The final season of Stranger Things brought back Linnea Berthelsen as Kali — but who else needs a refresher of the infamous season 2 episode that originally introduced Eleven’s “sister”?
During part 1, which premiered on Wednesday, November 26, Hopper (David Harbour) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) prepared for one final battle with Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). They got their shot once they were both in the Upside Down but eventually they got caught by newcomer Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton). Initially Hopper planned a mission that would kill him but keep Eleven safe. He backtracked, however, when he discovered who Dr. Kay was keeping trapped in her secret lair.
Kali’s role in season 5 has yet to be addressed but she was originally introduced in the controversial season 2 episode of Stranger Things that appeared to set up a possible backdoor pilot for a spinoff that followed more characters with the same powers as Eleven.
In the 2017 episode, Eleven traveled to Chicago and found the other girl from her mother Terry’s memories, who is named Kali. Scenes from the introduction showed Kali having the power to create elaborate and realistic illusions. Kali was leading a street gang that was planning to seek revenge on Brenner (Matthew Modine), who was thought to be dead.
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Eleven teamed up with them to find the man who tortured Terry instead and she got help from Kali on how to perfect her powers. They tracked down Ray and planed to kill him until Eleven changed her mind. The gang fled back home after Kali told Eleven to choose them or return to Hawkins. Eleven ultimately returned home, which brought the narrative back to the main characters of the show.
After the episode received a lackluster response, Stranger Things creators Ross Duffer and Matt Duffer broke their silence about their vision.
“Whether it works for people or not, it allows us to experiment a little bit,” Matt told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s important for Ross and I to try stuff and not feel like we’re doing the same thing over and over again. It’s almost like doing a whole little other pilot episode in the middle of your season, which is kind of a crazy thing to do. But it was really fun to write and cast and work on.”
Ross and Matt stood by the episode despite the backlash.
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“Our test of the episode was we tried to pull it out of the show just to make sure that we needed it because I didn’t want it in there as filler — even though some critics are accusing us of doing that,” Matt continued. “But Eleven’s journey kind of fell apart, like the ending didn’t work, without it.”
He added: “So I was like, whether this works or not, we need this building block in here or the whole show is going to collapse. It’s not going to end well. The Mind Flayer is going to take over Hawkins.”
Ross, meanwhile, weighed in on the side quest, adding, “That Eleven story line overall is sort of the biggest risk we took. We’re going to continue to do risks moving forward to keep us on our toes. I didn’t want her to just magically save the day. Just like Luke Skywalker, she needed to go off on her own and learn something about herself.”
Stranger Things returns with Volume 2 on December 25 and the finale drops December 31 on Netflix.
