Stranger Things Season 2 Easter Eggs, References, Callbacks

Here we go with the part 3 of our nine-part Stranger Things 2 article series, in which we’ll do our very best to catch all the visual easter eggs, references, homages and callback from the fabulous 80s that the author put on-screen. If you’re looking for the soundtrack and music references, click here.

In case you missed the previous parts, dedicated to the easter eggs in the first two episodes, check out the links in the Episode List below to make amend! There are two links to the right of each episode: the first one is dedicated to the visual homages, while the second lists the soundtrack & music references.

Let’s now start our journey through all the Stranger Things Season 2 Episode 3: The Pollywog easter eggs from the 80s we found: feel free to tell us if we missed anything… there’s an huge chance that we did!

Stranger Things – Season 2 Episode List

Episode 2.1 – Chapter One: MADMAX [easter egg list] [OST & music reference list]
Episode 2.2 – Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak [easter egg list] [OST & music reference list]
Episode 2.3 – Chapter Three: The Pollywog [easter egg list] [OST & music reference list]
Episode 2.4 – Chapter Four: Will the Wise [easter egg list] [OST & music reference list]
Episode 2.5 – Chapter Five: Dig Dug [easter egg list] [OST & music reference list]
Episode 2.6 – Chapter Six: The Spy [easter egg list] [OST & music reference list]
Episode 2.7 – Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister [easter egg list] [OST & music reference list]
Episode 2.8 – Chapter Eight: The Mind Flayer
Episode 2.9 – Chapter Nine: The Gate

Chapter Three: The Pollywog

Yertle the Turtle: Dustin named his turtle with the same name used in the Yertle the Turtle and other stories illustrated book, published by by Theodor Seuss Geisel – under the pseudonym of Dr. Seuss – in 1950.

Stranger Things Season 2 - All the Easter Eggs, References, Homages and Callbacks - Episode 3: The Pollywog — Stranger Things – Season 02 Episode 03 – Yertle the Turtle [01:26]

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: An E.T. statue is clearly visible to the left of the turtle tank where Justin plucks D’Artagnan into. Spielberg homages are all around this season, just like it was in Season one!

3 Muskeeters: The snack which inspired Dustin in giving the name D’Artagnan to the pollywoog is actually a 80s replica (white foil instead of silver) of a 3 Musketeers Chocolate Bar, produced and manufactured by M&M/Mars and introduced in 1932 in the United States: it should’ve been pretty common for Halloween nights during that period! And of course, D’Artagnan is a obvious reference from the 1844 Alexandre Dumas novel which shares the same name of the aforementioned snack.

Ghostbusters: When Dustin comes back home, we can notice a Ghostbusters certificate of some kind hanging from a wall of his room. Now we know who was to suggest the whole Ghostbusters group costume idea!

Gremlins: Although not explicit, there are a number of similarities between D’Artagnan and the puffy-looking creatures from Gremlins, the 1984 movie by Joe Dante. Both of them don’t like the sunlight, grow bigger when fed and become creepy (and evil) if you feed them after midnight.

Anne of Green Gables: the book Hopper reads to Eleven is clearly the worldwide famous 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery, which is a childhood classic. Too bad the main character is missing her mother, just like Eleven is… Maybe not the wisest choice in that specific scenario, but if we consider how well it connects with the next episode(s) it sure works out.

Blondie: we definitely can’t miss the Blondie vintage poster in Nancy’s room: that comes from the american rock band’s fifth studio album, Autoamerican (November 1980): Nancy’s musical tastes might not be as good as those of Jonathan and Samantha, yet they’re still somewhat fine.