It seems that after a concerted effort to keep the sci-fi elements of Stranger Things a bit more restrained while the show re-orientates us with the good folks of Hawkins, the powers that be have decided to finally decided to rip off those stabilisers and make the things occurring in the town get a lot more stranger. And yet while it oncedused that classic movie trope of having a monster running loose, the main inspiration for the latest freakish happening the kids experience comes from a slightly different place.
Riffing on that 80s theme of all-american kids stumbling upon some sort of otherworldly critter, The Pollywog takes the basic plot line of the likes of E.T. and Gremlins and has the group adopt a tadpole-like creature Dustin names D’Artagnan. However, in the world of Stranger Things, weird tadpole things are rarely just weird tadpole things, and some sort of horrible revelation can’t be too far away.
I guess my opening let the cat out of the bag somewhat, but yes, the strange chittering sounds that Dustin has been hearing coming from his bins turns out to be a tiny, thumb-sized newt-like creature that the excitable kids smuggles past his mother and into his bedroom. Naming the little squisher D’Artagnan (Dart for short), Dustin starts voracious studying various lizards and pond life to try and find out what his new discovery is but ultimately draws a blank.
Meanwhile, Eleven rapidly tires of her year-long curfew and starts pushing back at all of her boundaries with all the strength a pre-teen with telekinesis can muster. Breaking each and every rule that Hopper has set, she storms out into Hawkins to finally locate and reunite with Mike. While this could mean that she manages to stir up the truce that Hopper has built with Dr. Owens at Hawkins Labs, the town’s grumpy police chief still demands that the boffins look into all the rotting crops that have suddenly occurred overnight while remaining utterly oblivious to Eleven’s escapades.
But while Nancy and Steve still find their relationship collapsing due to the strain of keeping Hawkins’ secrets and Will seeks advice from the kindly Bob about dealing with fear, the main focus here is still Dart. But while Max is brought along for the ride (much to the annoyance of a spying Eleven), the group are split about what to do with a creature that seems to be evolving by the hour. Mike wants to kill it, Dustin wants to protect it and Will has a sneaking suspicion that it’s the exact same slug-like thing he coughed up into the drain a year ago after his experiences in the Upside-Down.
In the kerfuffle, Will finds himself once again having one of his violent, Upside-Down visions and as before, the huge cloud monster comes for him. But after heeding Bob’s earlier advice and standing his ground, he finds that’s exactly what the cloud monster wants.
While there’s a whole bunch of stuff going in this episode and we’ll attempt to cover.as much space allows, it seems that even though we get more Eleven/Hopper flashbacks and a massive step forward in the Will/Cloud Monster plot, I guess episode 3 is all about Dart. However, before we jump right in, I have to say the whole Dustin/Dart thing (Dartstin?) actually doesn’t make that much sense when you think about it. I mean, come on, Dustin discovers a brand new species of animal tramping around his bins a year after he had a run in with a monster from another dimension and he doesn’t draw a single connection to the Upside-Down at all? I know Dustin is excitable and overly enthusiastic, but surely any weird crap that’s ever going to ocur in Hawkins ever again is going to be instantly connected to the events of ’83 without even thinking and the fact that Henderson, of all people, has such an obvious blind spot is a little hard to swallow. Worse yet, when Dart is finally linked to the Upside-Down, he still inexplicably sides with the freakish pollywog, even rescuing the little fucker from his friends even though its come from the same place as the Demogorgon. With that being said, if you can employ a little leap of faith, the whole Dart plot actually riffs on 80s critter features amusingly well with Dart itself being realised by impressively solid visual effects and it’s an interesting way to pick up on Will’s gastrointestinal cliffhanger from season one. But remember, Will spent some time with a freakish tube going down his throat once the the Demogorgon caught him, so if Alien is anything to go by, Dart’s got some worrying lineage.
Speaking of Will, I just guess he’s destined to remain Stranger Things’ main whipping boy as the Cloud Monster finally catches up with him and violent pours itself down his screaming throat. However, while the continuing mistreatment of Noah Schnapp proves to be impressively harsh, it’s nice to know that the show hasn’t shied away from being extra cruel. After all, the reason Will survived so long in the Upside-Down is precisely because he’s so good at running and hiding, so you have to reason that if he hadn’t listened to Bob’s well meaning, but shocking ineffective advice about standing up you your fears, he may have actually gotten away. Just something to mull over there for a bit.
Elsewhere we find another one of Hawkins’ natives belatedly sticking up for themselves in the form of Eleven, who doesn’t seem to be in the mood to put up with anyone’s bullshit anymore. For most of the first season, the superpowered moppet was timid and broken, overwhelmed by this new world she’s escaped into and still raw from the God tier gaslighting Dr. Brenner put her through. However, season 2 Eleven really now isn’t taking anyone’s shit as she not only willfully and systematically breaks every single one of Hopper’s commandments and leave the cabin, but she goes stalking for Mike and even uses her mental powers on Max in a fit of jealousy when she sees her chatting to Mike. In fact, the teen angst is in full flow this episode as it seems that Nancy and Steve have finally split up after her drunken confession (obviously Jonathan swoops in fairly sharpish), but the flashbacks of Eleven and Hopper’s bonding in the early days of her “adoption” juxtaposes nicely with her new, angrily confident attitude.
Between bizarre tadpole creatures and thirteen year old jealous exes, one last detail from a very packed episode that proves to be a nice touch is that Max now seems to be a member of the group despite some typically self obsessed push back from Mike, but as it’s becoming more and more obvious that her “brother” Billy seems to be pure, uncut, 100% lunatic, maybe this isn’t such a good thing after all.
A packed episode finally gets the sci-fi/horror juices flowing once again as we plunge into full on plots featuring cute lizards and malevolent smoke kaiju that seemingly have the power to possess even the most hardiest of bowl cuts. While I still maintain the slower pace of the previous two episodes have helped this season immensely when it comes to setting the scene and building that all important ambiance, it’s also great that we’re now propelled full speed into the exact type of Hawkins level stuff that low-key smells of an impending apocalypse.
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