Shruti

New Still of Dylan O'Brien as Bradley Preston and Rachel McAdams as Linda Liddle in “Send Help”. (2026)

Commission

Whatever.

the fact that when both el and kali collapsed, hopper grabbed el and left kali on the floor, giving us that gutting shot of her all alone in pain - and there’s no way of knowing if hopper would’ve gone back for her, had el not begged him.

the fact that in mike’s epilogue about el, he couldn't even imagine kali going along with el to see the waterfalls; that she's not even seen as important to el, just 'the mage's sister'. instead, her last bit of free will is used to help el escape, but she doesn't get to go with her.

the fact that no one thought to even carry kali out of the lab after she'd died, so they could at least bury her properly, instead of leaving her there, alone, on the lab floor in the fucking upside down.

the fact that so many people were there to help look out for el, but no one was there to look out for kali.

She’s one of the only WOC character and was tortured and used by the government for her body. Does that not sound eerily familiar??? And in the end they decide to kill her off to prop up the white protagonists? In THIS current political climate?????

The fact that HENRY, a white male character, gets more sympathy in his death, than Kali….

And then none of the queer characters get to have a fleshed out relationship? Rockie happens entirely off screen. And Will and epilogue boyfriend get maybe 30 seconds togethe?

When I first watched the show and got to season two, I saw Kali. And as a young kid with Indian heritage myself I thought it was so cool to see not only a badass character who looked like me, but a badass character who looked like me with powers (back then I didn't know The Lost Sister was the worst rated episode so that didn't ruin it for me).

Now watching season 5, I'm not even mad as I am disappointed with how the show deals with their POC character. Out of the three main POC characters (four including Argyle, but he was only their for one season), Erica is a one-dimensional stereotype of a character meant to be comedy relief (I do love her but her personality is just being the Sassy Black Girl), and now the other woman of color character is "a traitor". And if we're talking about Argyle, he's also one-dimensional comic relief. We only have one POC character that's a well written protagonist and that is Lucas.

And I know that "it was the 80s" and "it's not realistic" to have more racial diversity in a show of the time period. But when has a show about fighting monsters and different dimensions and having telekinesis had to worry about realism. This is also the same show where a gay kid comes out to twelve people in the 80s (peak of the AIDS crisis) and no one bats an eye.

(I'm going on a bit of a tangent here but) honestly a problem with the show is that racism is touched with as much as it should be. I'm not going to say that it doesn't exist or that it's not mentioned, but if enought people believe that Billy was straight up not racist (which many do believe) then it needs to be shown more. Or people need to have better media literacy idk, I just wish it was mentioned more.

So anyways, it does hurt when I talk to my friends or go on YouTube and all I see is "Kali is evil!", "I always hated Kali!", "I just KNOW Kali's the traitor!" because we get to see a character who is like El except Kali never got a stable family. Kali was homeless since she was a young kid and only had a few friends who were all killed in front of her. And when she was homeless she probably faced racism because it was the 80s.

When I watched volume two, I was so surprised to see no one trying to comfort Kali or talk to her or anything. And I know in the show they were in a time crunch but with the weird pacing I'm sure they could have fit it in somewhere. But now seeing everyones comments on her now, I'm not even surprised, because almost no one in real has any empathy for her. Because Kali is a traumatized girl too who believes that the only way to stop people from feeling the hurt that she did is to kill herself. Because Kali is suicidal too, Kali doesn't want El to kill herself so Kali can live like I've seen some people say. And again, no one is supporting her through this. Hopper sees that she's distressed and what does he want to do? He's says he'll kill her. And I get he wants to protect his daughter, but maybe there are some steps before committing murder?

1) kali is, in a very backwards way, at the heart trying to protect el. that sounds antithetical, but this isn't some maniacal plot to drag el down with her. kali has just gone through unimaginable horrors - she watched her friends die in front of her, she was stripped of her personhood to become essentially a machine that pumps out blood, forever caged and drugged through it - all at the hands of the government. kali witnessed upclose kay's cruelty, and then stumbling upon those mothers, saw behind the gov's curtain. she saw the end of the tunnel, and there's no way out. so she a. wants to protect el from being forced into what she had to endure, and b. save those mothers and potential babies from going through what they had to in the lab.

2) it's also important to remember, that kali's mission has always been about justice. it was always about remaking what was wrong, and taking those responsible down. for that to happen, to protect those potentially hundreds of kids and moms, she believes they must sacrifice themselves. it's so important to her that this never happen again, that she'll sacrifice herself for it. you gotta remember where kali gets her name - from the goddess. the goddess of both justice and destruction, but also, of mother love and protection. our kali is the embodiment of all these things; wringing out destruction and justice, but at the heart of it, it's because she's trying to protect others. she was trying to protect potential future victims by killing those lab-workers, and she's trying to protect those moms and babies by giving herself up and ending the cycle, as well as protect el from the always lingering possibility that the military could snatch her again.

and 3) in the very short time we got to see kali and el together, they have been at odds with each other. they have many similarities and it's clear how much they care about each other, but they're very different when it comes to their outlooks. kali believes ridding the world of those men who abused them is bringing justice and stopping the violence, but all el sees is blood - and that's part of why el leaves. and once again, it's clear that kali is hung up on another idea that el just can't get behind; I don't know about you guys, but all through their conversations I could really sense el's hesitation - even at the last scene where they nodded to each other. I'm thinking that either el changes her mind later on and convinces/tries to bring kali back with her, or she's flubbing to her sister so she can try and save them both later. bc el has always carried a spark of hope with her, within that big heart she has, which I think kali either lost a long time ago or it got swallowed up in her anger. I'm really hoping, el is able to give that back to her. another small but key thing about kali, is that she's incredibly single-minded. she's nuanced and very smart, but clearly always been someone who jumps in head-first when she commits. she's on this justice mission full-heartedly when we meet her, and committed to giving el the same kind of 'relief' it brought her to kill their abusers - even when axel tells her the mission is too dangerous, kali pushes it anyway. whatever it takes, she'll make it happen (a lot like el that way..)

(also a reminder, that kali’s plan didn’t work out the way she wanted; el stopped her from killing ray and then they got caught. maybe this one won’t work out either!)

to top it all off, kali is unbelievably traumatized from what happened to her, and suicide is a common response to that. while I don't love that the writers are making her push this and therefore putting her at odds to everyone else in el's life, I can see why it's happening and why kali is so adamant about this, from a character perspective.