Warning: Spoilers for the series finale of Stranger Things beyond this point!
While Kali ended up being more than merely a fleeting cameo in the overall grand scheme of Stranger Things, she didn’t end up really having much of a role in the finale after all. While Eleven, Hopper, Murray, and Kali manage to make it to the Upside Down version of Hawkins, things go awry pretty fast. Vecna uses Kali’s powers to end up severing Eleven’s connection with his mind which, in turn, allows Akers and his soldiers to act with a device immobilizing Eleven and Kali. Ultimately Kali is captured and Akers is about to shoot her when Murray takes out the immobilization device but the blast causes Akers to shoot Kali and she dies. It’s a dramatic end, but it is very different than what fans expected.
Fans Thought Kali Would End Up Being a Traitor (And Those Were Actually Better Endings)
Image courtesy of Netflix
There were quite a few fan theories about what Kali’s role would end up being. Some theorized that Kali would end up being the key to defeating Vecna once and for all — after all, her illusion-casting abilities were very on brand for the series and would have gone well going up against Vecna. There were also theories that she was already corrupted by Vecna. After all, Kali had been unaccounted for for three years and the Mind Flayer’s ability to corrupt and control mixed with Vecna and his ability to prey on trauma would have put Kali in a perfectly vulnerable position to be corrupted.
But one of the biggest theories is that Kali would be a destabilizing force for the group. While Eleven trusts Kali completely, the others not so much. Kali had a history of using her powers for darker purposes (revenge, theft, etc.) and even tried to convince Eleven that even if they did succeed in destroying the Upside Down and the lab, they’d just keep coming for her to try to continue the secret government program and the only way to stop it was for both Kali and Eleven to go down with the ship, as it were. Many fans felt like that was highly suspicious and simply didn’t trust the character.
If any of those things had happened — Kali being the key to stopping Vecna, Kali being corrupt, or even Kali simply causing the group to weaken from within — it would have made for an exciting and challenging twist. Instead, Kali’s death is quick and rather anticlimactic. For a character that felt like they were going to have an important role or even end up being the big bad herself, she turned out to be just another casualty who wasn’t of much consequence in the end.
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