Just in time for Easter: Our 5 favourite TV Easter eggs
The Easter long weekend is here! But while the idea of a basket-toting bunny dropping chocolate all over the yard is lovely and charming, we'd prefer something else: Easter eggs of the TV variety. Fellow obsessives, you know what we're talking about: the little hints and surprises creators and writers drop into their episodes for eagle-eyed fans to discover. So in hopes that the mystical rabbit will hear our pleas and deliver us some wonderful TV, here are some of our favourite examples:
"The Walking Dead" meets "Breaking Bad"
Both shows are two of the most successful in network AMC history, so it only makes sense for the two would cross paths in some capacity -- even if it's through a shot of Daryl (Norman Reedus) holding up a bag of his brother's drugs to reveal blue crystal meth. You know: the type of meth created by Walter and Jesse in "Breaking Bad."
In fact, Hitfix has gone on to explain that we might find out the zombie outbreak is because of Blue Sky meth to begin with: Glenn (Stephen Yeun) gets into a red sports car similar to the one formerly parked in the Whites' driveway, and Daryl goes onto describe Merle's dealer to Beth (Emily Kinney) as "a janky little white guy" who says, "I'm gonna kill you, bitch." Please just tell us Jesse didn't turn into a zombie.
The full-length "McBain" movie on "The Simpsons"
It turns out the clips of "McBain" movies we've been watching during "The Simpsons" aren't just throwaway moments: according to EW and executive producer Al Jean, they're part of a whole -- as in, a whole "McBain" movie that actually makes a little bit of sense. Sure enough, someone put all of the "McBain" clips together and the result is actually pretty good:
"Arrested Development's" seal of approval (see what we did there?)
"Arrested Development" has more running jokes than most of our other favourite shows put together. But a special shout-out goes out to the "seal" bit that begins and ends with Buster's (Tony Hale) relationship with them: his arguably inappropriate relationship with his mother, Lucille (Jessica Walter), his less-inappropriate relationship with neighbour Lucille Austero (Liza Minnelli), his obsession with winning the stuffed seal as an arcade prize, and then later his hand being bit off by a seal. There's also foreshadowing in that Buster must use a claw (a.k.a like the one he gets post-incident) to acquire the stuffed seal from the arcade game -- oh, and don't forget that he also has a chair shaped like a hand in his room. You've gotta hand it to that "Arrested Development" team.
A song in "Breaking Bad" gives the whole show away
As outlined by Cracked, how "Breaking Bad" would end is given away at the beginning of the finale episode. When Walter is stealing a car to drive back to New Mexico, a Marty Robins cassette falls out of the glove compartment -- the album called "El Paso." The lyrics to "El Paso" (the song) are arguably bang-on:
So, a cowboy goes to New Mexico on a stolen horse to confront the man who threatened his relationship with his true love, Felina (although in Walt's case, it's meth -- though the episode itself is called "Felina"). Then, there's a shoot-out (like in the "Breaking Bad" finale), and the hero is hit with a stray bullet (which Walt was), and dies in the arms of Felina. Or, in Walt's case, in the meth lab, where he first came alive.
The countdown in "How I Met Your Mother"
OK, so some of us are still reeling from the, let's say, controversial ending to "How I Met Your Mother" a few weeks ago. But forget that for a minute, and let's look back at one of the show's most gut-punching episodes. In One of the sadder Easter eggs is this: the countdown until Marshall (Jason Segel) finds out his father died in the season 6 episode "Bad News." It begins at the fertility clinic, and it ends with the taxi cab Marshall is standing in front of. See?
What are your favourite TV Easter eggs?
