Hopper's letter to Eleven in Stranger Things has fans in floods of tears

8 July 2019, 17:31 | Updated: 9 July 2019, 10:02

By Emma Clarke

@emma_clarke_26

Stranger Things fans left heartbroken as Eleven reads Hopper's emotional letter to her and Mike. **Season 3 spoilers ahead**

Season 3 of 80s sci-fi drama, Stranger Things, may have opened in a light-hearted way - with Hopper playfully threatening Eleven's boyfriend Mike - but it soon took a turn for the worse.

Not only were the gang going up against "evil" Russians planning to take over the world, they were dealing with the Mind Flayer 2.0 - which had started inhabiting people's bodies and building a monster army to kill Eleven (Millie Bobby-Brown).

While all of this was pretty gripping TV and Will Byers actor Noah Schnapp warned viewers the ending was "very sad", Netflix fans still weren't prepared for the heart-wrenching ending of season 3.

In a dramatic scene, we saw Joyce (Winona Ryder) forced to destroy the Russians' machine which had re-opened the gate, as Hopper (David Harbour) was standing right next to the alien site.

Indeed, viewers caught a glimpse of some Russian soldiers combust into flame as the gate closed, but the fate of everyone's favourite police chief was left unknown.

Amid all the action, bad boy Billy Hargrove (whose body had been taken over by the Mind Flayer) was then killed by the monster in the Starcourt Mall.

Then, in one last tear-jerking clip, Joyce handed Eleven a note with a speech her adopted father Hopper had written for her and Mike (Finn Wolfhard).

The note to Eleven first began with the speech Hopper prepped with Joyce in the store she works at, but then, Hopper went off-piste and wrote a heartfelt message that neither Eleven or the audience had heard.

It read:

"Feelings. Jesus. The truth is, for so long, I'd forgotten what those even were. I've been stuck in one place - in a cave, you might say. A deep dark cave. And then, I left some Eggos out in the woods and you came into my life and... for the first time in a long time, I started to feel things again. I started to feel happy.

But lately, I guess I've been feeling... distant from you. Like you're pulling away from me or something. I miss playing board games every night, making triple-decker Eggo extravaganzas at sunrise, watching westerns together before we doze off.

But I know you're getting older, growing, changing. And I guess... if i'm being really honest, that's what scares me. I don't want things to change. So I think maybe that's why I came here, to try to maybe... stop that change. To turn back the clock. To make things go back to how they were.

But I know that's naive. It's just... not how life works. It's moving. Always moving whether you like it or not. And yeah, sometimes it's painful. Sometimes it's sad and sometimes it's surprising. Happy.

So you know what? Keep on growing up, kid. Don't let me stop you. Make mistakes, learn from 'em, and when life hurts you - because it will - remember the hurt. The hurt is good. It means you're out of that cave.

But, please, if you don't mind, for the sake of your poor old dad, keep the door open three inches."

Fans of the Netflix show have since responded to the emotional scene, sharing their reactions on social media.