Eleven making her way through the countryside to a village with three waterfalls, where she had always hoped to live, her friends tearfully proclaimed, “I believe.”
But not all of Brown’s real-life castmates believe Eleven got her happy ending. As Sink recently shared, “I think she’s dead.”
“I think Mike’s story is just one last story,” the 23-year-old shared during her Jan. 5 appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “and then they say goodbye to childhood.”
She added of her interpreted ending, “I think it’s stronger.”
Meanwhile, “Stranger Things” co-creator Ross Duffer said Eleven’s fate was intended to be open-ended.
“She lives on in their hearts,” he told Netflix’s Tudum in a December interview, “whether that’s real or not.”
His twin and fellow showrunner Matt Duffer agreed, explaining that they wrote the finale how it was to “confront the reality” of Eleven’s situation and “how could she live a normal life.”
“Mike is the optimist of the group,” he said, “and has chosen to believe in that story.”
“Stranger Things” fans had a lot to celebrate this holiday season — including the release of 3 more episodes of the final season on Christmas Day.
