Netflix’s Stranger Things
Season 2: “Chapter Three – The Pollywog”
Directed by Shawn Levy
Written by Justin Doble

* For a recap & review of Chapter Two, “Trick or Treat, Freak” – click here
* For a recap & review of Chapter Four, “Will the Wise” – click here
After Halloween night, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) finds something in the trashcan outside. His mom Claudia (Catherine Curtin) says he’s “acting weird.” Doesn’t help the cat’s hissing at his Ghostbusters trap. He manages to get upstairs with his new pet— a strange, reptilian/slug-looking thing. He gets to live in Yertle’s – named after Yertle the Turtle – cage for the time being. Dustin and his little buddy are both nugat fans. He names the tiny dude D’Artagnan, after one of the Three Musketeers: “Dart for short.”
At night, unbeknown to Dustin, little D’Artagnan’s growing. Uh oh.
We get more of the past, when Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) was hiding in the woods. She stayed out of sight watching Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour) put more Eggo waffles in the box. Eventually, she came out to greet him.
Skip ahead. She’s mad at Jim for being late the night before. He gets her eating with him using a “triple decker” Eggo stack including Halloween candies. He knows she goes to visit Mike (Finn Wolfhard) through the airwaves. The chief tries to tell her she’ll see him for real soon enough. But soon’s become a meaningless word for her.
In the car, Will (Noah Schnapp) chats with Bob (Sean Astin), who talks about “Mr. Baldo” from the carnival. He had awful dreams about him for months. One day they ended, after he had the dream again and told his nightmare entity to leave, then it left. “Easy peasy, right?” Not when you’re dealing with the Upside Down.
Back to before. The cabin where Jim and Eleven live together belonged to his dad years ago. There was lots of fun in the beginning. Hopper put on a Jim Croce tune and the pair got to cleaning, making it proper for the two of them to live out there. They bonded, they set “Don‘t Be Stupid Rules,” and also a routine + codes for one another from knocks to actual Morse Code. Goes to show the situation’s growing tiresome. In current day, Eleven’s saying fuck those rules— she’s not stupid.
In school, greaser Billy (Dacre Montgomery) is challenging Steve (Joe Keery) for title of coolest dude of all the dudes. Steve’s further got a real attitude on after what happened between him and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) at the party. Sure, she said a few things, but he was also trying to control her, too. Don’t take that shit, girl!
Dustin has the rest of the crew over to see the “living booger,” Dart. They’re all curious. Dustin’s been researching. It’s not a polliwog, at least not anything known. When Dart gets light shined on him he screams. The others seem more wary of the creature. Particularly Will, who remembers coughing something up after his return from the Upside Down. Did he bring Dart back with him?
Over in the Department of Energy, Jim’s brought a pattern he found in the crop devastation to Dr. Sam Owens (Paul Reiser). The chief has narrowed it down to the lab, he believes there could be “a leak.” He’s got no time for false bullshit, not after his town was nearly destroyed by the DoE a year prior. He and Dr. Owens are beginning to have serious issues.
Walking through the woods, Eleven comes upon a house where a mother swings her little boy in the backyard. She thinks back to memories of Hopper, when they talked about mothers. She wondered about her own mother who’s “not around anymore.” This breaks her heart. Through the stone-faced facade of the chief we see it breaks his heart to see hers break, as well.
Joyce is trying to figure out the newfangled video equipment that 1984 was seeing. Bob told her there was a part of the video showing older boys picking on her son. She looks for evidence on the tape, though the kids are masked. It’s then she sees the outline of the tentacled monster in the VHS static, like the one Will drew. She traces it from the TV screen to be sure.
At school, Dustin shows Mr. Clarke (Randy Havens) his new part, D’Artagnan. When he’s about the open the trap and show him, Will and Mike bust in, stopping their show and tell. They’re extremely worried. They rush off by themselves, where Will tells them about what he saw last year, whatever he spit out. They’re sure Dart is “from the Upside Down.” Dustin doesn’t want to believe it, he’s bonded with the creature. Only Dart’s growing, evolving, and who knows how big he could eventually become. Mike tries killing it, and Dustin stops him. After Max (Sadie Sink) bursts in, Dart gets loose into the halls. Ahh, shit!
Later, Nancy decides she wants to tell Barb’s mother the truth. Little does she know they’re being listened to, out there by the government across the wires. She wants Mrs. Holland to meet her tomorrow, so they can speak privately. But that’s not gonna happen, either.
In the fields, Hopper’s finally got Dr. Owens and his DoE team out there to have a look at the devastated pumpkin patch and the various dead crops. There are more possible sightings of the so-called Russian girl, the ones Hopper tries to refute. The mom from the yard reports meeting Eleven, which has the chief off in a rush hoping to keep his semi-foster child under wraps from the watchful eyes of the DoE.
Eleven’s turned up at the school, just as her pals are searching the hallways for runaway Dart.
In the locker rooms, Mike and Max run into each other. The former’s problems with her come out. Simultaneously, Eleven hears her friend’s voice from the school gym. She gets her first look at Mike in person since last year. She gets jealous and flicks Max off the skateboard, which makes Mike wonder if Eleven isn’t lurking somewhere close.
In the bathrooms, Will searches for Dart. He hears the creature in one of the stalls. He goes inside, but Dart’s screaming sends him running. Then the halls transform into the Upside Down once more. A shadowy wave comes after Will, he runs outside to avoid it. But he remembers what Bob said, so he turns back facing the tentacled monster and tells it: “Go away.” He screams at it over and over. That doesn’t work, and the monster swallows Will up in black smoke.

WOW! I love this series more all the time. It’s so addictive, every step of the way. Emotional, exciting, and weird, too. “Chapter Four: Will the Wise” is next.