Warning: Includes MASSIVE SPOILERS for Stranger Things, Season 5, Part 1!
Stranger Things is one of those rare shows that is strong all the way through. From the moment the opening scene in the pilot episode begins, sending shivers down your spine, to the shocking ending to Season 5, Part 1, there hasn’t been a weak point through all 38 episodes to date. Well, aside from just one. It came in Season 2, Episode 7, “Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister”: a narrative diversion that made little sense to fans at the time. The episode remains the show’s lowest-rated to date with a 6/10 IMDb score, virtually unheard of for this series. It took eight years, but the series has finally redeemed this episode, revealing that it was an important piece of a puzzle all along. We just didn’t know it.
“The Lost Sister” Shows Eleven She’s Not Alone
“The Lost Sister” comes towards the end of Season 2 as Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) goes on a journey to learn more about her past. She’s arguing with Hopper (David Harbour), who has now become her adoptive guardian and thinks Mike (Finn Wolfhard) is flirting with the new girl, Max (Sadie Sink), leaving her feeling lost and alone. She finds Hopper’s research about her biological mother, which takes her on a journey. She learns through telepathic communication with her mother that Terry (Aimee Mullins) tried to rescue her from the lab but was subjected to a high dose of shock therapy that left her with a permanent brain injury. She also learns from her mother’s memories about another girl who trained with her.
Eleven follows Terry’s faint memories of this girl, identifies her from a photo as Kali Prasad (Linnea Berthelsen), and uses her powers to locate her. She finds her in Chicago, but she is very different from Eleven. She’s a rebellious, rough-around-the-edges young woman who resides in a warehouse with a bunch of other misfits. They live as outcasts since integrating with the “normal” people doesn’t work for them, and they have one mission: to kill all the people who worked at Hawkins Labs and subjected Kali to such pain and torture.
After spending some time with Kali and her friends, Eleven starts to change. She wears different clothes, makeup, and picks up a more confident, almost arrogant attitude as she mimics who and what Kali is, believing this is what she’s supposed to be, too. It’s as though Eleven went off to high school and got in with the wrong crowd, completely changing who she is in order to fit in. She’s desperate to fit in somewhere, and when she sees the matching tattoo on Kali’s wrist declaring that she’s number “008,” Eleven feels an instant kinship with her. They are sisters.
Kali Helps Eleven Harness Her Powers In ‘Stranger Things’ Season 2
When the lackluster, out-of-place episode aired, the justification for it was that Kali helps Eleven truly harness her powers. She was her personal Yoda. Fans weren’t entirely buying, and didn’t love the corny training scenes as this woman corrupted Eleven’s innocent mind.
Kali has illusion casting power, able to trick people into thinking something is, or isn’t, there, including making herself invisible. She can effectively create hallucinations in people’s minds. Think of a brick wall that prevents them from attacking when nothing is actually there.
She helps Eleven learn how to channel her anger into strength to fuel her own unique power. They practice this using a railroad car, which Eleven is eventually able to lift right off the tracks. Later, Eleven uses her powers to subdue the group’s next target, a man named Ray, who worked at Hawkins Labs. However, while Eleven is choking Ray, he reveals that Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) is not actually dead, shocking Eleven. What’s more, when she sees a photo of his two daughters in a frame, she realizes she can’t partake in an execution. She’s not like these people. As much as she wants to get revenge for everything that was done to her at the lab, this isn’t the way.
Kali gives Eleven an ultimatum: flee with them to avenge what happened to her mother or go back to Hawkins. The police are coming, so they don’t have much time. Thinking about both Hopper and Mike, even though she’s upset with both of them, Eleven decides to go back to the people who have become her new family. That’s the last we see of Kali, until now.
Kali’s Return is Confusing, But Also Makes a Lot of Sense
In Season 5, Part 1, Eleven and Hopper discover a door that Eleven believes Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) might be behind. She can feel the power coming from it, her kryptonite, and thinks somehow, the military has captured him. Through a series of events, they manage to get the door open. But high-pitched ringing stops Eleven from being able to use her powers, and Hopper is ready to go on a suicide mission to take down Vecna, having rigged himself with explosives. She can’t do anything to stop him.
Thankfully, in Episode 4, “Chapter Four: Sorcerer,” the highest-rated episode ever on IMDb, power goes out minutes later, and the ringing stops. Eleven rushes to the door to break it down, go in, and stop Hopper before he makes this terrible mistake. But he comes walking out before she has the chance, with a despondent look on his face. It’s obvious Vecna isn’t in there. But who is? Eleven follows him inside, where she looks up in horror to see Kali, head shaved, in a white bodysuit hooked up to machines.
It’s at this moment that it all comes full circle. Eleven and Vecna aren’t the only ones that survived the massacre in Hawkins Lab. Kali did, too. And she has been out there this whole time. Somehow, some way, the military found her. And they have been using her as bait. Exactly how remains to be seen, but it’s clear Eleven is gutted to see her friend that way.
‘Stranger Things’ Fans Have Mixed Feelings
Fans have mixed feelings about Kali’s return. While it makes sense that she would be brought back into the fold now that we know the story is finally tying loose ends together, fans don’t want a repeat of Season 2, Episode. 7. The good news is that if Eleven manages to get Kali out, they will be in Hawkins, a completely different setting. Eleven doesn’t need training anymore. She has become a full proverbial Jedi.
Numerical theories suggest that Eleven and Kali teaming up would represent 11 + 8 = 19. Add Henry Creel/Vecna to the equation (literally) as “001,” and it becomes 20. Called the d20 Theory, it lines up with the number of sides used on a die in most Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. So, if this theory holds any weight, Eleven needs Kali to defeat Vecna.
Whether fans liked Kali back then or not, a lot has changed. The character deserves a chance this time around. She was despised in part because of her bad influence on Eleven. She felt that hunting down everyone who worked at Hawkins Lab and killing them was the only way to heal, to confront the pain. She channeled her powers into becoming an angry, cynical person.
But it was mostly because the episode came at a crucial time in the story, interrupting the flow of action. It felt like an ill-timed, slow-burning filler episode that was unnecessary. Fans had just seen Demogorgons arrive at Hawkins Lab while beloved characters were inside. Then, they were forced to take a breather and watch Eleven do Jedi training with a weird punk girl with purple hair and a leather jacket, living with other outcasts in a completely different state.
We don’t know what happened after Kali and Eleven parted ways all those years ago. We don’t know how long the military has had her. And we don’t know what they have subjected her to. What we do know is that she still has her powers. Eleven can feel them. And Eleven still views her as her sister, connected to Kali in a way no one else could ever understand.
Stranger Things Season 5 will answer all mysteries, and that includes ones involving Kali. She will likely become part of the rest of the season, the three remaining lab patients meeting for the final battle against the man they once viewed as a friend.