Original subtitles

What the heck is that thing?

I don't know, but it's got Rosario!

Correction, it just ate Rosario!

How did it grow that fast?

It's hiding in the trees.

Where did it go?

Can anyone see it?

-Mike! -El!

I got you!

Whoa!

But who's got you, Mike?

Let them go!

Hold on, El! Hold on!

El!

It's coming for us!

Please be gone. Please be gone. Please be gone.

It's not gone!

Grab my hand!

Dude, help me!

No. Not again.

Over here, freak show.

Again!

Loaded! Go!

Dude, throw me a stick or something!

Will?

Run!

Watch out!

Max, duck!

Lucas!

El! El!

Hey! Jerk O'Lantern!

Leave my friends alone!

Heck yeah, Zombie Boy!

-Yeah! -Oh yeah, Will!

Oh no.

El.

Nice job, man.

Is she alive?

If she's not, she's definitely going to kill me.

I think that pie was bad.

Come on, guys. Let's get Rosario home.

Good idea.

Why am I covered in all this gunk?

That was a heck of an allergic reaction to pumpkin pie.

The amount of barf was pretty gnarly.

I wasn't allergic to pumpkin before.

Puberty. Life changes.

Am I right?

You're an idiot, Henderson.

Puberty? Seriously?

I don't know.

I want that vest back! Clean!

No tumble dry! Don't ruin the waterproofing!

Okay, I gotta get Eleven back home before curfew.

Arcade meet-up tomorrow. We'll figure all this out then.

Good, because I can barely stand.

Hey, you sure you still wanna be part of all this, new kid?

Dude, what? Are you kidding?

You guys are way more entertaining than anything I could ever find on cable.

And you?

I told you you were a rock star. Later.

-Yeah, that was awesome. -Good job!

Yeah, man, you totally destroyed it.

Thank you, Will.

Friends help friends.

Night! Don't let the pumpkin things bite!

Come on!

Something's really wrong with you, Max!

Are you all right?

Yeah. It's just…

What if there are more?

Then we'll stop them too.

Hey.

Here you go. One order of fries.

Perfect. I'm starving.

Hey, I bought these for Eleven to try.

She's had fries before.

Yeah, but cheese fries?

Cheese fries?

Mm. These are so delicious.

Hey, dude, if you like those, wait until you try chili cheese fries.

Chili cheese fries?

Yeah.

Everyone, eat.

So good!

Guys, come on! Slow down!

Hey, just be glad Dustin's not here yet, or there'd be nothing left.

Gives us a minute to talk about the campaign.

Because I was thinking of DMing this time.

You wanna be Dungeon Master?

You know, when this Upside Down stuff is done…

"When" being the operative word.

First things first.

"Aboleth." According to the Monster Manual,

our Snow Shark looks like a snow-based Aboleth.

Plus, Snow Shark sounds like a Jabberjaw character.

Bottom line is,

something from the Upside Down must have survived last year.

That's how we got the Aboleth.

El saved Charlie,

and then we got more details thanks to our H.I.C. tip boxes.

One lead was to a freaked-out Charlie who told me that a vine attacked him.

The other lead was scoped out by Agents Mayfield and Sinclair.

Yeah, you are not calling us that.

Anyway, a crop of transformed pumpkin vines

were discovered at Eugene's farm.

More like almost killed us.

Then, the Jerk O'Lantern happened.

But the gate is closed. Where are the vines coming from?

And what happened to these plants in our world

that would make them turn Charlie and Rosario into Upside Down creatures?

We are missing something.

Oh! What if the creatures needed something from Charlie and Rosario?

Maybe they weren't transforming Charlie and Rosario into creatures…

But feeding off of them!

Of course! And using them as human hosts.

Gamma World has a section on plant and vine mutations.

So you guys reference fantasy books instead of actual science?

Hey, whatever works.

No, you're right.

We need real answers from someone who knows science stuff.

Man, I wish Mr. Clarke was here.

Hey, guys, I think I might know someone who could help.

All right everybody, slice and bake cookies!

Mr. Clarke warned… told me about his AV Club students

and their curious minds.

Looks like he was right.

Yep, that's us.

Oh, hello. I don't think I recognize this face.

Are you in a different grade than your friends, dear?

School is at home.

Oh!

An independent!

Some of our greatest minds were homeschooled.

If you ever need any help, I am here.

Thank you.

Mr. Henderson!

Dan!

I told you I'd get you your money!

Relax. I'm not here for you.

What's up, D Man?

Gotta head to the store.

I'll see you tonight.

Okay, honey.

My turn to dine and dash. Consider this a down payment.

-Bye, sweet pea. -Later, Dan!

-Bye, Dan! -See ya!

So, Mrs. Baxter, we were talking evolution stuff.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. I apologize. Evolution. Please continue.

If a creature was cut off from its home

and now in a completely different environment,

is it possible that, in order to survive,

it could evolve and adapt to make the new location its home?

That is correct.

The isolated specimen could form a new genetic branch

thanks to natural selection.

Is there any way that new branch could make something evolve faster?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It could indeed.

Where there is isolation, there are leaps in evolution.

Like orchids. They can evolve in a matter of days.

Interesting.

Oh, my good God, it is.

Dragonflies, even some frogs,

evolve into very different animals at different phases of their life cycles.

The evolutionary leap makes it even more so.

Life cycles? Like in Alien?

Oh, I love that movie!

When the alien egg sensed a person as its unwilling host,

it hatched that bizarre, knuckled organism.

Yeah, the crab thing on the dude's face?

Which laid an embryo of its own into the person's chest cavity.

Until finally, bursting from his chest,

ending the cycle by turning into a terrifying adult.

There's a cycle!

Thank you so much, Mrs. Baxter. You've been amazing!

Oh, my pleasure, Treasure. I could talk about this stuff all day.

Evolution, extinction, especially extinction,

the biggest factor that triggers evolution in the first place.

Wait. What do you mean?

The fear of extinction is a great motivator.

Like mushrooms and pine trees. When they're dying, they release spores.

These spores are gonna ensure the survival of their species.

Isn't nature just fascinating?

Upside Down spores! It's gotta be!

Whatever got stuck here after El closed the gate is evolving

to survive in our world!

It would explain why these creatures look so different

than anything we've seen!

Yeah, maybe it's releasing spores

and turning plants in our world into Upside Down creatures!

And taking people!

We need to check the fairgrounds and Eugene's farm

and stop these things from spreading!

Max and I will check the farm. The fair has way more ground to cover.

Good idea!

Ladies and gentlemen,

the Hawkins Investigators Club is on the case!

Did you find anything?

No, not yet.

You know, I'm really starting to hate this farm.

Well, that's fair.

This place does not hold a good track record.

It officially ruined pumpkins for me.

Maybe, if Eleven comes along, I might consider eating pumpkin pie again.

Maybe.

We did all right on our own,

but yeah, El's powers would've come in pretty handy.

She ain't no tractor-driving Mad Max, though.

Ever wonder what you'd do if you had El's powers?

Oh, I would totally freak Billy out. Like explode his bottle of gross cologne,

crack his new windshield, take the wheel while he's steering.

He wouldn't know where it was coming from. He'd go nuts!

Wow, you've thought this through.

Maybe a little.

What about you?

Probably the same with Erica.

Your little sister isn't half as bad as my stupid stepbrother.

I'd take Erica any day of the week.

How about tomorrow?

Hey, look at those vines.

Guess they didn't find a pumpkin to latch onto.

That ash around them looks like dried-up spores.

Did this come from the spores?

It definitely came from something.

Looks like the vine was in the middle of mutating.

Didn't get far, though. Shriveled up worse than my Aunt Angela.

Are you sure that's a good idea?

Sure, it is. Could be evidence.

Hawkins Investigators Club. Case file number 002.

We are in the woods south of the Hawkins Festival Grounds.

Twenty hours, twelve minutes post our encounter with the Jerk O'Lantern.

It's been dry since last night,

so there's no new snow cover to impede our continuing search.

Mike! Another!

It looks…

…fresher.

Everything we've seen so far has been dead.

On our present walk, we found the remains

of a semi-mutated, Upside Down plant covered in dead spores.

We found it in the southern direction,

which indicates the wind was blowing south last night.

Ya think, Sherlock?

Things from the Upside Down like it cold.

Winter in Hawkins is its perfect playground.

Ah!

Okay, mildly freaking. If I'm gonna be out here, I need a weapon.

Okay. No. Nope.

Aha!

Great for protection against creatures

and taking my mom's burnt barbecue off the grill.

Where'd you get all that stuff?

From my brain.

I've got a garage full of junk.

I'm kinda like the Leonardo da Vinci of trash.

What can I say? I like to tinker.

Luckily, my mom encourages me to experiment.

I think it's just to keep me busy so I don't butt into her own science junk.

Let's just say she's definitely not like other moms.

She is very funny.

She's a total freak show.

My mom too.

Then again, so am I. Which is why we get each other, you know?

Well, sometimes. Kinda.

What do you mean?

We just go about things differently is all.

I like to stick it out and work on stuff,

and she likes to hop onto the next new thing.

Once in a while, she'll find a job she likes,

but that usually doesn't last long.

And then it's just us again, and off we go.

She thinks of it as learning experiences.

I think of it as never having to unpack.

Guys! Hold up. Over here.

Holy moly.

I was not expecting that.

At least now we have an answer.

If they don't find a host…

…it dies.

Now we know it definitely has a limited life cycle.

Yup. Less than a day.

Dustin, this is Lucas. Over.

Lucas, what is the situation? Over.

It's confirmed. We found dead mutated vines at the farm.

There was ashy stuff all over them.

We think they may be spores.

We found the same thing.

Our trail heads right toward the old sawmill.

Who knows what we'll find. Meet us there. Posthaste.

And be careful. Over.

Well, this is a horror movie waiting to happen.

Jeez! You guys almost gave me a heart attack.

This doesn't make any sense. The trail just ends.

Hey, Chuck!

Get on over here and help me out with this haul from Eugene's farm.

Are you kidding? I'm still busy with yesterday's haul.

Lazy, good-for-nothing…

Hey! What are you kids doing here?

Oh! Um… Hi there.

Mill's closed. Ain't got no time for a school field trip.

We just wanted to know.

Have you seen anything weird around here? Anything strange or unusual?

Heh. Just my brother Chuck. But he's been strange his whole life.

Hey, I heard that!

Now get out of here. This ain't no place for children.

Oh, all righty then. Thank you and your clone for nothing.

You know, we ought to fix that front gate to keep the riffraff out of here.

This is all the wood you brought back?

It's twice as much as you got.

Get it off!

I got you, brother! I got you!

It's so weird.

Everything led in this direction, but there's nothing here.

Maybe this is the end of the trail.

I mean, there's only so much ground we can cover, right?

Maybe the one we found was the last one.

-Not the last! -Oh no!

It's not working!

Is he… dead?

No. He's breathing. He's covered in snot, but he's breathing.

Aren't these things supposed to stay dead?

It doesn't have a human host anymore!

It should be dead, right?

Does it look dead to you?

Eat my silver fulminate, you jerk!

El!

El!

El! El, can you hear me?

El!