Entertainment

Eleven Forms A New Bond In 'Stranger Things' & It's So Heartwarming

by Billy Lorusso
Netflix

If you're anything like me, then you've been counting down the days leading up to Stranger Things Season 2 debuting on Netflix. Well, my friends, the day has come, and Netflix has finally blessed us with new episodes of our fave ooky, spooky, sci-fi mystery. WARNING: This post contains SPOILERS for Season 2 of Stranger Things. Of course, with new episodes comes new thrills and new characters, and, this time around, we meet another test subject from Hawkins Lab: Eight, or Kali as she's known. Naturally, given Kali's connection with Eleven, fans are wondering: Are Eight and Eleven sisters on Stranger Things?

We first meet Kali in the opening scene of Season 2 and, right off the bat, the action-packed scene lets us know she will play a large role in the remainder of the season. During the initial scene, Kali is involved in a high-speed police chase with the rest of her misfit crew after they complete one of their missions. After several intense and suspenseful minutes of the chase, Kali uses her mental gifts to help her and her crew escape the police, leaving us all SHAKING in the process.

Obviously, her mental abilities immediately make us think of El, but, surprisingly, that's the last of Kali we see for a while. In fact, we don't hear from or see her again until Episode 7, "The Lost Sister."

Netflix

While she is absent for most of the season, Kali's return in "The Lost Sister" proves exactly how important she is to the plot's resolution, and shows us how heartwarming her bond with El is.

Indeed, after El learns about her past, she sets out to find her "Mama," which eventually leads her to learn about (remember?) another little girl who was also a test subject at Hawkins Laboratory — that little girl is, you guessed it, Eight.

After seeing Kali in her mind, El makes a trip to Chicago to find her, which is where they both discover each other's powers and matching wrist tattoos. From there, Eight teaches El how to harness and control her powers, which, ultimately, helps Eleven close the gate to the Upside Down in the Season 2 finale.

In other words, though she is only on camera for a short amount of time, Kali is the driving force behind the season's climactic finale and, without her, who knows what would have happened to Hawkins. That doesn't answer the question of whether or not they are sisters, though. Judging by the title of the episode and how both girls say "sister" when they notice each other's tattoos, they're definitely sisters in their way. But are they blood sisters? Probably not, as Terry Ives didn't seem to say anything about having a second child older than Jane (aka Eleven).

Netflix

It's no surprise that the Duffer brothers decided to add another powerful, mentally gifted character to the cast this season. (After all, numbers 1 through 10 have to be out there somewhere, right?) And it's certainly no surprise that character is Eight. Last August, the executive producers of the show spoke with The Daily Beast about their desire to bring more strong women to the cast in Season 2. Matt Duffer told the outlet,

My thing is that I would say what we were trying to do with [Season 1] is give all of our female characters both a strong drive and give them badass moments ... So that was something that was very important to us and we would do well to keep doing moving forward.

Anyone who has seen Kali in action knows she is nothing if not badass, so it looks like the Duffers succeeded in their mission.

Now the only question is: Where are the rest of Kali and El's brothers and sisters? Hopefully we'll get to meet some (or all) of them in all of their mentally-gifted glory next season. For now, though, let's just appreciate how heartwarming El and Kali's bond is.

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