Top 20 Easter Eggs The Twilight Zone (2019) - Ep 1 & 2

Starring a pre-“Star Trek” William Shatner, this iconic episode of the OG “Twilight Zone” follows a man who’s so convinced he sees a gremlin outside his airplane that he goes to extreme measures to save himself and his fellow passengers. The rebooted “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” follows a similar, albeit updated, story where Adam Scott is also trying to save his plane, which he thinks is doomed thanks to a mysterious podcast. But there are even more detailed callbacks: the name “Dr. Cravat” is mentioned, appropriately referencing the actor who originally played the gremlin, Nick Cravat. And we bet you didn’t miss the toy gremlin that washed up on shore after the plane crash… Definitely not a mistake.

The mural at Eddies Comedy Club is a veritable treasure trove of classic “Twilight Zone” imagery: did you notice how some of the faces seem kind of… bizarre? These are direct visual references to the episode “Eye of the Beholder,” where an attractive woman is viewed as “hideous” by her shocking-looking counterparts, and “The Masks,” where a terrible family has their faces contorted by some darkly magic masks. So’s that weird-lookin’ Comedy/Tragedy mask. Also, you know the ending where Samir is IN the mural? This seems to allude to a few things, one of which is Rod Serling’s other anthology series “Night Gallery,” which used pieces of art as a storytelling device and sometimes ended with people inside the paintings as well.

Btw, the rest of that saying is “…but I wouldn’t want to live there.” The storyline of this Serling-era “Zone” episode would be familiar to any fans of “The Good Place.” After being shot in a robbery gone wrong, Rocky wakes to find himself in a place where he can’t lose and everything he wishes for comes true. Sounds like heaven, right? Well, Rocky gets bored pretty fast, so he asks to go to the “other” place. But wait: turns out he was in hell this whole time! And this ultimately mirrors the journey Samir takes: after making his Faustian deal, he goes from enjoying his success to hating it, and finally looks for a way out.

Are you thirsty? Need a refreshing beverage that’s won’t at all remind you of a deadly alien species? Well then, Kanamit lager is definitely not the answer to your problems! The drink, which can be seen being consumed by Dee Dee in the episode “The Comedian”, is named after the race of aliens known as the Kanamit in the original series episode “To Serve Man”. In the episode, the Kanamits travel to earth in search of a snack, or in less subtle terms, to devour all of the human race. If only they had some tasty Kanamit lager to wash that meal down with!

Alright, so this one has many layers… Both episodes of the show released so far have had characters who share the last name Donner, the first of which, Joe Donner, features in the episode “The Comedian”. Of course, paired with the pilot in “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet”, named Captain Donner, this must be a clear reference to one Richard Donner, the iconic filmmaker who directed a number of episodes of the original series. Of course, the Donner thing could also be a reference to the notorious Donner family, which may have foreshadowed Justin’s unfortunate fate...

How could you possibly update Rod Serling’s classic 20th century television show for the 21st century? Well podcasting is surely one way! The second episode of this new revival sees Adam Scott learning of his own disappearance through a podcast titled “enigmatique”. What many viewers might not know is that actor Adam Scott is actually a podcaster himself, often co-hosting the show “U Talking U2 to Me” and its R.E.M. counterpart. Not only that, but regular podcast listeners may recognize the voice of “Enigmatique” as one Dan Carlin of Hardcore History fame.

Given that the second episode of this show deals with a mysterious plane disturbance, people were quick on the trigger to try and spot any reference to the tv show Lost they could. However, ironically, it’s the episode “The Comedian” which cleverly gets in a quick nod to the influential tv series. During Samir’s first stand up routine, he briefly talks about an airplane crash in the Atlantic Ocean. Someone must have been having fun in the editing room, as we quickly cut to a man in the audience who looks an awful lot like John Locke. All the talk of “Oceanic Flights” in the next episode probably got the most diehard Lost fans pretty excited as well.

Having to follow a legend like Rod Serling must be no simple feat, but Jordan Peele has more than showed us why he’s perfect for the role. He’s got the calm and cool manner of the OG host, but he’s definitely doing his own thing. Not only is he respectful paying homage to the sci-fi writer in his hosting chops, but Peele also threw in a slight nod to Serling’s military roots. Toward the end of “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet”, Peele can be seen sporting a bracelet with a parachutist badge… an obvious reference to Serling’s time in the 11th Airborne Division.

Speaking of spending time in the air, the episode “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” name drops a number of flight numbers and knowing the vast lore of Twilight Zone, you just know these HAD to mean something… The crash of Transeast Airlines Flight 22 out of Miami Beach is the first mentioned, which is featured in the original series episode “Twenty Two” where the titular flight explodes in mid-air. The second flight mentioned, Global Airlines Flight 107, is a clear reference to another original series episode titled “The Arrival”, which mysteriously lands successfully, but without a passenger on board. Creepy...

Here’s an example of one Serling-era episode that’s somehow referenced in both “The Comedian” AND “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet.” The classic era season 1 finale “A World of His Own” is about a writer who’s got a special tape recorder which, if he uses it to record a description of a character, will cause that character to appear in flesh and blood. The downside? If he destroys the tape, the person ceases to be. Of course, this is not only reminiscent of the spooky podcast-playing mp3 player found by Justin Sanderson; it is also clearly connected with Samir’s God-like power to erase people from existence with his words.

In one of his final stand-up acts/monologues/rants/whatever you wanna call it, Samir is ranting against seemingly every person he’s ever met or even heard of. But one name-drop stands out to us as a clear reference: the Torrances are, of course, the family at the center of Stephen King’s “The Shining.” But the reference goes even deeper: the final shot in the episode is a visual cue harkening back to Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of King’s work: the reveal of Samir as a tuxedo’d member of the audience in the mural on the wall is very similar to the shot of Jack Torrance as a tuxedo’d member of the party crowd at the Overlook Hotel. Has Samir “always” been the comedian here?

We’ll get to Samir’s long “hitlist” later, but we just wanted to highlight one MAJOR one here. When our main character is researching his long list of lifelong enemies, he comes across the name Paul Grinstead. If this name sounds familiar, it appears in the original series episode “Mirror Image”, where the character Paul Grinstead comes to the aid of the main character Millicent Barnes, who is frightened after seeing her own doppelganger. This reference goes one step further when you realize that Jordan Peele used “Mirror Image” as a jumping off point for his latest film “Us”.

We’ve all got some mortal enemies, but it’s a little extreme to want to make them disappear forever. “The Comedian” explores this idea by having stand up comic Samir Wassan discover that he has the power to make people in his life disappear by telling jokes about them on stage. Anyone who’s watched through the original series however, knows that this premise shares some similarities with episode “It’s a Good Life”. This episode from the show’s third season sees a six year old boy with the ability to banish those who cross him to a desolate cornfield. Makes you think twice about getting on anyone’s bad side...

Samir’s having a bad set when he somehow fits a plane crash reference into a bit about the Second Amendment. Do YOU think in a show this well crafted that it’s a coincidence the next episode deals with a plane crash? We’re used to shows throwing back to previous eps, and the new “Twilight Zone” does that in episode 2 [Samir’s face on magazine]. But to throw forward is impressive. Did you spot that magazine featuring Jacob Tremblay? Expect that to come back. How about the “Mission to Mars” mural? From what we’ve seen, that’ll pop up again too. This is exactly the kind of shared universe world building that’ll force us to binge-rewatch the whole season again once it’s done.

The Venn diagram of “Twilight Zone” fans who also like “The X-Files” must intersect pretty significantly, so this reference should be a real treat for fans of all things spooky: Glen Morgan is currently serving as an executive producer on this “Twilight Zone” reboot, but he’s probably most known for his contributions to the “Final Destination” film series, which is very interesting considering the “plane crash premonition” narrative in the episode “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet,” and – obviously – “The X-Files.” Aside from the Morgan connection, we also see Captain Donner played by actor Nicholas Lea, who played Alex Krycek on “The X-Files,” as well as some clear visual nods to the Fox series’ opening sequence.

Everyone knows that, today, if you see a contact list onscreen, you can almost guarantee the names are references to something. In the case of Samir’s friends, these are all references to old “The Twilight Zone” episodes. Alphabetically, we first see Al Cadwallader, whose name is a nod to the Devil from the classic episode “Escape Clause.” Next, James Corry is the futuristic inmate at the center of another classic episode, “The Lonely.” Henry Corwin is taken from the 1985 “Twilight Zone” reboot ep “Night of the Meek,” Al Denton must be the titular “Mr. Denton on Doomsday” and James Embry is the name of the pilot from “King Nine Will Not Return.” Phew! Did we miss any?

No, that protracted apostrophe talk was not just for all you grammar nerds out there; it had multiple hidden meanings - you just gotta know where to look. The name Eddie is a homophone for “E-D-D-Y,” which - according to the dictionary - is “a current of water or air running contrary to the main current, especially a circular current.” Translation? It’s a synonym for “whirlpool.” And that mirrors Samir’s story: much like getting caught in a whirlpool, he gets caught up in the fame until ultimately the force is too much and he’s drawn in. It also indicates that it’s a cycle: it probably happened to JC Wheeler before Samir, and it’ll probably happen to Didi after him.

Geez, we guess we should’ve paid more attention to this conversation… Although it may’ve seemed like a red herring, the discussion of why Eddies Comedy Club has no apostrophe in its sign was actually ALSO alluding to the literary device known as “apostrophe” and not the punctuation mark… at least according to Redditors like Gunther_Folly. To put it simply, this figure of speech refers to any time a character talks directly to, like, an inanimate object or some character who’s not actually in the scene with them… maybe some dear departed friend or family member, perhaps? That’d certainly make sense here, given the subject matter of the episode.

By this point you’ve gotta expect Jordan Peele and co. will be referencing the original series at every chance they get. If you were watching “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” and wondering if the Whipple device is just some funny name they came up with… we’ll explain. Look to original series episode “The Brain Center at Whipple’s” for an answer to this one, where the owner of a manufacturing company titled Whipple fires all of his employees in favor of assembly machines. Here’s hoping that Whipple becomes a sort of Tagruato-type fictional company that frequently reappears throughout the series…

Even if you’re not pediophobic, you probably noticed that ventriloquist dummy in the dressing room at Eddies comedy club. Well, this dummy is basically a celebrity in the “Twilight Zone” universe. Known alternatively as Willie or Caesar, he actually appeared in two episodes of the original series: “The Dummy” and “Caesar and Me.” In both cases, that doll has a mind of his own, and while that doesn’t seem to be the case here, we wouldn’t put anything past that creepy face. IRL, Willie/Caesar has been living alongside other magic memorabilia in famed magician David Copperfield’s museum in Las Vegas, and was lent to the show without charge on one condition: they reference Copperfield somehow in the episode.