One of the most shocking moments from Stranger Things 5 is the return of Kali Prasad. She’s one of the test subjects from Dr. Brenner’s experiments at the Hawkins Lab.
Her return is tied to the reveal that the military has a device that prevents Eleven from using her powers.
How are these two events connected?
The military’s secret weapon
Ever since Vecna weakened the barrier between Hawkins and the Upside Down in Stranger Things season 4, the military has gotten involved. The whole town is on lockdown with soldiers monitoring who’s allowed to enter. The government is also looking for Eleven, who they believe is behind Hawkins’ destruction.
In Stranger Things 5, Eleven travels to the Upside Down to look for Holly Wheeler after she’s abducted by a Demogorgon. She runs into her adoptive father Hopper, who’s investigating a secret military base hidden inside the Upside Down. The base is run by an enigmatic figure named Dr. Kay, who studies the creatures living in the parallel dimension.
During their investigation, Eleven starts screaming while holding her head in her hands. This mystery weapon seems to be everywhere. It’s mounted on top of vehicles. It’s hidden inside of the base where it goes off like an alarm when it senses Eleven’s presence. It seems to be emitting some kind of frequency that only Eleven can perceive.
While Hopper interrogates a soldier he captured, Eleven enters his mind. She learns that the military has gotten a hold of someone with immense power. Someone strong enough to act as a living kryptonite against Eleven.
El thinks it’s Vecna, but at the end of episode 4, she finds it’s actually her sister figure Kali. Kali is hooked up to a bunch of strange equipment, but the episode doesn’t give us anything to work with.
How do Kali’s powers work?
To understand how Kali is connected to all of this, you need to understand how her powers work.
All of the Hawkins Lab children get their powers from Vecna/Henry Creel. Though there’s variations of how these powers manifest.
Kali’s powers are all about manipulating people’s perception of reality. This can be done via generating illusions. She can also invoke a sense of phantasmagoria in people. She can manipulate people with all five of the human senses. Tricking people into seeing, hearing or feeling something that isn’t there.
Why Kali’s power is perfect for an anti-Eleven device
Kali is the perfect for Dr. Kay’s weapon because of her ability to alter the brain’s perception of reality.
By studying how Kali is able to bend people’s minds and senses, Dr. Kay probably learned how to reverse engineer that process.
That’s where the machines come in. They replicate Kali’s illusion powers by emitting a blast of energy that only affects Eleven.
That could be what the military is doing. The weapon isn’t hurting Eleven in any way. It’s just forcing Kali to trick Eleven into thinking something is messing with her powers.
This is just a theory, but I’m curious if we get an explanation for what Dr. Kay has in store for Kali and Eleven. Volume 2 of Stranger Things 5 (episodes 5–7) is set to premiere on Christmas (December 25) at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
