Stranger Things Season 5 finale: We owe an apology to Kali, she really did that

Stranger Things is finally over, and we owe an apology to Kali Prasad. Eight has officially been the most random detour the series ever taken.

For a long time, the audience considered her a supporting character of “that episode” in Season 2. This narrative diversion was out of place in the closely-knit community of Hawkins. We looked at her philosophy of revenge with disdain and wondered what the Duffer Brothers were thinking by giving so much time to a character who was already living in the shadow of being forgotten.

But, in the extremely heart-wrenching ending of Stranger Things Season 5, Kali proved she was never the villain we painted her to be. She was a hero who just needed the right time to show her powers.

But then Season 5 happened. And the last episode destroyed us. Kali swooping in, not as a villain or misunderstood anti-hero, but as the key to saving the day? Did not see that coming. She was the missing puzzle piece the whole time, and we were just too busy memeing her out of relevance to notice.

Disclaimer: This article reflects the writer’s personal opinions and perspectives. Reader discretion is advised.

Stranger Things Season 5 finale: We owe an apology to Kali

When Kali showed up in Stranger Things Season 2’s The Lost Sister, the reaction was brutal. Fans hated how the episode pulled Eleven out of Hawkins right when things were getting intense with the Mind Flayer. Suddenly, she is in Chicago hanging out with a crew of outcasts and her psychic “sister,” chasing payback on the people from Hawkins Lab.

People just didn’t buy it. The whole thing felt out of place. They had slammed a superhero origin story into a show that was supposed to be creepy and mysterious. Kali’s ‘turn pain into power’ thing, her obsession with revenge, made her look like Eleven’s warning sign, what could happen if she let anger take over.

Then, before the finale, Kali pops up again in Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2. She had been kidnapped by the military and locked away in an Upside Down facility.

Fans didn’t waste a second before assuming the worst. The internet blew up with wild theories: Kali has been brainwashed by Vecna, or maybe the Mind Flayer got to her. People thought her illusion powers would get turned against the Hawkins gang, or that her plan to keep Eleven stuck in the Upside Down was just a setup.

The clues seemed to add up in Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2: she wanted a suicide mission, she had survived three years in the Upside Down, and she had all these walls up from everything she had been through. Nobody trusted her. Social media couldn’t stop talking about Kali’s “evil plan,” and everyone was certain she was just using Eleven.

But we got it completely wrong. Like, spectacularly wrong.

In the Stranger Things Season 5 finale, everything comes to a head. Lieutenant Akers from the Wolf Pack has Kali at gunpoint, asking Hopper to give up Eleven’s location. Hopper doesn’t budge. Then Murray’s bomb goes off, and Akers, in all the confusion, ends up shooting Kali right in the stomach, a wound too severe for her to survive.

Eleven rushes over, totally shattered, and this is where the heartbreak lands: Kali’s intentions snap into focus. So Mike is narrating all this back to the group during their last D&D game, and he says Kali used her dying breath for one last trick. She throws out an illusion of Eleven standing at the portal, looking like she is about to get swallowed up by the Upside Down.

To everyone watching, it looks like Eleven went down with the ship. But Kali wasn’t trying to mess with anyone’s head. She knew this was her last move, and she used it to set her sister free.

That suicide pact Kali brought up earlier was not evil. The poor woman just knew, deep in her bones, that the military would never, ever stop hunting them. Not with Vecna’s blood running through their veins. She had already lost every friend she ever had. She was a science project with a pulse. And she wasn’t going to let Eleven end up like her. It was desperation, not darkness.

But when it came down to the wire, Kali didn’t drag Eleven into the abyss with her. She gave her sister the only out she could: the illusion of death, which, twisted as it sounds, was actually the gift of life. Kali made the world think Eleven was gone, so the government would stop sniffing around, stop bleeding her dry for their next monster weapon. Now, there are no more cages, no more needles, no more running. Just a shot at freedom. That’s real love.

Trending

Stranger Things Season 5 finale is now streaming on Netflix.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback