‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 brings back a major character — but not the one you think

stranger things Season 5 is full of new characters, from the villainous Dr. K (Linda Hamilton) to the abusive Derek Turnbow (Jake Connelly). But there’s also an unexpected familiar face in the mix – and not one you might expect.

Look, stranger things He has a frequent habit of bringing back characters who appear to be dead. Hopper (David Harbour) can He was supposed to die in the Starcourt Mall explosion in Season 3, but was injured in the Soviet Union instead. Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) seemed like a lost man after his Season 1 encounter with the Demogorgon, but somehow he came back in Season 4. stranger things season 5 Was If we’re going to bring back a character from a previous season, chances are it’s going to be someone we lost. Maybe even a fan favorite like Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn).

instead, stranger things Goes the exact opposite route. Season 5 brings back a character who did not become popular with fans, having only been in one episode, and has barely been mentioned since. That character is none other than Kali Prasad (Linnea Barthelsen) aka At.

Wait, then who is Eight/Kali?

If you haven’t seen it in full again stranger things After a while, chances are you won’t remember Kali. She plays a major role in the controversial season 2 episode “The Lost Sister”, in which Eleven (Milley Bobby Brown) travels to Chicago and teams up with a gang of outcasts to take revenge on the Hawks Lab employees.

Like Eleven, Kali was also one of Dr. Brenner’s test subjects. Her psychic powers manifest differently from Eleven’s, as she can create surreal illusions. She managed to escape Hawkins Lab alone, meaning she was not present for Eleven’s encounter with Henry Creel/Vecna ​​(Jamie Campbell Bower) seen in the Season 4 flashbacks.

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When Eleven meets Kali in “The Lost Sister”, the pair think of themselves as family. With Kali, Eleven hopes to build a new home. Eventually, Kali encourages Eleven to hone her powers, and she even gives her her “bitch” form. However, her vengeful quest contradicts Eleven’s desire to help her friends, and by the end of the episode, Eleven chooses to return to her real “home” in Hawkins. Viewers last see Kali during a mass shootout as she and her crew run away from the police.

How does Eight/Kali end? stranger things Season 5?

Kali appears last stranger things Season 5, Volume 1. In the first four episodes of the season, Eleven and Hopper navigate the Upside Down in hopes of finding and killing Vecna. He believes he is in Dr. K’s Upside Down lab, as he has learned that the military is keeping someone with psychic powers there.

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However, it turns out that the person is not Vecna. This is Kali, who is once again trapped in the experiments that she had fought so hard to escape from in her childhood.

That’s all we get about Kali in Volume 1, but of course, her arrival raises many questions. What is the army doing to him and what trap have they trapped him in? How did Kali get here in the first place? Did the police catch him after the chase scene at the end of “The Lost Sister”?

can do stranger things The show’s most hated episode in Season 5 was redeemed?

‘Stranger Things’ The writers are indicating the return of Kali from 2023. Posted on the Writers Room Twitter account on July 7, 2023, “I think Season 2 is consistently underrated. Highly recommend a rewatch before Season 5…”

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Meanwhile, in an interview with 2025 DiversitySeries co-creator Ross Duffer said that when viewers watch all five seasons straight, “it doesn’t feel like we’ve missed any story – it all connects.”

The mention of “deleted” stories strongly implies the return of Kali, as she and her gang have not returned since Season 2. However, there is a simple reason for this stranger things First of all that plot was abandoned. People didn’t like it.

“The Lost Sister” has the lowest IMDb rating stranger things The episode, currently stands at 6.1 out of 10 with 35,000 reviews. (For reference, the second-lowest rated episode, the season 3 premiere “Suzie, Do You Copy?”, is a 7.8 with 27,000 reviews.) This dislike is understandable: This episode represents a major departure from stranger things Formula. “The Lost Sister” takes the audience away from Hawkins for the first time, introduces an entirely new cast of characters, and takes a very serious tone. For viewers who watched Season 2 repeatedly, this is a shock to the system and a interruption of the season’s momentum, even if it gives them more time with Eleven.

This doesn’t mean that “The Lost Sister” is a complete failure. It’s a huge stylistic change and while it doesn’t help, it’s at least interesting to see a show try something bold and new. Also, it was the first example of stranger things Following on from Hawkins, the groundwork was laid for Season 4’s Soviet Union and California storyline. No matter how discredited, the episode is still an important part of stranger things‘ The pain is growing, even though the show has mentally pushed it under the rug since Season 2.

However, Kali’s return in season 5 may give stranger things A chance to redeem its most infamous episode, offering brotherhood and closure between Kali and Eleven. That Hopper – one of the people Eleven left Chicago to save – creates an extra layer of tension with both of them. Will Kali see him as just another person trying to use Eleven for her powers? Or will she recognize a caring family between the two?

However, here’s a more worrying option. stranger things There’s nothing I love more than creating interesting side characters, then using them as cannon fodder to increase the stakes and body count of each season without sacrificing the main party members. We’ve seen it with Eddie, Bob (Sean Astin) and Barb (Shannon Purser), to name a few. Could Kali be the next in a long line of the dead? stranger things Side characters?

Ideally not, because the idea of ​​death equating to a solid conclusion to a story is a lazy idea. Instead, let’s hope that stranger things could pull off an impressive magic trick in its last four episodes and turn a much-hated entry into its canon into one that viewers can re-watch and appreciate for years to come.

Volume 1 of stranger things Season 5 Now streaming on Netflix. Volume 2 will premiere on December 25, and the series finale will air on December 31 at 8 PM ET.