Kai (LEXX)
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Kai, Last of the Brunnen-G, is an undead assassin on the science fiction television show LEXX. He is played by Michael McManus.
[edit] Character details
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 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. Having rammed into the pod, he was catapulted out of his cockpit and then personally killed by His Divine Shadow.
Instead of having Kai's carcass incinerated, His Shadow had him "de-carbonized" and turned into a Divine Assassin. As such, Kai was virtually indestructible; he was capable of surviving without oxygen, and even when split in half his body would rejoin. When dismembered, Kai's individual parts were capable of independent action; even when his head was separated from his body, he could carry on conversations and his body was still capable of walking. His favored weapon was his brace, a strange, bladed device that would emerge from his wrist, much like Spider-Man's web, and impale his targets. This weapon was attached to a line that could travel enormous distances, giving rise to the question of where Kai stored it all when it was inside his body. Kai could also use the line as a kind of grappling hook, or to lasso objects and people from far away and bring them near. As an assassin, Kai's uniform was a blackened version of the colorful clothing the Brunnen-G had worn; his startling beehive hairdo remained, however, unchanged.
For 2008 years, Kai was forced to serve His Shadow, killing heretics and revolutionaries, until he was 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 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. After a confrontation with rebel leader Thodin, Kai found Zev Bellringer and Stanley Tweedle on the bridge of His Shadow's new ship, the Lexx. However, before he could eliminate the attempted hijackers, he was called away to help the Divine Predecessors who were under attack by a cluster lizard, a vicious animal which feasted on the flesh of the living. When Kai, having killed the cluster lizard, picked up a piece of the brain of the Divine Predecessor that killed him, he regained his memories and his own will, and joined Stan and Zev.
Kai is animated by protoblood, a substance secreted by the Gigashadow (the vast insect body of His Divine Shadow). This liquid can only reanimate Kai for a limited amount of time, so he must remain in cryogenic suspension between bouts of activity to prolong his existence. When awoken improperly, his behaviour can be unpredictable and sometimes violent. Although he has free will, he is also capable of being programmed, and once became a sinister, slasher movie-style killer after a teenager suggested it while Kai was sleeping. Normally unflappable, Kai has become very erratic on several occasions: once, when the crew landed on Ruuma, a planet where the bodies of many Divine Predecessors were kept alive in a zombie-like state, Kai began spouting strange poetry (perhaps reflecting his race's poetic origins). Kai was also briefly turned into a singing tree by the faerie king Oberon, a state he seemed to prefer to being dead. On another occasion, the ever-unpredictable Kai was quite ready to spend eternity buried in the dirt before circumstances compelled him to get back into the action.
Because he is dead, Kai lacks the ability to perform most bodily functions (as he once told Stanley, "the dead do not poo.") He is also incapable of (and disinterested in) having sex, a major disappointment for Zev/Xev, who loves/lusts after the dead man. He also lacks motivation and most emotions, and is unable to love, care or truly feel for others. When questioned about his motivations (or lack thereof), he often begins his answers: "The dead do not..." (See below.) Despite his claims of emotionlessness, his dry humor frequently gives the appearance of expressing passive-aggressive disapproval of the other characters' actions and resentment of the fact that they often overlook the fact that he is dead. The question is never directly addressed as to why he goes to such lengths to protect the Lexx crew, but he seems to possess a certain muted affection for them.
At the end of the final season, Isambard Prince, the former ruler of Planet Fire, restored Kai to life after promising it as a prize in a chess game. However, Prince played yet another twisted joke and restored Kai to life only moments before Kai would sacrifice himself to destroy the asteroid-ship harbouring 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 for the first time in millennia.
[edit] Catchphrases
Kai had several catchphrases, most famously his lines about things the dead do not do. According to Kai, the dead do not respond to context, the dead are rarely positive about things, the dead do not have wants, the dead do not have opinions, the dead do not eat, and the dead do not poo. Kai also had a lengthy speech, repeated several times and with some variations, about the many kinds of people he'd killed. "I killed mothers with their babies. I've killed great philosophers, proud young warriors, and revolutionaries. I've killed the evil, the good, the intelligent, the weak, and the beautiful. I have done this in the service of His Divine Shadow and his predecessors, and I have never once shown any mercy. "
[edit] Fandom
Kai has enjoyed an avid fan following, and is the subject of fan art and fan fiction online. Despite the fact that Kai has no sex drive, and, indeed, no genitals, he has become something of a sex symbol for some of the show's fans. Some of these fans have compared his appeal to that of the unemotional but troubled Mister Spock from the original Star Trek series.
