Kai (LEXX) - Character History

Character History

Kai died 2008 years prior to the events of the Lexx premiere episode "I Worship His Shadow", defending his home planet Brunnis-2 against attack by His Divine Shadow's personal flagship. This valiant but desperate defense failed and His Divine Shadow destroyed the Brunnen-G home world. Knowing all was lost, Kai rammed his small fighter craft into the control pod of the Foreshadow in an attempt to destroy His Divine Shadow. Though he succeeded in ramming the pod, Kai did no significant damage, instead catapulting himself out of his cockpit and directly in front of His Shadow, who stabbed Kai and drained his memories.

Instead of having Kai's carcass incinerated, His Shadow had him "de-carbonized" and turned into a Divine Assassin, a nearly unstoppable killing machine in the direct service of His Shadow. As an undead assassin/ex-assassin, Kai's uniform is a blackened version of the colorful clothing the Brunnen-G had worn; his beehive hairdo, however, remains unchanged.

For the next 2000 years, Kai killed an untold number of heretics and revolutionaries in His Shadow's name. This changes when he is called to secure the Lexx from heretics. The Time Prophet had made a prophecy that the Brunnen-G would destroy the Divine Order and, with Kai being the last of the Brunnen-G, the responsibility fell on his shoulders. The current incarnation of His Divine Shadow refused to believe in the prophecy and called Kai to action as an assassin to mock the prophecy and show his own mastery of the Universe. Though Kai is nearly successful in his duty, he is called away by the Divine Predecessors, former incarnations of His Shadow whose brains have been preserved, who are under attack by a cluster lizard, a vicious animal which feasts on the flesh of the living and has a particular taste for brains. When Kai picks up a piece of the brain of the Divine Predecessor that killed him, he regains his memories and his free will. Over the series, Kai begins to remember small personality traits he held before he became an assassin, such as enjoying fishing and a "fondness for balloons".

At the end of the final season, Isambard Prince, former ruler of Planet Fire, restores Kai to life after promising it as a prize in a chess game. Prince visits the Lexx as a self-proclaimed omen of death, which Kai "feels" is meant for him. Kai says farewell to Xev and Stan before leaving Earth, apologizing to Xev for never being able to love her the way she wanted and they kiss.

Fulfilling his own prophecy, Prince restores Kai to life only minutes before Kai sacrifices himself to destroy the asteroid-ship harboring Lyekka and her kind. Kai is last seen flying through the interior of the asteroid with a particle collider, singing the Brunnen-G Fight Song, and finally crashing at the asteroid core with the device. Surviving the crash and finally alive, but next to the about-to-explode particle collider, the last shot is Kai laughing.