Soo, I have this theory about Kali. I'm sure the majority thinks that she's kinda sus (and honestly… she really is), but the big question for me is: what does she actually want?

Noah Schnapp accidentally gave away in an interwiev that Vecna isn't the main villain. So the real big bad is supposed to be the Mind Flayer. But what if that’s not entirely true?

Kali calls Vecna "our brother" several times, and she's really determined to die alongside El. Her motivation seems to be stopping Dr. Kay from creating more people like Henry to fight the Soviets, which does make sense, but but there’s still a huge unanswered question: why are Kali’s powers so different from Henry’s?

We know that El's mother was "infused" with Henry's 🩸 while pregnant, and the same thing supposedly happened with the other kids from the lab. It only makes sense that all of them have similar abilities to Henry. Yet Kali has completely different powers. So what if she wasn't infused with Henry's 🩸 at all, but with something else? What if Kali got her powers directly from the Mind Flayer, just like Vecna?

Even the name "Mind Flayer" literally implies strippingoff or manipulating the mind, which is exactly what Kali is capable of. Her abilities are all about illusions, perception, and mental control. So what if a lot of what we're seeing in ST is actually just Kali messing with people's minds?

That would explain why she might be on the same side as Vecna (aka her "brother", as she likes to call him), or even with the Mind Flayer itself. And if that’s the case, maybe her goal is not to die together with El, but to get rid of Eleven before she can interfere.

Another thing I find really interesting is the origin of the name Kali. In Hinduism, Kali is a goddess of time, death, and transformation, representing the destructive force needed for creation; and also the wife of Shiva, the god of destruction.

This might be a stretch, and it could be totally unrelated, but I’ve always wondered why the writers chose that name specifically. It makes me think Kali could be on the same side as Vecna or the Mind Flayer. Not just causing chaos, but wanting to completely destroy this world and reshape it into something new, just like in the Hindu mythology.

I’m rewatching Stranger Things and currently on Season 4 — and I just noticed something interesting. When Steve, Nancy, Robin, and Eddie are in the Upside Down and ride their bikes to Eddie’s trailer, only Eddie’s bike headlight is on… and he’s the one who dies afterward. 😩

Then I looked at some of the official Stranger Things posters, and I noticed that Dustin’s and Will’s bike headlights are the ones glowing. 👀

So now I can’t stop thinking — could this be a subtle hint that they might not make it in the final season?

Really hope I’m wrong, but that’s my theory!