Stranger Things S02E03: The Pollywog Recap And Review

Spoiler alert for episode 3 of Stranger Things season 2.

Episode 2 recap:

In flashbacks, we see that Eleven spent some time on her own hunting squirrels out in the woods after the end of season one and was lucky enough to run into Hopper. After seeing that Mike’s house is unsafe, this is her best bet at safety.

Hopper has disappointed Eleven though, by not making it home in time to eat candy, get fat, and watch a spooky movie (Worth pointing out that Eleven wanted to dress up as a ghost, while her friends are out having fun dressed as Ghostbusters).

No one at school is dressed up for Halloween, except Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Will. This makes it particularly difficult for Dustin and Lucas to get the guts to approach Max and ask her to hang out.

Max’s brother Billy almost ran over the boys, also he’s the Keg King. His character is interesting, surely there’s an explanation for why this guy is such a monster.

While they’re out trick or treating with Max, whos dressed up as Michael Myers, Will gets knocked down by a couple of jerks, and another vision of The Upside-Down haunts him. The giant shadow monster is closer this time, moving towards Will, until Mike pretty much snaps him out of it, back into their home dimension.

More pumpkins rotting.

The love triangle between Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve is a-rockin. Steve leaves Nancy at the party after she gets too drunk and tells him their relationship is bullshit. Jonathan takes her home.

Eleven tries to reach out to Will.
Dustin finds something alive in the trash. He’s intrigued, I am scared.

Episode 3 review:This episode demonstrates the acting range of this young cast. From Dustin trying hard to conceal what he found from his mother, to Eleven realizing her home is just another prison, these kids are impressing me more and more at every turn.

The character of Bob is the one that continues to impress me. With words of wisdom for Will about standing his ground against whatever monster is bothering him, I feel like he’s the nicest, most genuine character of the whole bunch.

The opposite of nice and genuine, is once again Billy, who is messing with Steve on the basketball court this time. Leave him alone Billy, he’s got a bat covered in nails in his car.

Without spoiling too much, this episode is definitely where the plot starts to thicken at an exponential rate. Being called “The Pollywog”, after seeing that Dustin found something in his trash, one can only imagine the ominous nature of this creature. Is it a baby Demogorgon? Probably, dude. This is one of the few instances when I’m frustrated with the naïvety of our beloved characters. Then again, this frustration is a sort of staple of the horror genre (i.e. “Don’t go in there!”, and “Don’t take the baby monster out of the trash can, Dustin! Just kill it!”)

This is the episode for questionable decisions, it seems, and everyone is breaking the rules.

The ending scene of this episode has been my favorite so far, being the creepiest one. With Bob’s advice to Will about standing his ground, a confrontation is imminent.

Written by: Andrew Valencia