Live USB Boots into Grub

[orz]

Yeah...
There were a few other threads related that both had dead ends either leading to just using ParrotOS or using a different flashing service. However, my situation is slightly different from each of theirs, as I can't even run some of the commands. Is it even worth pursuing? Or should I just re-flash the usb? I'm on a new Thinkpad T14.

Something worth mentioning is that I have flashed a kali live usb before, using the same app- BalenaEtcher. Both times, it resized the USB from whatever size it was, down to less than a megabyte.
Another thing is that, previously, the USB showed up on my mac as a normal USB. It had a boot folder and an EFI folder, and whatever else was inside them, but when I booted it on my mac, it worked fine. However, Ubuntu detects the new USB as two volumes, one called "918 KB Volume" and the other called "Kali Live". The 918 KB Volume has the same boot and EFI folders, while the Kali Live volume contains a bunch of stuff that I had never seen in the first stick.

 

[Brickwizard]

I can't even run some of the commands.

Ermm.. Sounds like you may have a bad download or a corrupt burn to the pen-drive, another possibility is the Pen-drive may be in the process of failing [it may be fine for transferring/storing files but not or using as a bootable drive]
If you have more than one USB port then try it in a different one first

my mac, it worked fine. However, Ubuntu detects the new USB as two volumes,

Ubuntu is LINUX, Mac is not, they operate differently and report differently, usually Linux based OS will give more details.

I'm on a new Thinkpad T14.

If it's under a year old, you may also be suffering from driver problems, it takes a while for the boys and girls that develop the Linux drivers to catch up with new components,