Is Kali Dead in Stranger Things Season 5 Finale?

The terror of Vecna ends in the finale of Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things‘ Season 5 as the residents of Hawkins band together to defeat him once and for all. While Eleven is the only one with superpowers to fight, if not kill, Vecna, she receives unexpected help in the form of Kali, whom she finds imprisoned in Dr. Kay’s lab. Their powers complement each other as both of them seem to have received half of Henry Creel’s powers. While both go into the fight with the same goal, their mindsets about it are entirely different. Eleven has everything to fight for, but Kali has nothing. This leads them to have extremely different attitudes about how they want things to end. Unfortunately, Kali gets what she wanted. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Kali Knew How Her Story Would End

Like Eleven, Kali was born in Dr. Brenner’s lab, where she served as a lab rat for many years before finding her escape. The trauma of those years stayed with her, but eventually, she found her family in a group of misfits. Together, they tried to right the wrongs in the world, even if in their own twisted ways. And then, Eleven showed up, and Kali realised she wasn’t alone. They were sisters, and Kali thought it would be them against the world, but by then, Eleven had already found her family back in Hawkins. Eventually, Eleven left, but Kali still had her friends, and that would have been enough for her. However, the evil scientists would not leave her in peace. Dr. Kay, who wanted to continue Brenner’s project, found Kali, killed all her friends, and dragged her back to the lab that she had escaped all those years ago.

The trauma of watching her loved ones being butchered right in front of her eyes broke her, and the fate of being imprisoned in Kay’s lab for the rest of her life seemed like the only future in front of her. At one point, she tried to escape, but this only led her to another part of the facility where she discovered Kay’s plan. The realisation that her blood was being used to create more children like her, who would also go through the same cycle of trauma and abuse, devastated her. This isn’t something she wanted for herself or any child in the world, so she swore to stop this once and for all. She couldn’t do much about it while being held captive in the lab, but then Eleven showed up again and rescued her. In the fifth season, the reunion with Eleven doesn’t give Kali a glimmer of hope about being able to live her life again.

Instead, she believes that people like Kay are just as dangerous as, if not more than, Vecna. Even if Vecna is killed and the Upside Down is destroyed, the evil scientists will find another way to open it, even if they have to create and traumatize more superpowered children. She clarifies this to Eleven, asking her to stay back in the Upside Down with her, so that they both can die, and with that, there will be no way for Kay to continue Brenner’s experiment. Even though Eleven is hesitant about it, Kali is committed to the plan. When Hopper tries to convince Eleven not to sacrifice herself in the end, Kali pulls a gun on him, threatening to kill him. This shows that she has already accepted her death as the only way out of this world, and she is ready to pull Eleven down with her. Or so it seems.

Kali’s Final Moments Become Her Greatest Gift to Eleven

When Kali decided to kill herself, it was because she didn’t have any hope left. The PTSD of her childhood, the trauma of losing her found family, and the hopelessness of being held captive by Kay threw her into a pit of depression that she couldn’t come out of. She convinced herself that this was the only proper way for things to end, and she saw Eleven through the same lens. However, as she spends time with the group and later hears Hopper’s speech about how Eleven deserves a good life, she realizes that Eleven’s situation is not as hopeless as hers. While Kali may never be able to recover from all the bad things that have happened to her, Eleven still has a chance to live a normal life, and there is a way to do it. But before she can share it with her sister, things go horribly wrong.

After their efforts to kill Vecna in his mind are foiled, Kali, Eleven, and Hopper try to join the others in the Abyss. Before that, they are confronted by Kay’s soldiers, who use a machine to suppress Kali and Eleven’s powers. Hopper runs away with Eleven and returns to help Kali. However, he and Kali are caught, and to get him to give up Eleven’s location, the soldier points a gun at Kali, threatening to kill her. Both Kali and Hopper would rather die before giving up Eleven, and when Hopper makes that clear, the soldier prepares to shoot Kali. At the same time, Murray discovers what’s happening, and he finds a way to destroy the machine. He causes an explosion, but it’s a little too late for Kali, as the soldier’s finger is already on the trigger, and the explosion makes him pull it. The shot hits Kali, and she starts to bleed out.

Even though Eleven and Hopper try to stop her bleeding and save her, they know that she cannot be saved in time, not while they are yet to defeat Vecna. Kali isn’t perturbed by this development. She had, after all, already accepted death in the Upside Down as her ultimate fate, and this is exactly what happens. While Eleven and Hopper leave to fight Vecna and save Hawkins, Kali stays behind in the Upside Down, where she passes away. However, in her final words to Eleven, she offers her sister a plan that is not death, one that will allow Eleven to have the life she wants, even though she will still have to make some sacrifices. She uses her powers to create one final illusion as the entire Upside Down crumbles around her. She dies knowing she has secured Eleven’s future, while also making sure that the cycle she wanted to end with her death has also been brought to a stop. She has not died in vain.

Read More: Stranger Things Season 5 Finale: Is Eleven Dead or Alive? Do Mike and the Others Know?