Stranger Things' Duffer Bros Confirm The Tragic Fates Of The Pregnant Women Experimented On By Dr. Kay

1 week ago 19

Dr Kay in Stranger Things season 5 volume 2

Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025.

Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Stranger Things season 5.The tragic fate of the pregnant women in Stranger Things season 5 is confirmed by the Duffers. In Stranger Things, season 5, volume 2, Kali (Linnea Berthelsen) reveals that Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton) is experimenting on pregnant women, with the goal being for the military to create their own army of superpowered children.

Kali's blood does not work properly on the women, though. This is why Dr. Kay is obsessed with finding and capturing Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), as her blood is seemingly the key to these experiments, just as the blood of Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower) was the key to giving Eleven her powers.

While speaking with TheWrap, the Duffers confirm that the pregnant women are killed when the Upside Down is destroyed and when Eleven seemingly sacrifices herself. A major reason that Eleven makes this sacrifice is so the military can never harm any children or mothers with these experiments again. Check out Matt Duffer's comments below:

We don’t explain whether that is a choice that she made or not, I mean, we’re not explicit about it. Mike and his friends choose to believe that there is and that she still continues to exist. But either way, Eleven’s choice is, I think, courageous and selfless, because even though she’s having to leave her friends behind, she’s protecting any other child from experiencing what she experienced. Just look at what Kay was trying to do with all those pregnant women. All those pregnant women died because that blood did not work. But if that were to work, then you’ve got dozens of children who are going to grow up just like her and that are going to be turned into weapons and abused. So that was sort of where we landed. A lot of it was just looking at it from Eleven’s point of view as much as possible.

Confirming that these women died makes the Stranger Things series finale more tragic and adds further weight to the selfless decision that Eleven makes. While her fate is left somewhat ambiguous, regardless of whether she survives, she gives up everyone and everything she loves to protect innocent women and children she will never know.

Kali makes it clear that the women had been irreparably harmed by the experiments and her blood. This means that even if they had been evacuated from the Upside Down before its destruction, it is highly unlikely that they or any children they gave birth to would have survived. If they did survive, Dr. Kay's experiments would have continued and the destructive cycle would never end.

Stranger Things season 5 Kali new test subjects

While the exact circumstances are different for these women, Eleven's decision is also influenced by what happened to her own mother, Terry Ives (Aimee Mullins), in previous Stranger Things seasons. She was separated from Eleven by Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) and told her daughter did not survive. When Terry discovered the truth and tried to reunite with her child, she was shocked into a permanently catatonic state to keep her silent.

Thanks to Eleven, no more mothers or children will have to suffer as a result of the military's desire to create human superweapons. As the Duffers explain, this is the point of view that led to her sacrifice and the difficult decision to leave behind Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Jim Hopper (David Harbour), and her other loved ones in the Stranger Things finale.