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Stranger Things (2x07): “The Lost Sister” Review

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out my other reviews:

Stranger Things Episode Reviews:

Season 1:

The Vanishing of Will Byers

The Weirdo on Maple Street

Holly Jolly

The Body

The Flea and the Acrobat

The Monster

The Bathtub

The Upside Down

Season 2:

MADMAX

Trick or Treat, Freak

The Pollywog

Will the Wise

Dig Dug

The Spy

Stranger Things Play:

Stranger Things The First Shadow

I’ve always felt bad for "The Lost Sister." I remember seeing this for the first time in 2017, being intrigued enough by Kali’s character to want to see her return, and even liking the complicated dynamic she had with El. I was sad when I got into the fandom and saw the hatred directed at Kali and this episode. I'm also disappointed that Kali hasn’t made an appearance since season 2. While I understand some of the issues people have with “The Lost Sister,” I always shake my head in disbelief whenever I see claims about how this is the worst episode of Stranger Things.

No, it isn’t. Not by a long shot.

Compared to future episodes like “Suzie, Do you Copy?” (which featured cringe-inducing humor and managed to degrade several of its characters), or “Vecna’s Curse” (which was DEEPLY mean-spirited and featured a MAJOR continuity error with Will’s birthday that fans are still sore about), “The Lost Sister” looks like a masterpiece. Both those episodes were bad enough that I was seriously questioning if I was going to enjoy the rest of seasons 3 and 4. Thankfully, I did, but they were rough to get through, and NOT ones I look forward to whenever I rewatch.

By contrast, “The Lost Sister,” while not perfect, had fun moments and intriguing ideas that kept me invested. It’s also an episode I would argue that has slowly improved with time. While it comes off as a side quest on the surface (especially when looking at season 2’s overall arc with the Mind Flayer) it’s one that not only is important to El’s growth this season (and may even be important to Kali’s character development depending on how you look at it), but also factors into the overall mythology the show has established. There are several themes, plot elements, and revelations from this episode that come into play during season 4 when the show finally starts giving answers about Hawkins Lab. We even get subtle foreshadowing for the direction El’s arc would take in later seasons as she’s forced into a reckoning with her past and her place in the world.

Something I’ve tried to emphasize with these reviews isn’t just how certain aspects that may appear trivial on first viewing become more important down the road, but also how initial reactions really aren’t the best source for how something should be judged. I don’t want to be the person throwing stones at glass houses because I know I’ve been guilty of that in the past as well. Take for instance my initial reaction towards Steve in season 1: I hated his character (to the point I let it color my perception of him at the time) and only grudgingly accepted his turn for the better towards the end. It wasn’t until season 2 and the direction subsequent seasons went with Steve that I finally reevaluated his character and realized there were subtle but important details I’d missed about him on first viewing that hinted at the idea he wasn’t as bad of a guy as I initially perceived. It makes his arc in season 1 all the more rewarding.

Similarly, I look at the reception Kali got in 2017 (where fans were vocal about their hatred or indifference towards her) to how she’s seen now (where there's been a growing chorus of fans hoping she’ll come back, and don’t want her character to go to waste). I am glad to see this change, even if it’s coming after so many years. Even back then, I felt like her character and arc deserved a chance. I don’t know what direction season 5 will go, but I sincerely hope she returns and her arc gets the closure it deserves.

This review is going to be a little different in that I’ll discuss my thoughts about Kali and her gang, what worked for me about this episode vs what didn’t, how Kali and El’s arcs here factor into later seasons, fan reaction and which criticisms were valid vs which ones were heavily biased, speculation/theories about Kali, and whether Kali comes back or not or what role she could play in the future of the show.

This review will be split into 7 parts, and will contain SPOILERS from The First Shadow, so be warned!

Part 1: Kali Prasad

I remember at one point Kali being described as the “Evil Counterpart” to El. That never sat well with me for multiple reasons. For one thing, “Evil” is a strong word to use, because the connotations are that it’s something with no redeeming qualities or standards. Profoundly immoral, wicked, morally bankrupt, and having a full understanding of right vs wrong and still choosing to be vicious anyways (either because you lie to yourself about your behavior, or you just don’t care). Kali has her flaws (and by that, I mean human flaws that are developed with experience and circumstances) and has made morally questionable choices, but calling her “Evil” with a capital E comes with a whole can of worms. Not only does it demonize her while glossing over her backstory and the circumstances that have led her to this point, but it also deliberately ignores the nuances associated with her character, the shades of grey within her choices and actions, and her redeeming qualities.

If anything, given the way season 4 went, I think it’s fair to say that the “Evil Counterpart” to El is Henry/One/Vecna. He is the other side of the coin to El with a similar backstory as an outcast who’s fully descended into evil. Whatever redeeming qualities he once had in The First Shadow are long gone, and he has embraced the darkness and chaos. El has empathy for people (even those who’ve wronged her like Angela and Vecna) whereas Vecna has none. He wants to see the world burn, whereas El wants to preserve it (despite the way the world’s treated her).

With that in mind, I would say that, between El and Vecna, Kali falls in the middle. If we were to judge these characters by an Alignment chart from D&D, I would argue that El can be categorized as Chaotic Good (i.e. a character who acts as their consciousness directs them, believes in goodness, is kind and benevolent, and follows their own moral compass while disregarding societal rules and norms), Vecna is Chaotic Evil (i.e. someone who operates under selfish and cruel desires, is nihilistic, is inherently violent and deceitful, and will spread misery and corruption for their own ends), and Kali falls somewhere around Chaotic Neutral (i.e. a character who prioritizes their freedom, seeks to be free from society’s restrictions and laws, can be impulsive and unpredictable, and are individualistic).

From a writing perspective, Kali is an Anti-Hero. Since this word gets thrown around a lot (and even applied to characters who don’t fall under that label), we should define it for the sake of this review: An anti-hero is a character who lacks some of the conventional heroic qualities associated with a hero (idealism, integrity, nobleness, etc). These are usually characters who don’t do things that align with the audience’s sense of morality, but nevertheless engage in actions that they consider to be justified and operate under their own code in some cases. Anti-Heroes are deeply flawed people who are more concerned about putting their own personal interests first and foremost (which is oftentimes rooted in cynicism). Depending on the circumstances, they can make a change for better or worse.

Han Solo from Star Wars is a well-known example. Initially, he starts out as a smuggler under Jabba the Hutt who’s looking to make a profit (primarily to pay off his boss) and whose personality contrasts with the idealistic hero Luke Skywalker. Han is only there to look after himself and Chewbacca and at first doesn’t give a damn the war against the Empire. He’s belittling and rude to people, he has no qualms about killing others to survive (as we see when he shoots Greedo), and his motivation for doing anything for others is “What do I get out of this?” The only reason he takes Luke and Obi-Wan to Alderaan is because they pay him, and even when he finds out about Leia being held prisoner on the Death Star, he refuses to do anything to save her until Luke points out Han would get a huge reward for doing so. Han eventually grows past this kind of self-centeredness, with his first truly heroic act coming at the end of the movie when he saves Luke from Vader and his men, and enables Luke to blow up the Death Star. The later movies also continue this growth where Han comes to care for Leia, and begins fighting for the Rebels against the Empire because it’s the right thing to do as opposed to his earlier motivations.

Anti-Heroes are tricky to write because there’s a balance that needs to be established between getting the audience to feel sympathy for them while defining their personality and having the character engage in actions that are morally ambiguous. An anti-hero who’s badly written can be grating and make that character more of an annoyance rather than interesting. Dash X from Eerie, Indiana is an example of this. He was introduced in the last 6 episodes of the show before it got canceled, and was set up as a mysterious kid who didn’t know about his past and wanted to find out who he was and where he came from. While this could have made the character sympathetic, the show unfortunately undermined it with his asshole (and outright villainous) behavior towards Marshall and Simon. He constantly got Marshall into several life-threatening situations (sometimes on purpose) that nearly killed Marshall, he was constantly out for himself at the expense of other people (like refusing to help a man who’d been beaten, or even working with the villain-of-the-week to make a profit in the second-to-last episode), and was so unpleasant that you began to question why other characters put up with him. The show tried to frame Dash X as a frenemy to Marshall, but this never rang true, with him acting more like an antagonist (and even embracing the role of villain in the series finale). Doesn't help that his motivations were all over the place. While I still like Eerie, Indiana, and wished it had been renewed for a second season, the episodes that featured Dash X were some of my least favorite, and took a major dip in quality. He was NOT a well-written anti-hero.

I’ve seen some fans label Billy as an anti-hero, but that isn’t the case with his character. Billy at best is an antagonist (i.e. a character in opposition to the protagonist who creates conflict in the story) and at worst is a straight-up villain (even BEFORE he got possessed by the Mind Flayer). Same can be said for Jason in season 4: While his actions on the surface may look like that of a traditional anti-hero, they take a turn into villainhood when he whips up a lynch mob to go after the main characters and refuses to hear anything Lucas tries to tell him later about Vecna and what’s really going on. It doesn’t help that the way Jason’s behavior is framed heavily implies that a huge chunk of his motivation outside of avenging Chrissy is about getting validation for his preconceived biases about Eddie and the Hellfire Club being a Satanic Cult, all while disregarding any information that contradicts that. That’s also including the less-than-appealing qualities that were established in his character (self-absorption, hotheadedness, etc) BEFORE Chrissy was ever murdered.

Kali, by contrast, is a traditional anti-hero. She is neither an antagonist nor a villain to El or any of the main characters from the show. Her motivations are centered around hunting down the scientists, orderlies, and employees from Hawkins Lab who were responsible for kidnapping kids like her and El, abusing them, and turning them into weapons for the Government. Her anger is understandable in that she had her entire life taken away, was constantly dehumanized at Hawkins Lab, later escaped into the world, and saw how others (like the members of her gang) were discarded by society. The result is she’s weaponized that anger stemming from years of trauma, attempted to help people like Dottie, Axel, Funshine, and Mick in her own way, and has directed her purpose in life to ensuring those in power who were responsible for destroying so many lives are held accountable and can never do something like that again.

Kali’s actions aren’t heroic, but they’re not meant to be seen as heroic. She’s not above killing people, but her revenge is directed at specific targets as opposed to the wanton destruction and genocide Vecna engages in. She also has her own code that she will follow. For instance, she doesn't try to kill the cops that are chasing her (the most she does is create illusions to deceive them) or the gas station attendant who pulls a gun on her (whom she tries to reason with instead). While you could argue this may be rooted in pragmatism (dead bodies get attention), the fact she spends effort trying to get the gas station attendant to look the other way instead of having one of her gang members shoot the guy through the head indicates she doesn’t take pleasure in killing innocent people. This is also demonstrated when El first shows up: Kali’s reaction isn’t to immediately attack her, but to listen to El and find out why she’s there. Kali's not above stealing either, but it’s more limited to taking what she and her gang need to survive since they’re constantly on the run. Even when it comes to Ray Carroll’s kids, while Kali didn’t have any qualms about killing Ray on the spot, neither she nor her gang made any attempt to physically hurt or kill the girls, and were horrified to find them there when they initially believed Ray was home alone. Murdering children is a line they’re not willing to cross (which is a HUGE difference from Vecna).

Even Kali’s personality is not only complex, but also grounded in a believable way. She is ruthless and will have no mercy for anyone who has wronged her or people she cares about, but she is capable of empathizing and looking out for others (as we see with both her gang and with El). She has a hardened exterior brought out by trauma and past experiences, and she can be callous with other people’s feelings, but it’s not rooted in the kind of sadistic cruelty that defines characters like Billy and Angela. She’s not looking to make other people miserable for her own entertainment, and she’s not a bigot. She isn’t racist like Billy, or ableist like Angela, and is capable of both sympathizing and empathizing with outcasts based on her own experiences. Even when she’s encouraging El to draw out Ray’s death, it’s more about wanting Ray to fully understand the depths of the suffering he’s inflicted on others.

I’ve seen accusations that Kali only wanted to use El for her own ends, but that comes off as a distorted oversimplification which ignores a lot of nuances in El and Kali’s relationship. The truth is she does and she doesn’t. On the one hand, she values El’s ability to see into the Void to locate people (which Kali seems unable to do) and there’s no question she views that as an asset. However, to imply that’s the ONLY reason Kali wanted El in her group is disingenuous. Kali grew up with El at the Lab, and while El may not remember her (due to repressed memories), Kali clearly remembers El, and may have been the only friend she had at that time. It’s all but stated by Kali that a major reason she broke out of Hawkins Lab was because they separated her from El and she was devastated by it:

This becomes a lot harsher in hindsight when you recall season 4 and how Brenner trained the special kids. He fostered an entire culture at the Lab that was about pitting them against one another for “Papa’s approval” while also enabling the bullying of kids like El who weren’t living up to their potential. There’s an insidious implication in Kali’s story that a big reason El was eventually separated from Kali (or at least stopped appearing in the Rainbow Room) is because he didn’t want either Kali or El to develop too close of a relationship with the other. His control was contingent on keeping the special kids familiar enough with one another to know what was expected from them, but also subtly isolating them and making sure they were at odds with each other so that they would never rise up against him and he would be the ONLY constant in their lives (with his approval being the end-goal for these kids). Even with Two and his gang, that was rooted in the unspoken understanding that Two was the alpha male at the Lab (either because of his number, his reputation, or the extent of his abilities). Aside from El (who got viciously punished when Two thought she overstepped her place), if any of the other kids who followed his lead had tried to push him out of that spot, there would have been hell to pay.

This is a big reason I look favorably at Kali given what's revealed in season 4: Aside from how there’s never been any indication she bullied El at the Lab, Kali at least had an established personality compared to Two and the other special kids. All of them (except for El) had been brainwashed by Brenner by the time the Massacre at Hawkins Lab occurred. Their personalities had been obliterated from Brenner’s conditioning, and the only thing that mattered was Brenner’s approval and staying on top of the social pyramid at the Lab. Kali, for all of her flaws, is at least an independent thinker, is able to see through other people’s manipulations, and didn’t buy into Brenner’s bullshit the way the other kids did.

Adding on to this is Kali’s backstory and when/how she was taken:

I remember there was speculation about the extent of the influence Brenner had, given they were able to kidnap Kali from London, or even the idea there were other illegal programs similar to Hawkins Lab in other countries, like the United Kingdom. Given the revelations in season 4 and The First Shadow about how Vecna’s blood was a key ingredient for creating these special kids, I think the latter theory about similar labs worldwide is debunked at this point. The simplest explanation is that either one or both of Kali’s parents were participants in the MKUltra project, specifically the experiments at Hawkins Lab. Most likely, they were transfer students who went back to London once they finished their studies, and Brenner kept tabs on them via government resources.

It should be noted that the actress who plays a young Kali in flashbacks (Vanathi Kalai Parthiban) was 9 years old when season 2 was filmed. Given the twin actresses who played a younger El in Terry’s memories (Charlotte and Clara Ward) were around 3 years old at the time, this indicates there’s a 6 year age difference between El and Kali (which would make Kali 19 years old at this point in the story).

In any case, what’s clear is that Kali wasn’t kidnapped as an infant the same way El was, but instead much later as a kid (though the newspaper doesn’t list what age Kali was when she disappeared). Whether it’s because Brenner had a harder time kidnapping her due to Kali being in a different country or because of other reasons is unknown. What is important here is that she had exposure to the outside world prior to Brenner whisking her away to Hawkins Lab. She was already beginning to form a personality before Brenner could brainwash her. The newspaper even notes Kali was “stubborn from the day she was born,” and that stubbornness likely factored into how Brenner treated her at the Lab. I find it telling that Kali doesn’t talk about any of the other special kids in her conversations with El in this episode. The implication seems to be she was kept separate from them, with El being the only one she was allowed to briefly interact with before El was eventually separated from her. It makes me wonder if Brenner was worried that Kali would corrupt or influence the other kids to turn on him, and that’s why he didn’t have Kali train with them like El did. Of course, it's also possible Kali escaped BEFORE she got to meet any other special kids besides El.

Anyways, the point I want to emphasize here is that, despite the complicated dynamic they have, Kali cares deeply for El. Aside from being the only friend she had in her childhood before being forced to go on the run, El is the only other person she can truly relate to due to their powers. She still has her companionship with Dottie, Axel, Funshine, and Mick, but they don’t have the same understanding of what it’s like to have her abilities the way El does, and it’s something that’s made Kali feel alone in the world. Even with the adoptive family she briefly hid with and eventually lost, there are two ways I can interpret that: Either they couldn't handle her powers and she was forced to leave, or the Government tracked her down to where they were and killed them. When she tells El with tears in her eyes that she feels “whole” now that El’s here, she means it. I would even argue El feels the same way.

From how I see it, Kali isn’t being insincere when she tells her gang that bringing along El for their mission is what El needs in order to heal. From her perspective, she believes that. She knows El was hurt by Brenner and Hawkins Lab the same way she was, and she’s giving her another option besides running away: Fighting back. Making the “bad men” afraid of being hunted and reversing the dynamic. Kali’s been angry for most of her life, and the only way she knows how to deal with that anger is to channel it towards a goal. I'm reminded of what Storm told Nightcrawler from X2: X-Men United: “Sometimes, anger can help you survive.” Kali’s lesson towards El is similar: Channel the anger into something productive as opposed to letting it eat you from the inside.

On top of that, there’s also what happened to Terry, and Kali’s reasons for wanting to target Ray Carroll: Aside from the abuse Ray put Kali through at the Lab and how he was responsible for frying Terry’s brain, it's implied that Kali pushing for El to kill Ray isn’t just about getting El to avenge her mother, but also the guilt Kali feels for what happened to Terry. There’s probably a part of Kali that wonders if she could have stepped in to prevent that had she acted at the time. Granted, she was a child who didn’t have a full understanding of what was going on when Terry showed up for El, but I bet that feeling of “I could have done something to stop this” weighs heavily on her. From her perspective, she’s trying to correct a wrong that never should have happened.

This is a big reason I find Kali interesting as a character: Her motivations and personality are complex and multi-layered. She doesn’t just see El as a tool. She genuinely wants a sisterly relationship with El. The problem though is she is so damaged from what has happened to her that it’s manifested itself in unhealthy and maladaptive ways. She honestly thinks this revenge tour she’s on is one of the only ways she can bond with El, and she fails to realize until too late that El doesn’t want to make revenge her entire personality. El also doesn’t have the blind-spots Kali has: Ray Carroll may be a despicable and cowardly human being but, at the end of the day, he’s still a parent, and El can’t deprive those little girls of a parent the same way Brenner deprived her of her mother. If that means sparing his life regardless of whether he deserves to live, so be it. Kali isn’t incapable of empathizing with people, but her empathy is very selective and she’s not willing to give that to people who have wronged her (regardless of what their circumstances are), which is why she has a hard time understanding why El made the choice she did. However, Kali still recognizes that as El’s choice, with her issue stemming from El interfering with her choices. Kali’s spent her entire life trapped and controlled by others, which is why she values freedom and the ability to choose more than anything. She isn’t a hypocrite in that regard. I’ve seen people make side-by-side comparison of when Kali tells El that this isn’t a prison and she’s free to leave if she wants to vs when Brenner told her the same thing in season 4 at the Nina Project, but these are two very different situations: Brenner had zero intention of honoring his word and attempted to keep El imprisoned at the silo when push came to shove. Kali doesn’t do that. She’s heartbroken when El chooses to leave her, but she isn’t petty about it like Vecna was when El rejected him, and Kali honored El's choice to return to Hawkins even if she was hurt by it.

All of this makes the ending heartbreaking: There’s a sense of tragedy in El and Kali being reunited after so many years only to be separated again, as well as Kali’s realization that her behavior may have contributed to alienating El and influencing her decision to leave. In Beyond Stranger Things, Linnea Berthelsen noted that Kali has a hard time being able to connect with people, and that the end scene with Kali crying in the van as they’re escaping the cops implies that she realizes she needs to make a change and can’t continue on like this. This makes me invested in her character because not only does it show that she isn’t a flat character (like Angela), but is capable of growth if she chooses to pursue that. It also conveys that her attempts to bond with El were genuine.

Before we move on, I want to briefly discuss Kali’s name in relation to her character: Kali derives her name from the Goddesses Kali in Hinduism. Like the character from the show, Kali is a contradiction of many traits. While she is known as the Goddess of Death, Time, and Destruction, she has also been associated with the embodiment of Feminine Energy, Creativity, Fertility, and even Motherly Love. She is also a warrior and fighter who’s capable of consuming other beings, and famously took down the demon Raktabijia and the clones produced from his blood by consuming them. One of her defining characteristics is her unstoppable rage and bloodlust, which was considered to be so great that it nearly destroyed the universe. It wasn’t until her husband, Shiva, intervened by allowing Kali to step on him that Kali finally snapped out of her rage and realized she’d hurt someone she cared about. Kali on the show has many parallels to the mythological goddess (which was likely intentional given her name and ethnicity as Indian) in that her rage against the Government for the way she was treated has led to her quest to kill anyone who worked at Hawkins Lab or under Brenner. However, rage isn’t the only aspect of her character, and we see her ability to create with her illusions (the butterfly she makes for El) and even adopts the position of protector to the members of her gang and El, much like how Kali from Hinduism is seen as a “protector” from death itself. Even the myth of Kali stepping on Shiva and recognizing how her rage has hurt someone she cared about can be seen in what happens at the end of the episode when Kali from the show finally realizes she may have driven El away with her behavior and is remorseful about it. Just like how Kali from Hindu mythology is a complex being, and has even been perceived as misunderstood, I would argue Kali from the show shares similar traits in that regard.

Part 2: How this Episode factors into Season 4

Like I said earlier, a big reason why this episode looks better in hindsight is because not only are there key mytharc elements that come into play during season 4, but it also foreshadows the direction El’s story would go.

Take Brenner for instance: While there were hints he may have survived his attack from the Demogorgon in season 1 (we never saw his body, and Dr. Owens referred to him as “gone” as opposed to “dead”), this episode reveals via Ray that he’s still alive. Or at least that’s what he claims to El and Kali. Initially, this episode frames that confession as being done under torture and saying whatever he had to say for El and Kali to spare his life in that moment. As of season 4 however, we know he was telling the truth.

I’m assuming that, somewhere between 1983-1984, Brenner reached out to Ray Carroll to bring him out of retirement and have him work on the Nina Project or something Government-related, which is how Ray knew Brenner was alive and where he was located. Ray also claims Brenner trusts him, which infers they still had a good relationship. We don’t get a lot of information about Ray, and his reasons for why he wasn’t working with Brenner again are ambiguous. Whether it was out of remorse for his past crimes, or if he just preferred retirement, or if he was planning to accept Brenner’s offer but hadn’t left before Kali and El showed up, we don’t know. What is clear, however, is that Brenner was still operating behind-the-scenes. He could have also been trying to restart the Hawkins Lab experiment and create more special kids, but considering he didn’t do that after Vecna slaughtered everyone in 1979, and we don’t get any indication in season 4 he’s been engaging in that kind of work (with his attention being focused exclusively on El getting back her powers), I seriously doubt that.

The show doesn’t explore this, but I’d have to imagine Brenner must have been aware Kali was still out there, and at least heard reports about employees under his previous command being killed. There’s no way he couldn’t have known or suspected that Kali was behind it. I suggested this theory in my review of the non-canon comic Into the Fire, but it's possible one reason Brenner and Owens may have conducted the Nina Project from a silo in the middle of the Nevada Desert wasn’t just about hiding it from Lt. Colonel Sullivan and other factions of the Government who were against them, but also as a precaution against Kali and her gang to make sure they couldn’t find them.

Then there’s the explanation for why El never investigated the Void to see if Brenner was truly dead: She didn’t want to. Kali’s illusion of Brenner may have been cruel, but she’s making a valid point when she notes that El is afraid of facing the reality of “Papa” being alive. I don’t blame El since Brenner traumatized her in more ways than one, but it also conveys that she truly hasn’t confronted her pain (as Kali claims). It’s been implied in the past 2 seasons that El is repressing a lot of her memories due to trauma (Kali straight up asks in this episode if the memory Terry shared of Kali is the only memory El has of her), and season 4 confirms that. Not just with Brenner, but her time at the Lab being bullied, her role in the Massacre of Hawkins Lab, and Henry/One/Vecna himself. “The Lost Sister” acted in many ways as foreshadowing for the solo journey El would undertake in season 4 when she was brought to the Nina Project and forced to confront her past. While it's a painful process for her, she does begin to heal not just by gaining back her abilities, but also by confronting Brenner and calling him out for his numerous crimes. She also manages to build a better sense of self-esteem for who she truly is in the process.

Following the airing of season 4, Matthew Modine (who plays Brenner) admitted in an interview that Brenner was supposed to have a bigger role in season 2, which suggests that they were going to reveal much earlier that Brenner survived, as opposed to here where it’s only strongly hinted at. While I’m glad Brenner was brought back for season 4 to start providing answers to the mythology of the show, I prefer how they gently threaded his return instead of just bring him back instantaneously. I also maintain his role in season 2 via flashbacks and illusions works better. Even though he isn’t physically present, he’s still the metaphorical shadow haunting El and Kali, and serves as a reminder that just because someone is gone doesn’t mean their legacy is.

Then there’s both Kali and El’s powers. I find it interesting that, while Kali has the power of creating illusions, she can’t exert psychokinetic force against another person. When El refuses to kill Ray Carroll, Kali immediately opts to shoot him with a gun, which only reinforces absence of that specific power. She also apparently doesn’t have the ability to remote-view and locate people in the Void like El does. Whether or not this is because Kali lacks that ability in general or because she wasn’t trained to do that prior to escaping Hawkins Lab is unknown. Likewise, El doesn’t seem able to create illusions in people’s heads like Kali can, and even her ability to remote-view in the Void is kinda glitchy, like she hasn’t fully mastered it yet. She isn’t able to locate Kali at first while at Terry’s house, but then sleeps and is able to in her dreams. She’s also able to find Ray Carroll, but doesn’t notice his kids in the house. Then there’s her seeing Mike and Hopper at Hawkins Lab and the vision dissolving before she can truly comprehend what’s going on. While I’ve suggested the idea that external factors could be responsible for a vision in the Void dissolving (like Vecna or the Mind Flayer), it’s also possible it could be from El’s lack of mastery over remote-viewing at this point in the story.

Personally, while this episode initially implies that the special kids have separate abilities that make them unique, season 4 debunks that with Henry/One/Vecna. We know he has all the abilities the special kids have exhibited: He can create illusions like Kali (which we see in The First Shadow), he’s capable of psychokinesis, he can remote-view, and he even has the ability to “consume” a person or animal when he kills them. Since both El and Kali have their powers because of his blood, it’s likely they have untapped powers and potential that they haven’t been trained to use yet. I believe Kali is just as capable of remote-viewing or using psychokinetic force as El is of creating illusions within people’s minds. It’s more of a question of finding those abilities within themselves and mastering that skill.

In any case, there’s Kali and El’s scene in the warehouse yard. Am I the only one who noticed that Kali’s advice is eerily similar to the advice Henry/One/Vecna gave to El all those years ago?

This makes me question if Vecna worked with Kali on developing her powers prior to her escape. To be fair, Vecna does name-drop her in “The Dive” (Season 4, Episode 6) when he tells El about her mother (“This would have been when Eight was still here”), which suggests that he knew Kali.

This leads me to a suspicion I’ve had for a while ever since I saw season 4:

Did Vecna enable Kali to escape Hawkins Lab?

Kali tells El in this episode that she escaped when her gifts were strong enough. If Vecna was working with Kali to develop her abilities the same way he did with El in 1979, that implies Vecna may have orchestrated Kali’s escape from the Lab. He could have done it for any number of reasons, from wanting to spite Brenner, to potentially having an ally he could contact in the outside world once he escaped the Lab. It also could explain how he knew exactly where the tunnel was that he later leads El to when he was planning her escape: For all we know, that same tunnel could have been used to smuggle Kali out. As for why Vecna didn’t go with Kali, he still had the soteria device implanted in his neck, and Kali may not have been able to pull it out via psychokinetic force like El could because she hadn’t developed that ability yet.

As for why Kali never mentioned Henry/One/Vecna when she was telling El about her escape:

She may not have considered that relevant to the conversation at the time. OR............

She may not have known it was Vecna enabling her to escape because he was working behind-the-scenes as opposed to working with Kali directly like he did with El.

Either way, it’s an intriguing theory because it makes me question what role (if any) Kali still has left to play on the show.

Part 3: Kali’s Gang and Inspirations/References

In order to understand the thought process that went into crafting Kali’s gang, it’s important to know what inspired their creation.

Two influences that were cited for the costume design and outlook of the gang were the outfits rock signer Siouxsie Sioux (who was the leader of the band Siouxsie and the Banshees) wore, and the movie Sid and Nancy, which was a biopic film focusing on Sid Vicious (bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols) and the toxic relationship he had with Nancy Spungen during the last few years of their lives. There are echoes of this seen, particularly with Axel’s character (who has a similar design to Sid Vicious from the movie, with the addition of having spiked orange hair) and Dottie (whose hairstyle and mannerisms remind me of Nancy Spungen, with a little bit of Pris from Blade Runner added to the mix). In any case, the idea is this group is going Punk with their clothes, hairstyles, and general outlook. While the idea of Punk is about individuality and rejecting mainstream conformity, in the case of Kali and her gang, they are deliberately trying to make themselves look dangerous and off-putting so that people will know to stay away from them.

Additionally, while this movie isn’t mentioned as a reference, am I the only one who saw similarities between the masks Kali and her gang wear when they go to kill Ray Carroll vs the ones the marauders wear in The Purge series?

Perhaps that’s simply a coincidence, but I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between both stories of masked individuals attacking people at night. Difference is The Purge deals with a 12 hour period in America where all crime (including murder) is permitted, with civilians treating the night as carte blanche to get away with whatever heinous and lawless crimes they can before the evening is over, whereas Kali’s raids are targeted at specific individuals and more morally ambiguous compared to the unhinged and unrestrained cruelty exhibited during The Purge.

Then there are the two movies that inspired the dynamic with Kali's gang: The Warriors and Escape from New York.

I talked about Escape from New York in my Darkness on the Edge of Town review when I made comparisons between the movie and Hopper’s story in that tie-in book. To give a brief summary: The movie takes place in an alternate reality where Manhattan has been turned into a maximum security prison after crime increases by 400%. The island is walled off and guarded to prevent prisoners from escaping, but the criminals within are otherwise left to their own devices. When Air Force One is hijacked by terrorists and crashes, the President of the United States leaves via an escape pod that lands within Manhattan, resulting in him getting captured and held hostage by the Duke of New York (one of the top criminals in the prison) in exchange for amnesty and allowing the prisoners within to walk free. To counter this, the Government recruits a former criminal named Snake Plissken to infiltrate the island and rescue the President within 24 hours. In exchange, he’ll receive a full pardon for his crimes. The movie deals with Snake carrying out his mission while trying to avoid being killed.

Likewise, The Warriors is a 1979 film centered around a group of nine gang member from Coney Island called The Warriors who (as part of a delegation) travel to the Bronx for an arranged summit with other gangs from New York City under a leader named Cyrus. At the meeting, Cyrus proposes a unification of all the gangs to take back the streets and run the city themselves. Before this plan can come to fruition though, Cyrus is assassinated by an unhinged gang member named Luther. Due to one of The Warriors seeing Luther shoot Cyrus, Luther uses the chaos to frame The Warriors for Cyrus’s death, resulting in the other gangs turning on them. The rest of the movie deals with The Warriors attempting get back to Coney Island while evading the cops and other gangs that have put out a hit on them.

One thing that should be highlighted when it comes to these two movies is that they lean heavily on being a thrilling experience as opposed to a character study. I can’t speak for the book The Warriors was based on as I haven’t read it, but that movie isn’t as interested in examining its characters and their backstories as it is in putting them in life-threatening situations, with the suspense centered around how they’re going to get out of their predicament. Same goes for Escape from New York: We’re given some exposition about Snake’s backstory as a former war hero turned criminal to explain why the Government would consider hiring him to rescue the President, but the movie isn’t interested in the development of the characters as opposed to the visuals and action scenes. There are some parallels that can be drawn from certain characters in those movies to Kali’s gang: Ajax from The Warriors mirroring Axel from the show in that they’re both the Token Evil Teammate who isn’t the nicest of the group (with the big difference being Axel from the show never tries to force himself on a woman the same way Ajax did in the movie), and Kali’s cynicism mirroring Snake’s in that both have been used by the Government in the past, leaving them bitter and disillusioned as a result. However, these parallels are few and far between. The point is the dynamic of Kali’s gang, which is centered on survival and evading people who want to capture or kill them, is similar to the group of characters in both Escape from New York and The Warriors in their attempts to evade danger and complete their mission.

I want to be clear that I don’t have an issue with these types of movies that focus on thrills over developing characters. Sometimes, people don’t come to a movie because they care about the characters, but more about the situations they’re in while envisioning how they would deal with it if they were in that character’s position. There’s nothing wrong with that formula.

However, when you apply that same formula to a show like Stranger Things, where fleshed-out characters are a MAJOR REASON why the show resonates with people and is as successful as it is.........that’s a problem.

When it comes to Kali’s gang, I don’t hate them the same way other fans seem to, but I agree with the criticism they were underdeveloped. Aside from this episode and the opening scene in the season premiere, the audience wasn’t given a lot of time to know Axel, Funshine, Dottie, and Mick in a way for us to care about them the same way we do about the main characters. We get a perfunctory introduction from Kali to El about each member of the gang, and while I would argue there are subtle nuances presented in each of the gang members during this episode (which I’ll discuss in a minute), it’s not enough to get people to emotionally invest in them. It doesn’t help that we haven’t seen them since season 2 with the show moving on to introduce and develop other characters.

Speaking of criticisms.........

Part 4: Criticisms of this Episode (Valid vs Not Valid)

Aside from the underdevelopment of Kali’s gang, one criticism I do have with "The Lost Sister" has to do with the order it's placed in this season. I would argue a big reason why this episode got the reception it did at the time had a lot to do with airing right after “The Spy,” which is not only a beloved episode by fans, but also ended on a highly anticipated cliffhanger where the demodogs were set to invade Hawkins Lab……………only for this episode to come next and put that arc on standby (if only temporarily). There is a tenuous connection with El seeing Mike and Hopper’s predicament in the Void at the end of this episode, which influences her decision to go back to Hawkins, but that’s about it. Personally (and this is just my opinion), I think this episode should have come after “Dig Dug” (which is when El discovered what Brenner did to Terry) and before “The Spy.” Not only would it have helped the flow better, it would have built up anticipation for the next episode when El peeked into the Void and saw Mike and Hopper. Unlike here, where we already know what’s going on at the Lab and are waiting for El to get on the same page, this could have been a better way to generate suspension and anticipation for the audience: Like El, we would be wondering what the hell was going on with Mike and Hopper and why they looked scared, which would lead into “The Spy” where we see how they got to that point. Basically, In Media Res would have worked better for the Mind Flayer arc than it did for El’s.

This brings us to the next criticism I've seen thrown at this episode: How it separated El from the main cast and how it had little to do with the main story. This criticism both is and isn’t valid. I think the premiere misled a lot of fans into believing Kali would have a bigger role in season 2 and her character would tie in with what was going on in Hawkins………only for that not to be the case. Kali had nothing to do with the Mind Flayer, and her arc came off like a side-plot for El.

However, I disagree with the idea that this arc was a waste of time. Aside from the mytharc elements set up in this episode which would prove important in later seasons, this arc was essential for El’s character development. Millie Bobby Brown even acknowledged in Worlds Turned Upside Down that the purpose of this particular story was about El discovering who she was as a person, and it’s something I agree with.

In this episode, El is at a crossroads. She’s being hunted by the Government, she’s been cut off from her friends for nearly a year and can’t safely contact them, she’s in a very contentious place with Hopper over their living situation and feels like their arrangement is not working anymore, and she finds out she’s been kept in the dark about what really happened to her Mom. She even loses trust in Becky when Becky calls Hopper’s precinct for help because she doesn’t know who else to turn to. The only thing El has to go on at this point is what Terry showed her in the vision: Kali.

When El finally meets Kali, not only is she introduced to someone with similar powers to her who helps her develop them (if only briefly), but also introduces her to a new lifestyle: One where her situation is reversed. Instead of running or hiding, she can fight back and make the “bad men” afraid for a change. Instead of suppressing her powers, she can be free to use them how she wants to. Instead of the fear of being an outcast, she can embrace it and make it a strength. She no longer has to live in fear.

However, like any lifestyle, it comes with its negatives in addition to the positives: Kali and her gang are still fugitives, and they’re always on a knife’s edge from being caught by law enforcement. They’ve already had several close shaves, and there’s always the risk they won’t be lucky next time. Even though scenes from the gang convey a hedonistic attitude (like rocking out in the van, or raiding the gas station), there are still consequences if things go wrong. They are not truly free, even if they project the idea of freedom.

Additionally, there’s the exploration making revenge a part of one’s lifestyle. Even though Kali has weaponized her rage for a direct purpose, it still doesn’t change the conditions of her situation, or her gang's for that matter: They have no life outside of targeting personnel from Hawkins Lab. At the end of the day, no matter how much they scrap and steal, they’re still effectively homeless and have no other prospects going for them. There’s a legit argument about how the Government and Society screwed them over, but it still doesn’t change the fact they’re not doing much to broaden their futures. And in El’s case, there’s the question of whether taking revenge is worth it, or will bring her any satisfaction. Regardless of whether Ray Carroll deserved to die, from El’s perspective, depriving his daughters of a father is no better than what Brenner did to her when he reduced Terry to a catatonic state, and it isn’t going to fix what El really wants: For her Mom to get better. El doesn’t get any pleasure or satisfaction from hurting or killing people. Even with Angela in season 4, for as vile as Angela was towards her, El was left shaken and upset when Angela was screaming, crying, and bleeding on the floor after she hit her with the roller skate. Maybe revenge works for Kali (and I would argue it actually doesn’t since Kali’s revenge tour has done nothing except leave her embittered while not improving her life), but it doesn’t for El. She isn’t interested in causing collateral damage or leaving a wake of destruction just to get even.

All of this factors into why El finally leaves for Hawkins at the end, albeit with a firmer resolution. One of the themes for this episode is about choice, which Kali conveys to her. El can’t force Kali to change her lifestyle any more than Kali can force El to stay. And neither of them wants to force the other. Despite El having a major blowout with Hopper, she overhears his message in the Void and recognizes that the door is open to her to try and fix things with him. Likewise, when she sees the vision in the Void of Hawkins Lab, she realizes that even though she can’t fix her circumstances or change the past, she can still make an impact on her future and be there for her friends who need her. She would have been there for Kali as well, but Kali’s made it clear that she’s set on the road she’s on, and she will not stand for El trying to divert her from it. And El realizes this is not a life she wants to have. She would rather sacrifice herself for her friends and stand the risk of being captured or killed just so they can have a future as opposed to constantly being on the run and trapped in a cycle of revenge with no end in sight.

Finally, there’s the last criticism I’ve seen (and something websites like TV Tropes take snipes at): The idea of Kali’s story and this episode being cliché. Which…………really? 😒 That's the criticism we're going for here, considering God knows how many stories out there (TV shows, movies, books, etc) have repeatedly centered themselves on the idea of revenge (and continue to do so in the year of our Lord 2025)?

Dune. True Blood. The Boys. The Beekeeper. A Song of Ice and Fire. Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. The Amateur. Red Hill. The Bourne Supremacy. Kill Bill. The Northman. The Mentalist (which also stars Pruitt Taylor Vince, who plays Ray Carroll in this episode). Supernatural. Salt. These are some I can name off the top of my head, but all these movies, shows, and books feature revenge (or avenging someone) as a key theme. This idea isn’t original. It’s a theme that’s been examined in stories going all the way back to ancient times, and it’s one that continues to be popular today. The theme of revenge is a cliché unto itself at this point. It’s also one that’s grounded in real-life: The idea of seeking revenge for a grievance visited upon us, or avenging someone who’s been wronged in some way. We see that play out constantly in both history and everyday real-life situations, which is a big reason why we probably get more stories about this topic, even if they aren’t original. Stranger Things may not be breaking new ground when exploring this theme with Kali, but then again, neither are the other movies, shows, or books I’ve just listed.

However, there’s another factor in this accusation of “cliché” that bothers me, and it’s specifically tied to the way Kali got ripped to shreds compared to certain other characters who had cliché arcs.

I know there are racist assholes like u/I-fuc-yo-mudda or internalized bigots like u/grandequesso from Reddit who get triggered and pissy whenever this topic is brought up (because God forbid people dare to have any discussions about it 🙄)…….but I’ve been in enough fandoms at this point to know that characters of color tend to get judged harsher for things that white characters would get off easy for. This isn’t just limited to revenge arcs, but any character arc in general. There’s a reason I’ve put a major emphasis in these reviews over how a character like Lucas got torn apart in season 1 (despite his personal growth) vs how some of those same people tripped over themselves to excuse/justify/downplay Billy’s behavior this season and had a conniption with anyone who dared to call his character a bigot. People like this like to pretend those kind of biases don’t exist, but after years of seeing a repeated pattern of this from multiple fandoms (as well as the tiresome accusations of being “woke” or “SJW” or “politically correct” whenever someone pointed this out)………..let me put it this way: If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

What's really irks me about past fan discussions regarding Kali's character (which is a big reason I'm doing this review) is that any nuance or complexity in her personality, motivations, or why she was seeking revenge was immediately dismissed at the time as “cliché” with zero desire to continue talking about it. Meanwhile, many of these same people went to fawn over Billy and wax poetic about him being a complex character (he wasn’t) and how great his backstory was (it's been rehashed multiple times in other stories outside of this show). This is despite how the type of character he is isn't original, and the theme of asshole bully who’s abused by his dad has been done to death (and done better) in other media outside Stranger Things. If we're really gonna blast Kali for not breaking any new ground here, then I've got news: Neither did Billy.

Personally, I don’t give a damn if people have characters they like and others they don’t, even in regards to Kali and Billy. I'm also not going to begrudge people for relating to certain arcs more than others. However, I find the double-standards of a POC character like Kali getting torn apart because she had a story that didn’t “razzle and dazzle” everyone, whereas a white character like Billy can have a completely unoriginal story (Billy’s ENTIRE ARC in seasons 2-3 was one of the most predictable storylines this show has ever done, not helped by the fact writers like Stephen King already explored this angle in the past with bully characters) and not get that similar level of heat from fans, to be tiresome. I would tell people to own up to their biases, but I have enough life experience to know that rarely happens (if ever). Even now, while Kali’s reception has improved over the years (especially with the direction the later seasons went), fans still can’t resist giving backhanded remarks. Take this section from “Character Perception Evolution" on TV tropes for instance:

I find this to be both eyeroll-inducing and infuriating because its fans wanting to absolve themselves for the attacks they viciously hurled on Kali at the time (which may have been a factor in why her character hasn’t appeared since season 2) while laying the blame solely at the Duffer Brothers feet, as if fans didn’t bear any responsibility for this. Kali’s personality wasn’t “stereotypical” and neither was her backstory. I’ve already explained why and how. You guys tore into her at the time and refused to give her a chance, and now you claim to act surprised that the show moved on and she hasn’t been featured since? Come on! 🙄

To be clear: I want Kali to come back for season 5. I’m glad season 4 has allowed fans to reevaluate their stance on her. I’m just annoyed because I’m someone who liked Kali way back in 2017 when she made her first appearance, and saw the potential for her character and the direction her arc and relationship with El could go……………only to be sad and disappointed when that didn’t happen. And while I recognize the Duffer Brothers are the ones who make the final call about whether Kali appears again or not, I wish for once that fans would take responsibility for the way they use their voices to influence the show. The same fandom that caused #JusticeForBarb to trend, to the point the Duffer Brothers made getting justice for Barbara a plot point in season 2, were just as able to push for Kali to come back if they really wanted her to. I hope it’s not too late, but it shouldn’t have taken this long for people to go “Maybe we shouldn’t have jumped the gun in regards to this character and what they could have brought to the show.”

If we’re still hung up though on the “cliché” criticism, then permit me to do a side-by-side comparison with another arc on this show that was not only deeply cliché, but also had the downside of being miserable and pointless to sit through (which is NOT how I felt watching "The Lost Sister"): Angela and her disgusting friends.

Part 5: Angela's Gang vs. Kali's Gang

Remember what I said earlier about how there were nuances present in Kali’s gang? When you compare it to the way Angela, her friends, and the entire Rink-O-Mania crowd were written, those aspects become apparent quickly.

Take the way Angela and her friends treat El vs how Kali’s gang initially does for instance: We are never given any explanation in season 4 for why Angela and her friends viciously bully El. They are nasty to her simply because the story needed to emphasize how El was having a miserable time in Lenora. The show gives no reason or motivation whatsoever for their mean-spirited behavior. They are simply like that because the plot demands it.

By contrast, while Kali’s gang isn’t nice to El when she first appears at the warehouse, there’s at least context provided in the scene (and the season 2 premiere) to demonstrate why: They are fugitives from the law who are trying to hide, and the last thing they need is for some kid they don’t know to become their problem. They can only trust one another because of what they’ve done in the past, and the result is they are wary and hostile towards outsiders. While they tease El, it’s not rooted in sadism like with Angela and her friends, but them conveying to El that she is not wanted there and she needs to leave. Other than that, they’re not actively targeting El for harassment because they get a kick out of being cruel to her the way Angela does.

Additionally, there’s the relationship members of the gang have to Kali vs whatever thinly written relationships Angela’s friends have to her. While we’re not shown this, we’re at least given an explanation for why Mick, Dottie, Axel, and Funshine follow Kali’s lead: She helped rescue them (both internally and externally) from society discarding them, and built a family unit with them where they could depend on one another to have each other's backs. The result is they are loyal to Kali. It doesn’t mean they always agree with Kali’s decisions (like her wanting to do another hit just after reuniting with El) or aren't above calling Kali out (like when Axel angrily demands she stay out of his head), and we even see them express their ambivalence about El openly to Kali, but they at least trust her because they know Kali will look out for them.

By contrast, we are never given any explanation for why Angela’s friends like her, let alone want to be around her. She’s written to be such a nasty, hateful brat that it breaks suspension of disbelief that anyone tolerates her behavior. I dare fans to tell me what Jake or Stacy or Chads’ personalities were beyond “Follow Angela’s lead.” There’s no reason given for why they find their cruelty towards El to be funny, or why they think harassing the same girl for months on end wouldn’t get tiresome after a while. At least with the dynamic between Steve, Tommy, and Carol in season 1, there were instances where Steve expressed visible discomfort with the mean-spirited jabs Tommy and Carol made, and it eventually got to a point where he angrily called them out on it. We never see that nuance with Angela’s friends, and the result is (unlike Kali’s gang) they come off as brainless tools who cater to Angela’s whims. They have no needs or wants or motivations beyond whatever Angela's agenda is. I get that Angela was heavily inspired by Chris Hargensen from Stephen King’s Carrie, and that the Rink-O-Mania scene was meant to pay homage to the scene from the book and 1976 movie where Carrie has her period and the girls harass her in the locker room by throwing tampons and sanitary napkins at her. However, even Carrie featured girls like Sue Snell who were remorseful over what they did and eventually got sick of Chris’s behavior because she was that unpleasant. There is none of that featured with Angela, her friends, or the Rink-O-Mania crowd. At best, writing-wise, they all come off as future sociopaths lacking in empathy, and at worst, they’re one-dimensional cliches. The show doesn’t even try to give them hidden depths.

Kali's gang may be rough on the surface, but once they get acquainted with El, there’s an effort to be nice to El and include her in the group in subtle but noticeable ways: Funshine politely referring to El as “Miss Jane.” Dottie helping El with her makeover. Mick pulling El to safety when the cops show up at the end of the episode. Axel’s impressed reaction to El taking out the gas station attendant. Even them coming to cheer El when she pulls the railroad cart across the yard is genuine. They’re small moments, but they highlight there’s more underneath these characters to elevate them beyond simple stereotypes.

With Angela and her friends, there’s none of that. I understand they were written to be bullies, but there isn’t even an effort by the Duffer Brothers to give them any kind of depth beyond that. It makes them obnoxious and grating, and NOT in a "Love-to-Hate" way either. They don’t seem to have any standards beyond being cruel just for the sake of it, and it gets tiresome to watch. I cannot recall one instance where any of them expressed discomfort or doubt about what they were putting El through, or even said something along the lines of “Maybe we’re going too far with this.”

This brings me to the next point: The moral conundrums faced by El in both arcs. Personally, I find El’s dilemma about whether to kill Ray Carroll and continue Kali’s vigilantism to be more intriguing and better written compared to the guilt-tripping the show tried to engage in when Angela got her face smashed in after El lashed out at her.

Part of the reason I find Kali’s arc (and El’s role in it) interesting is because it raises ethical questions beyond the idea of revenge: The cold-hard reality is the Government and Hawkins Lab engaged in illegal acts (including the kidnapping, torture, and abuse of children) which wrecked lives, and the people behind those vile actions were never held accountable. They didn’t face jail time and, in Ray’s case, they were allowed to retire like nothing happened. The colossal damage and dead bodies they raked up were a non-issue that got brushed under the rug as “for the greater good.” As of season 4, we see that continuing, with Brenner’s “Nina Project” and his attempts to imprison El there, and Lt. Colonel Sullivan’s fixation on hunting down El without giving a damn for civilian casualties in the process. As the old saying goes: Who watches the watchmen? If people in the Government aren’t being held liable, what’s to stop them from continuing the same programs that created kids like El and Kali, and destroyed the lives of people like Terry? Kali’s methods may seem extreme on the surface, and there’s the argument that there will always be more men like Ray and Brenner out there, but as Mick points out to Kali, their methods are working in getting the attention of people in the Government and making them afraid. It may even work as a deterrent that dissuades others from working in those programs out of fear that they will be hunted down as well. There’s also how Ray’s character is portrayed here: Is he genuinely remorseful for what he put Kali and Terry through, or is he only sorry because he’s now facing consequences from the people he’s wronged? When he tells El and Kali that Brenner is alive, with the implication that Brenner reached out to him to come work for him again, was he planning to accept the offer before Kali’s gang showed up? Did he turn it down and want nothing to do with Brenner at that point? What were the circumstances behind his retirement in the first place? Was it because he saved up enough money and wanted to take care of his family, or was he disgusted with his past actions at Hawkins Lab and wanted to distance himself from that? Did Ray having kids himself cause a change of heart or not? The show leaves Ray’s character deliberately ambiguous in order for the audience to draw their own conclusions about whether he deserves what he’s being subjected to. Ray claims he was just following Brenner’s orders, and Kali calls bullshit on this while telling Ray he knew what he was doing was evil. Likewise, El’s argument for sparing Ray because he had kids who didn’t deserve to be deprived of a parent vs Kali’s argument that him being a parent doesn’t excuse his past sins (especially towards them when they were kids) and that he deserves to be held accountable creates a moral greyness that’s fascinating to watch.

By contrast, El hitting Angela with the roller-skate comes off as less conflicting than the Duffer Brothers intended it to be, and more cathartic because of how vile Angela had been up to that point. She had been harassing El for MONTHS and no attempts at getting her to stop or appealing to Angela’s empathy and decency (which were nonexistent) were working. It was clear from El’s perspective that Angela was just going to continue with this cruelty even after what she pulled at Rink-O-Mania, and that this was never going to stop. At that point, El finally reached her limit. This wasn’t ever about killing Angela (and people who claim that was the case are either intentionally reading El's actions in bad-faith or trolling). El wanted Angela to understand the depths of the hurt she had repeatedly inflicted, and if that meant conveying that in a physical way that Angela couldn’t ignore and would be forced to reckon with, so be it. I know the show wanted us to feel bad for Angela when she was wailing and the paramedics had to tend to her, but the problem is they wrote her character to be so irredeemable that I just don’t care. I don’t care that she got a broken nose and a grade 2 concussion. I don’t care that Angela’s friends or the Rink-O-Mania crowd (who had participated in viciously bullying El beforehand) are horrified by this. I don’t care because the show has given me no reason to care. At least with Ray Carroll, there’s ambiguity about whether he’s sorry for what he did. There is none of that present with Angela, or anyone else at Rink-O-Mania for that matter. So when the show tries to engage in this pearl-clutching over El's actions while Angela is crying her eyes out, this is the most emotion I can muster:

The overall point I’m trying to make with these comparisons is that, while I understand “The Lost Sister” has its flaws, and there could have been more development with Kali’s gang (as well as an attempt to integrate them better into the main story), there are subtleties with this arc and the characters which get overlooked when fans rush to dismiss everything associated with it as “cliché.” When I think of that word, I think of the Lenora arc, specifically the parts involving Angela and her friends. Not just with how one-dimensional and unpleasant it was to sit through, but how it regurgitated every single cliché associated with bullying to the point it was off-putting. I’m not saying that people like Angela don’t exist in real life (I’ve met people like her before, and they are fucking AWFUL to be around) and I’m aware that mob mentality is a thing (I’ve seen that plenty of instances on social media and off it where people gleefully dogpile on others and harass them for shits and giggles), but it doesn’t change the fact it’s still a cliché that adds nothing new and the topic of bullying is something that’s already been covered by the show prior to season 4. At least Kali’s arc tried something new, even if it could have been polished up a little.

Part 6: Kali’s Future

As of writing this, it remains unknown whether Kali is coming back for season 5. We haven’t seen Linnea Berthelsen’s name in the casting list yet, and it's unknown if she's returning at all. To be fair though, it is early, and they do sometimes withhold names to avoid spoilers, so I’m not ruling anything out yet.

Out of all the characters who’ve come and gone, if they were going to bring at least one of them back, I would prefer it to be Kali. Just like with El, Kali deserves closure. I’ve already expressed unhappiness at initial fan reception towards her, and I believe they did her dirty by not featuring her in seasons 3-4. This is a character who has a lot of potential, not just for her relationship with El, but also for what future relationships she could develop with the main cast. I would LOVE to see her interact with characters like Mike, Steve, Hopper, and the rest of the main characters, and I would also like to see what relationship (if any) she has with Henry/One/Vecna.

For what it’s worth, there are some indications (however subtle) that she could be brought back for season 5. There was an interview the Duffer Brothers gave after season 4 aired that revealed three things had been planned out from the beginning of the show: The presence of Henry/One/Vecna, the Massacre at Hawkins Lab, and (in addition to El) Kali being one of the survivors:

MATT DUFFER: We always knew that the other kids with the exception of Eight were dead. We always wanted to explore that and exactly what happened. It became a challenge because we knew we wanted to tell that story but it’s basically an origin flashback story. How do you keep that feeling relevant to what’s happening in the season, so when you cut to it, you feel like there’s some sort of forward progression and a connection? We knew it was going to connect ultimately to One.

Furthermore, in the original Montauk Script, there was a character named Tommy mentioned by El to be her “little brother.” I suspect this was likely what Eight may have originally started out as before the character was reworked in the writing process to become Kali. Regardless, it highlights the idea that El wasn’t just going to be the only special kid left alive besides Vecna.

The reason I bring this up is because, from a writing perspective, you wouldn’t feature a character like this surviving a major plot-related event that shapes the entire story unless you were planning to do something important with that character. If Kali/Eight wasn’t meant to have a major role in the story, why didn’t they just kill her off when they originally conceived the Massacre at Hawkins Lab, and just have El and Vecna be the last of the special children?

I’m reminded of what Animorphs did towards the end of the series. There was a character from that book named Arbon, an Andalite friend to Elfangor (the Andalite responsible for giving the main human characters the morphing cube so they’d have the ability to combat the Yeerk invasion on Earth). In the prequel novel The Andalite Chronicles, Arbon had been with Elfangor on a mission to the Taxxon home world, and ended up getting trapped as a Taxxon due to exceeding the 2 hour limit of morphing. At the time, he opted to stay and become a part of the Taxxon resistance against the Yeerks. At first, he was absent from the story for a long time (this series last for over 60 books) and it seemed like he was never coming back. Then he appeared again in the last 2 books of the series. Not only that, but his appearance marked a major turning point in the war against the Yeerks that enabled the main characters to stand a chance at saving Earth. What made it work is that Arbon’s character and backstory had been established beforehand, so his appearance in the final books didn’t come off as an Ass Pull, or introducing a new plot element/character that had never been mentioned prior to that moment.

All this makes me wonder if Kali’s absence for the past few seasons is because they’re saving her character for season 5, and she’ll have a major role in the conflict between El and Vecna. Or maybe El will seek her out for help. For what it’s worth, the Stranger Things writers tweeted out back in 2023 that people should rewatch season 2 again prior to the final season airing, hinting that there will be elements from this season that will come into play in season 5.

There’s also this “Missing Poster” for El that got dropped in January of this year:

I know I suggested the theories about Vecna taking El prisoner in the Upside Down, or her simply lying low after being spotted at Hawkins High School to avoid attracting further attention from Lt. Colonel Sullivan, but there may be a third theory: El may have disappeared trying to locate Kali. Or maybe El's disappearance is what causes Kali to come to Hawkins.

All of this is speculation though because it remains unknown if Kali is coming back at all. Because of this, I’ll discuss all the possible scenarios that could happen with Kali during season 5 and what my reaction would likely be:

1.) Kali doesn’t appear in season 5 because her character gets killed off by Vecna by the time the season starts.

This was a theory that got suggested by someone in the notes of one of my ST5 speculation posts. I’ll be honest in admitting I HATE this theory. Not only would it be completely wasting Kali’s character and any potential she had in the story, but it would essentially be Fridging a character of color for the sake of El’s arc. I already had problems with this when shows like Supernatural and Games of Thrones did that, and I have no desire to see that on Stranger Things. That’s also including how Vecna already has the ability to create illusions in people’s minds and doesn’t need to kill Kali for that (not saying that he wouldn’t kill her given the kind of person he is, but it would just render her entire character and story pointless).

2.) Kali doesn’t appear in season 5, doesn’t appear in the spin-off, and Stranger Things forgets about her altogether.

This is only slightly above the idea of Fridging Kali, and I dislike it just as much. It’s wasting a perfectly good character, and it begs the question of why they even wrote Kali in the first place if they weren’t going to do anything with her. That’s not even getting into the unfortunate implications of catering to fans who threw a fit about Kali when she was first featured all those years ago.

3.) Kali doesn’t appear in season 5, but will be featured in one or more of the Stranger Things spin-offs.

I’ve heard conflicting rumors about the Stranger Things spin-offs. They recently announced one of them would be in the vein of a Saturday Morning Cartoon titled Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 which will focus on the Party facing monsters from the Upside Down in 1985. There’s also another spin-off called Stranger Things: Tokyo that’s supposed to be an anime focusing on twins from Tokyo who have an encounter with the Upside Down. Neither of these spin-offs convey the idea that Kali will be featured, but it’s possible she could return in a supporting or recurring role. Additionally, the Duffer Brothers have talked about the idea of doing live-action spin-offs, and it’s possible that they might try to feature Kali there if she doesn’t make an appearance in season 5.

To be honest, I’m extremely wary about this. A lot would depend on whether season 5 ends on a solid note, or drops the ball like Game of Thrones and True Blood did. That would automatically sour any interest I have in future spin-offs. House of the Dragon is the only exception to the rule, and even that comes with major asterisks, to say nothing about how it continues to live in the shadow of the shit-show that was Game of Thrones Season 8.

I would prefer it if Kali came back for season 5 as opposed to appearing in her own spin-off. I believe she deserves to be a part of the main story, and get some kind of closure with El. However, if they were considering doing a spin-off with Kali as the main character, there would be a number of things that would have to change. For one, they’d have to either do a better job fleshing-out the members of her gang so that the audience would care about them, or they would need to disappear entirely. For another, they would need to create an arc for Kali that wasn’t just about her seeking revenge against Hawkins Lab. They can’t just rehash what this episode has already done.

4.) Kali returns to season 5 as a villain working for Vecna.

As sad as I would be to see Kali descend into evil, I could see that as a potential arc for her if they chose to go that route. Right now, Kali is in the middle between good and evil. She hasn’t completely descended into mindless cruelty and destruction like Vecna has, nor is she killing random people out of a genocidal desire to wipe out humanity like he is. However, she is on the edge between morally ambiguous anti-hero and straight-up villain. She is deeply angry and on a revenge tour, and if she isn’t careful, that could explode into her directing her rage at innocent people and causing them to become collateral damage. Assuming my theory is correct that Venca knew Kali at the Lab and enabled her escape, it’s possible he might try to contact her, and get her to act as his agent against El. He’s already tried to beat El on his own, and it hasn’t worked, so he tries a different method: Exploiting El and Kali’s complicated relationship, and manipulating Kali into believing El wrongfully abandoned her and that he’s the only friend she can trust. The result is that Kali becomes El’s enemy and another special kid that she and the main characters have to contend with. It would be horrifying and tragic, but I could see that happening.

5.) Kali comes back for season 5 and aids El against Vecna.

This is where I hope they take Kali’s story in season 5. Like I said, I like the relationship between El and Kali, and I believe Kali should have the chance to heal and redeem herself. She deserves to have her story brought to a satisfying resolution instead of being left hanging. Like I said, I would like to see her interact with the other main characters outside of El and see what relationships she would form with them. I also think it would make for a powerful conclusion to her arc if she rejected the darkness that’s dominated her life and helped her sister save the world from Vecna and the Upside Down, all while finding meaning and a renewed purpose in her life. Stranger Things has always pushed for redemption for characters who choose it, and I believe Kali should at least be given that chance instead of being written off.

Part 7: Song Choices and Final Thoughts

First song featured in this episode is probably one of my favorite musical moments from the entire show: “Runaway” by Bon Jovi. This plays when El arrives in Chicago for the first time and sees how big the city is.

Jon Bon Jovi has admitted the song was inspired by his experiences traveling on Greyhound buses from New Jersey to Manhattan, and seeing so many young people during those trips who were desperate to leave their situations. It’s a fitting song for El’s introduction to Chicago since she’s traveling by bus to meet Kali, and is running away from her home with Hopper because of the argument they had three episodes ago (“All your life, All your life, all you've asked when is your daddy gonna talk to you. But you were livin' in another world, trying to get your message through.”). At this point in the story, El doesn’t feel like Hopper understands her or her frustrations, and she’s traveling to find someone who might. In a way, she’s getting a kind of freedom that she felt was absent while living with Hopper (“Ooh, she's a little runaway. Daddy's girl learned fast. All those things she couldn't say.”). However, her brief time with Kali isn’t as fulfilling as she believed it would be, and we see her towards the end of the episode starting to miss home, similar to the girl’s predicament in the song (“So you sit home alone, 'cause there's nothin' left that you can do. There's only pictures hung in the shadows left there to look at you.”). In a way, this song practically foreshadows the direction El’s story is going to take in this episode.

Next song is instrumental and mostly features humming, but one I appreciate because of how soothing it is: “Outside the Realm” by Big Giant Circles. This plays when El reunites with Kali for the first time in years, and they’re later on the roof while El tells Kali her story and Kali conjures an illusion of a butterfly for El to play with.

This music was composed for a video game called There Came an Echo. It’s a beautiful piece of music that fits perfectly with El and Kali’s heartwarming interactions. This same score was even featured in “Trick or Treat, Freak” during Mike and Will’s conversation when Will tells Mike about the Mind Flayer stalking him, and Mike comforts Will.

Next song is “Back to Nature” by Fad Gadget. This plays when Kali formerly introduces El to her gang the next morning.

The song’s lyrics suggest the idea that it’s about “the separation between modern people and the natural world.” I find that ironic given Kali and her gang aren’t in nature, but in the city and constantly on the move to different locations. However, maybe it’s possible that the various cities they’ve been forced to run to and from in their quest to hunt down employees from Hawkins Lab (Pittsburgh, Chicago, etc) is their “natural environment” at this point. Best I can say is this is NOT a feel-good song, and perhaps captures the artificial routine of Kali and the gang and what has become their lives.

Next piece of music is a sample of one of John Carpenter’s scores from Escape from New York: “The Bank Robbery.” It plays during the scene when Kali, El, and the gang make plans to target Ray Carroll.

This piece was supposed to be a part of a deleted scene from that movie where Snake Plissken, the main protagonist, executes a bank robbery (likely the Federal Reserve that was mentioned in the movie) and gets caught in the process, kickstarting the events leading up to making a deal with the Government to rescue the President. The music complements the scene well in conveying the formulation of a plan, and works as a nice shout-out to John Carpetner and the movie.

Next song is “Dead End Justice” by The Runaways. This plays during El’s makeover and when Kali and her gang organize before driving out to kill Ray Carroll:

They only feature the first part of this song in the episode, and it perfectly captures the image of Kali and her gang: “Stealing cars and breaking hearts. Pills and thrills and acting smart. Dead end kids in the danger zone. All of you are drunk and stoned. Dead end kids, you're not alone. You sleep in the streets when you're not at home.” Granted, none of them are teenagers or “sweet sixteen” like the singer from the song is, but they are their own group of rebels causing trouble. Difference is they’re doing a lot worse than just getting “drunk or stoned.” They’re targeting people for death. The second part of the song differs heavily from the first part: The singer is caught by police, ends up in juvenile hall, and their prospects go downhill from there (“Behind the fence, there is no defense. There's murder, rape and bribery. In and out, burglary. You don't look so tough. Oh, I been around. On the planet sorrow, there is no tomorrow.”). The last part of the song features the singer and another person attempting to break out and escape, only for it to go horribly wrong: (“Joan, I'm down, my ankle! I can't go on, but I can't leave you. What do I do? Save yourself, you know what you gotta do. Oh, my god!”). The song reminds me of “Green Green Grass of Home” from “Dig Dug” that starts out optimistic, only to take a dark turn towards the end. In the context of this episode, the song not only works to highlight the risks Kali and her gang face if they’re caught (Kali might survive since the Government values her abilities, but the rest of her companions would likely be killed), but also what El’s fate might have been had she refused to return to Hawkins and stayed with Kali. It’s a horrifying “What If” situation, but one that could happen to Kali someday if she continues down this path.

Finally, there’s "Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)" by The Icicle Works. This plays when El returns to Hawkins and briefly interacts with the nice lady on the bus.

This song has an uplifting tone to it, and fits nicely with El’s decision to save her friends. After being in a dark place for multiple episodes, while she doesn’t have everything in her life figured out yet and the future still remains unknown to her, she at least is going back with conviction (“Finding our way around indecision”) and a desire to save others out of love rather than continue Kali’s quest of destroying others out of hate (even if they were vile people who deserved it): “Love come down upon us till you flow like water. Burning with the hope of insight. Feathered, look they're covered with a bright elation. Stolen in the sight of love.” This also can apply to Kali as well in that she still has a choice: She doesn’t have to continue this life, or allow herself to be defined by her past. She can find El and make peace with her, and start anew. I sincerely hope she does.

On a final note, I want to discuss this woman briefly despite her minimal role in this episode:

While I think this is likely just someone who’s being kind to El in this moment (similar to Becky and the truck driver in “Dig Dug”), I would find it amusing if she returns for season 5 and the Duffer Brothers reveal that she’s Patty Newby from The First Shadow. I doubt that’s going to happen (though I also hope Patty makes an appearance in season 5 similar to Kali, and I’ll discuss why in the next review), but it would be funny if they did that. It certainly would make this episode and this scene more important in hindsight. 😂

To conclude, No Funko Pop for Kali. If they ever release one for her, I will happily buy it.

DUFFER BROTHERS: PLEASE BRING KALI BACK FOR SEASON 5!

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