Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone reboot is going strong. Three episodes in it’s been a little all over the place but so far it has impressed in its return. And, with that return also comes the return of the secrets and details often hidden in episodes. A lot of details are impossible to catch the first time around and if you don’t have the time to sit down and re-watch the episodes, never fear Def Pen has got you covered. Every episode this season, we’re going to be doing a deep-dive, combing through scene-by-scene to discover anything Peele and Co. may have hidden in plain sight. This week, ‘Replay.’
‘Replay
In this episode, Sanaa Lathan plays Nina Harrison, a mother a on road trip to take her son to college. While stopped in a diner for lunch, Nina discovers that her camcorder has the power to turn back time whenever she pushes the rewind button. That feature starts to come in handy unfortunately when a crooked police officer named Lasky starts profiling them. Every time they leave the diner, they are stopped by Officer Laksy who without fail finds some reason so assault Nina’s son, Dorian. Eventually, they make it to campus with the help of Nina’s estranged brother. Lasky arrives at the same time with back up though. A tension filed standoff takes place as the officers needlessly draw their weapons on the crowd before everyone’s phones force them to back down. Dorian enters campus and all is good. That is until 10 years later when we see Nina and Dorian playing with Dorian’s daughter. After she drops and breaks Nina’s camcorder, Dorian calms his mother and goes out for ice cream. As Nina watches him go, blue and red lights flash across her face.
Check out our full recap of the episode here , if you missed that last week!
First up, a majority of the episode takes place in and around the Busy Bee Diner. This diner also played a major role in the classic episode ‘Nick of Time,’ starring a young William Shatner.
The connections to ‘Nick of Time’ don’t end there though. That episode deals with a seemingly evil fortune-telling machine in the diner terrorizing Shatner throughout. Outside of this shot, it’s only visible in the background occasionally but that cursed machine makes a cameo.
Then, there’s another Whipple sighting this week. Nina’s camcorder is made by the infamous company from the classic episode ‘The Brain Center at Whipple’s.’ The same branding can be found on that mysterious MP3 player from ‘Nightmare at 30,000 Feet.’ So, it seems pretty likely we’ll see more from Whipple before the end of the season.
Dorian’s future alma mater, Tennyson College, is a fictional school. But, it does pay homage to Jamie Tennyson, a focus of the episode, ‘The Silence.’
And finally, the inn Dorian and Nina stop at midway through the episode is called Old Cadwaller Inn. This is an obvious reference to Mr. Cadwaller in the episode, ‘Escape Clause.’
The Twilight Zone is available exclusively on CBS All-Access.
