Kali / 008 (Stranger Things): Eleven's lab sister, from Chicago to season 5
Character · Subject 008 · Seasons 2 and 5
Kali is subject 008 of Hawkins Lab: Eleven's “sister”, the other child of the program who survived, and the one who chose revenge where Eleven chose Hawkins. Met in Chicago in the fall of 1984, at the head of a crew that hunts former lab staff, she vanishes for two seasons before coming back, a prisoner of the army, for the last fight. This page brings together everything: her powers, her two appearances, her tie to Eleven, and the end season 5 has in store for her.
The essentials
- Name: Kali Prasad, subject 008, “Eight”
- Power: illusion: making people see what is not there
- First appearance: season 2 (1984), in Chicago
- Tie: Eleven's lab sister, raised together by Brenner
- Crew: Axel, Dottie, Funshine, Mick
- Played by: Linnea Berthelsen
- Status: killed during the assault on the lab, in season 5
Contents
Played by
Linnea Berthelsen
It is Linnea Berthelsen who lends her face to Kali (008) on the show.
Image: Stranger Things series, via decider.com.
Who is Kali?
Eleven finds her first in the Void, in the fall of 1984: a young woman with her hair up, an 008 tattoo on her forearm, who knows she is being watched and looks back. Then in a memory of her mother: a little girl with black hair who played with her in the lab's rainbow room, before Brenner separated them. Kali is the proof Eleven was never alone. She is also the proof of what Eleven could have become.
Abducted like her, numbered like her, Kali escaped the lab years before 1983. In Chicago, she lives in an abandoned warehouse with a crew of outcasts, Axel, Dottie, Funshine, and Mick, and spends her nights finding the men who worked for Brenner. She makes them pay. Her power is not Eleven's strength: it is illusion. She makes you see a butterfly, a wall, an abyss, a dead man, and the brain believes it.
For the length of an episode, she offers Eleven another life: anger, freedom, revenge, a chosen family. Eleven refuses, and goes back to Hawkins to close the gate. Kali, for her part, disappears for three years. When she comes back, in 1987, it is no longer as a gang leader. It is as a prisoner.
The rainbow roomThat is the name the children gave the lab playroom, because of the rainbow painted on the wall. Kali and Eleven played there together as children, before Brenner decided to separate them. The memory comes back to Eleven in 1984, then in 1986 when she relives the 1979 massacre: Kali was already gone.
In the shop: a piece from the show's universe that goes with this file, chosen by us.
In the shopKids' Be an Eleven T-shirt24,90 €See the product
Kali season by season
BeforeThe lab
Kali is one of the first children in Brenner's program, numbered 008, raised in the same hallways as Eleven and, before her, Henry. She develops the power to create illusions in other people's minds. She escapes, in a way the show does not detail, and grows up far from Hawkins with a single idea: find the people who locked her up. She learns to live on the margins, to steal, to hide, and above all to use her illusions as a weapon: a cop who sees a chasm open under his feet does not shoot. When Eleven meets her, Kali already has a list, addresses, and a wall covered in crossed-out photos.
1984Season 2: Chicago
Eleven, hidden in Hopper's cabin, first finds her mother, Terry, then, in her memories, another girl from the lab. She runs away to Chicago and finds Kali in her warehouse. Kali teaches her to channel her anger to make her powers stronger, takes her on a punitive raid on a former lab employee, Ray Carroll, and offers her a place in the crew. But Eleven refuses to kill a man in front of his children, and sees, in the Void, her friends in danger in Hawkins. She leaves. Kali lets her go, telling her that her place is here and that she will come back.
1985-1986Seasons 3 and 4: the missing one
Kali does not appear for two seasons. Fans looked for her for a long time: she stays off-screen during the battle of Starcourt, during the California exile, and during the fight with Vecna. The show keeps her in reserve for the end.
1987Season 5: the captive and the end
Hawkins is under quarantine, and the army, commanded by a scientist, Dr. Kay, runs its own experiments on the Upside Down. Kali is her prisoner: her blood is used as raw material. Hopper and Eleven free her during a raid on a military facility on the other side. Kali joins the fight, and helps get the kidnapped children out of Henry's mind. During the assault on the lab, she is caught in the soldiers' fire and dies. The epilogue hints that before dying, she and Eleven had prepared a last plan: that is the idea on which Mike builds his conviction that Eleven is alive.
Her powers
She projects into someone else's mind what she wants: a butterfly for Eleven, an abyss for a cop, a wall to cover an escape. The victim cannot tell true from false.
That is the lesson she gives Eleven: find the wound, feed it, and strike with it. Eleven will use it, but will choose another fuel.
Her illusions do not wound; they deceive. Against armed soldiers, in 1987, they are not enough.
Like Henry's for Brenner, Kali's serves the army's experiments in season 5. The program never really closed.
Key moments
-
The Void, 1984
Eleven looks for her mother and finds a stranger with the 008 tattoo looking back. The first time another child from the program exists on screen.
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The butterfly
In the warehouse, Kali makes a butterfly appear on Eleven's hand. It does not exist. Eleven watches it fly away anyway.
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The train
Kali teaches Eleven to move a train car with anger, by reminding her of Brenner. The lesson works too well.
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At Ray Carroll's
A former lab employee, his children behind a door, and Eleven who lowers her arm. The moment the two sisters take different paths.
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The liberation, 1987
Hopper and Eleven open her cell in a base in the Upside Down. Kali no longer has a crew; she has a sister, and one last fight.
Another piece from the selection: a piece from the show's universe that goes with this file.
In the shopLego dark Demogorgon figure 568 pieces49,90 €See the product
Their ties
| Person | What he or she is to Kali | The key moment |
|---|---|---|
| Eleven | The little lab sister, the other survivor | The rainbow room; the Chicago warehouse; the 1987 liberation |
| Brenner | The tormentor she hunts through her former keepers | The raid on Ray Carroll, 1984 |
| Axel, Dottie, Funshine, and Mick | The chosen family, the Chicago crew | The nocturnal heist of 1984 |
| Dr. Kay | The new jailer, in 1987 | The military lab in the Upside Down |
| Hopper | The man who frees her, with Eleven | The 1987 incursion |
Not to be confused
| People often say | In reality | The landmark |
|---|---|---|
| Kali is Eleven's sister by blood | A lab sister: the same hallways, the same tormentor, no family bond | The two tattoos |
| Kali has the same powers as Eleven | She creates illusions; Eleven moves matter | The warehouse butterfly |
| Kali only appears in one episode | One episode in 1984, then several in season 5 | Her captivity and her death in 1987 |
| Kali survives the show | She dies during the assault on the lab | The epilogue does not show her |
A rarer confusion: the 1984 Chicago episode is not a “bonus episode” detached from the story. That is where Eleven learns to use her anger, which lets her, two episodes later, close the lab gate. Without Kali, no end of season 2.
Our Kali products
Kali is one of the characters fans who followed the show to the end ask for most: posters and T-shirts inspired by subject 008 and the Chicago crew. We pick every piece ourselves, and claim nothing beyond our passion for the show.
To complete the reading: a piece inspired by Kali.
In the shopEleven lab coat34,90 €See the product
Frequently asked questions
Who is Kali in Stranger Things?
Kali Prasad is subject 008 of Hawkins Lab, a child of Brenner's program raised with Eleven, able to create illusions. After escaping, she leads in 1984 a crew of outcasts in Chicago who hunt former lab staff. She returns in season 5, a prisoner of the army, and dies during the final battle.
Is Kali Eleven's sister?
A lab sister, not by blood. Both were taken, numbered, and raised by Brenner in the same hallways, and played together as children in the rainbow room. Eleven calls her her sister; it is the only family bond the lab left them.
What is Kali's power?
The illusion. She projects into other people's minds images that do not exist: a butterfly, a wall, a chasm, a dead man. The victim cannot tell the difference. It is a power of escape and manipulation, not of destruction, which sets her apart from Eleven.
Why does Eleven leave Kali in season 2?
Because Kali asks her to kill a former lab employee in front of his children, and Eleven refuses. At the same moment, she sees in the Void that her friends are in danger in Hawkins. She chooses to go back and close the gate rather than stay and avenge the past.
Does Kali die in Stranger Things?
Yes, in season 5. Freed from a military facility by Hopper and Eleven, she takes part in the fight and helps get the kidnapped children out of Henry's mind, then dies under the soldiers' fire during the assault on the lab. The epilogue suggests she had prepared a last plan with Eleven.
Who plays Kali?
Linnea Berthelsen plays Kali in season 2 then in season 5. The images on this page come from the show and its promotion; they remain the property of their rights holders.