The children of Hawkins Lab are some of the most intriguing characters in Stranger Things, all being human experiments capable of supernatural abilities. Eight, AKA Kali Prasad, is one of the more prominent Hawkins Lab characters, first seen in Season 2. After a run-in with Eleven that ultimately left them parting ways despite a sisterly bond, Eight has not been seen in the show since.
However, with Stranger Things Season 5 having released the first four episodes on Netflix, fans are now wondering if we may see Eight/Kali return for the final season, and what role she may have to play. This guide covers all you’ll need to know about Eight/Kali and whether she will be involved in the conclusion of the story and defeating Vecna.
SPOILER WARNING: This guide covers content that may be considered spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5. Proceed with caution.
What Happened to Eight & Does She Return in Stranger Things Season 5?
In Stranger Things, fans first met Kali Prasad, AKA ‘Eight’, in Season 2. Unlike the other children, Kali did not develop telekinetic abilities through her time at the Hawkins Lab as a test subject. Instead, she can warp the reality and perception of others, creating vivid hallucinations. There’s quite some flexibility to this power, which includes turning herself and her allies invisible to others, creating clones/duplicates of people, and creating events in the minds of targets that are not actually real.
Kali eventually used her powers to escape Hawkins Lab, and found herself in a street gang with members Mick, Axel, Funshine, and Dottie. The group targets people from their past who have wronged them (including those from Hawkins Lab, for Kali), and kills them off.
During these first glimpses of Kali and her gang, Eleven soon learns about them and begins tracking them down. This results in Eleven joining the crew for a brief period, where her and Kali both have conflict, yet learn from one another, and despite it all, grow close – even referring to one another as true sisters. The last we see of Eight/Kali is when Eleven chooses to part ways with her, determined that she can help her friends back in Hawkins.
Nothing about the character of Eight has been touched on or brought to the screen across the next two seasons. In fact, some fans even felt that the whole subplot with Eight/Kali was a bizarre addition to the story, while others feel that it may be one of those minor things that comes back later, as a major twist.
Many fans have been eager to discover if Kali will be making a comeback in Stranger Things Season 5. As of Episode 4, it has been confirmed that yes, Eight/Kali Prasad will officially be returning to the show. In the final moments of this episode, Hopper and Eleven are breaking into the military base within the Upside Down, knowing that there’s something of power within the vault. Once they finally break inside, however, they find Kali hooked up to all kinds of machines, her head shaved.
It’s possible that Doctor Kay and the military have been harvesting Kali’s powers to try to build weapons for themselves, either to go up against Vecna or to help them capture Eleven. It’s also possible that the military may want to utilize both Eleven and Eight not only as weapons themselves, but to use their blood to create a new wave of military super-soldiers, much like Henry’s blood was used to create the powers of the other Hawkins Lab children.
However, as Eleven approaches Eight, the latter opens her eyes and smiles at her long-lost sister, seeming relieved to see her. This leaves us with more hope that, instead, Eleven and Hopper are going to come to the rescue and find a way to break her out. After all, from what we know about Kali, there’s very little chance she would have willingly gone back to those affiliated with the Hawkins Lab, or let herself be hooked up to a machine and her blood harvested.
If this is the case, then it’s possible we may finally see Eleven and Eight put their different views from the past behind them and work together. As the two of them have different powers, they can come together to create a super force against Vecna in these moments leading up to the final showdown, perhaps even with help from Will, who in the same episode is revealed to have his own set of unique powers.
This also plays into a very popular fan theory to do with the number of a critical hit. In DND, a ‘Natural 20’ is when you manage to roll a flat 20 on the dice, without adding any modifiers. Essentially, this is the perfect role, the opposite of a ‘Natural 1’ (Automatic fail), making it a critical hit, an automatic success.
When going up against some of the most powerful monsters or bosses in DND, often the most nail-biting moments come down to the clutch of a Natural 20. Essentially, many fans believe that the characters are going to have to roll a metaphorical Natural 20 to end things once and for all with that perfect hit. And what numbers equate to a ’20’?…. – 11, 8, and 1. In other words, there’s a lot of speculation that things will end with Eleven, Eight, and Henry/Vecna, aka One. The return of Kali Prasad is certainly a step in this direction, so fans will have to simply wait and see how this pans out across the rest of the final season.