Dart and the demodogs: Dustin's “Demogorgon dog” in Stranger Things
Creatures · Season 2 · Dart
The “Demogorgon dog” of Stranger Things is called Dart. Dart is the most endearing monster in the show: a tadpole found in a trash can on Halloween night 1984, fed nougat by Dustin, who becomes in a few days a demodog, a young four-legged Demogorgon. Here is his story, his molts, and why he spares the group in the tunnels.
The essentials
- Full name: D'Artagnan, after The Three Musketeers
- Species: Demodog, the juvenile stage of the Demogorgon
- Found: October 31, 1984, in the Hendersons' trash
- Weak point: the nougat, and Dustin
Contents
A pollywog in the trash
On Halloween night 1984, Dustin hears a noise in his mother's trash and finds a small sticky, slimy creature that screams when you shine a light on it. He takes it for an unknown amphibian, names it D'Artagnan, puts it in his turtle terrarium and brings it to middle school to show Mr. Clarke, convinced he has discovered a new species.
His friends are more cautious: Will, in particular, recognizes the cry. The creature is a baby Demogorgon, out of the tunnels the Mind Flayer is digging under Hawkins. Dustin refuses to admit it as long as he can.
The demodog T-shirt, for Dart's friends.
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The molts, from tadpole to demodog
| Stadium | Look | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Tadpole | 10 cm, slimy, two back legs | He loves 3 Musketeers nougat and hates the light |
| Juvenile | The size of a cat, four legs | He eats Dustin's cat, Mews |
| Demodog | The size of a large dog, petal head | He escapes the basement and joins the pack |
It is the death of Mews, the Henderson family's cat, that makes Dustin flip: Dart is no longer a pet but a predator. He locks it in the basement, from which the creature escapes by digging. Dustin then recruits Steve to hunt it, with a bucket of raw meat and a nail-studded bat: that is the start of their duo.
Where “demodog” comes fromThe word is Dustin's, who refuses to call his creature a Demogorgon. He invents it on the way to the junkyard, talking with Steve, and the show adopts it for all the four-legged Demogorgons of Season 2.
The tunnel scene: Dart spares the group
In the finale, Dustin, Lucas, Max, Mike, and Steve go down into the tunnels to burn the heart of the network and divert the demodogs from the lab. On the way back, a demodog blocks their path. Dustin recognizes Dart by the mark on his flank, approaches, talks to him, and offers him his last nougat. Dart eats, and lets them pass.
A few minutes later, Eleven closes the gate, and every creature tied to the Mind Flayer dies, Dart included. Dustin knows it as he comes back up. The scene is brief, and it is one of the saddest of the season.
What Dart changed: the Steve and Dustin duo
Without Dart, no Steve-Dustin duo. It is looking for the escaped creature that Dustin comes upon Steve, bat in hand, in front of the Wheelers' house, and takes him along on his hunt. The two spend the evening laying raw meat along the rails, talking girls and hairspray, and discovering a friendship that will last through the end of the show.
Dart is also the first creature the group observes up close without fighting it: Dustin notes its molts, its food, its fear of light. Those observations will serve later, when it is time to understand how the creatures of the Upside Down work.
The Russians' demodog, Season 4
In 1986, Hopper discovers in the Kamchatka prison that the Soviets have captured a Demogorgon and use it to execute prisoners in an arena. It is not Dart, dead in 1984, but the scene recalls that the Russians had also brought back demodogs, kept in tanks, that Hopper, Joyce, and Murray finally kill.
Dart, for his part, never came back, and Dustin never replaced him.
The Dustin figure, cap and nougat included.
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The Russians' Demogorgon, in 1986
Season 4 shows an adult Demogorgon, captured by the Russians and held in the Kamchatka prison, where it serves as an executioner: prisoners are thrown into its pit. Hopper, Dmitri, and the other inmates have to face it in an arena, and it is with fire, which weakens the creature, that Hopper survives. Later, Joyce, Murray, and Hopper burn it with the particles of the Upside Down, which, at a distance, weakens Vecna.
That Demogorgon therefore grew from a demodog or a tadpole that crossed to the other side: the show does not say, but season 2 had shown the whole cycle, from the slug to the dog to the petal-headed creature. Dart, for his part, had died at the closing of the gate, in November 1984, with the rest of the pack.
The 1987 demodogs: the laundry room
The demodogs come back in the last season, in one of the most unexpected scenes: Hawkins Hospital. In episode 6, as the army moves in, demodogs start appearing in the building, and Robin, Vickie, and Lucas find themselves cornered in the laundry room. It is Karen Wheeler who saves them, by putting oxygen bottles in a dryer, which explodes and kills the pack.
The scene recalls the 1984 junkyard one, when Steve and Dustin waited for the demodogs in a bus, but with the adults this time. The demodogs remain, to the end, the creatures of closed places: tunnels, lab, hospital.
What Dart says about the show
Dart is the exception of the whole bestiary: the only creature of the Upside Down that a character loved, and the only one that returned that attachment. When Dustin talks to him in the tunnels, offers him a last chocolate bar, and promises to come back, Dart turns away and lets the group pass. No other monster in the show will make that gesture.
The Duffers said they wanted, in Season 2, a “pet monster” story in the spirit of 80s films where a child hides a creature, with the difference that the creature grows and kills the cat. Dart is the nightmarish version of that genre, and his fate, dying with the pack when Eleven closes the gate, is one of the season's quiet sadnesses.
The Demogorgon keychain, compact version.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Dart in Stranger Things?
A young Demogorgon found by Dustin on Halloween night 1984 and named D'Artagnan. It grows in a few days and becomes a Demodog.
What is a demodog?
The juvenile stage of the Demogorgon: a four-legged creature, the size of a dog, with a petal head. The word is invented by Dustin.
Does Dart die?
Yes. He dies with all the demodogs when Eleven closes the gate at the end of season 2, after letting Dustin and his friends pass in the tunnels.
Why Dart lets Dustin pass
Because he recognizes him, and because Dustin offers him a nougat, his favorite candy. It is the only monster in the show that shows attachment.
How does Dart die?
With the rest of the pack, when Eleven closes the lab gate in November 1984: cut off from the hive, the demodogs all collapse at once.
Are there Demodogs in season 5?
Yes, in Hawkins Hospital, in episode 6: they trap Robin, Vickie and Lucas in the laundry room, where Karen kills them by blowing up a dryer.
Does Dart really like chocolate?
Yes: Dustin feeds him chocolate bars from the first night, and it is a last bar that, in the tunnels, convinces Dart to let the group pass.
How old is Dart when he molts?
A few days: found on October 30, 1984, he loses his tail and grows legs in less than a week, before devouring the cat Mews and running off.