DC Universe's Titans has provided plenty of Easter eggs for fans to find.
There are callbacks to old classics, set pieces in iconic comic book locations, and a whole
lot more.
Here are the Easter eggs you might have missed in Titans Season 2.
Fairly early in the episode "Aqualad," we see Arthur Light, a.k.a. Doctor Light, torturing
Dr. Jacob Finlay.
For starters, their conversation indicates the two have a history.
"I love this gladiator look, reminds me of the time you went Spartacus on professor Tsu
for failing the freshman physics final."
We don't hear a lot of specifics, but the gist of it seems to be that Finlay has won
respect and fame on Doctor Light's shoulders.
They make reference to failed work Light did that Finlay was able to improve upon, and
subsequently take all the credit for.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg regarding the relationship between these two.
Let's back up.
The name Jacob Finlay comes directly from the comics.
When we first meet Finlay in 1989's Secret Origins #37, he appears as an apparition to
Arthur Light in a Doctor Light costume.
A flashback unfolds in which we learn Finlay was the original Doctor Light before Arthur
Light took up the name.
And unlike Arthur Light, Finlay wanted to use his abilities for good.
After Finlay dies, Arthur takes his suit and his powers, but continues to be haunted by
Finlay's ghost.
When Doctor Light tortures Jacob Finlay, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Easter egg pays tribute
not to a comic book or another DC-inspired TV show or movie, but to one of the Titans'
crew.
When Doctor Light lays a copy of a magazine in front of Finlay, Finlay's face is on the
cover, and the story on him was written by one James Usas.
Well, James Usas isn't a D-list supervillain or a well-kept comic book secret -- he's no
Ding Dong Daddy, in other words.
Instead, James Anthony Usas is the set designer for every episode of Titans' second season.
In the last few years, Usas has also made a name for himself as a set designer on series
like The Expanse and Star Trek: Discovery.
Much of the episode "Aqualad" revolves around the doomed Garth trying to woo Donna Troy.
In one of his conversations with Donna, Garth teases her with a joke about her tongue twister
of a homeland, Themyscira.
"Ah, to the Mascara.
It's Themyscira, and yes."
This is possibly a reference to a line of makeup that most fans have probably forgotten
about.
In 2011, MAC Cosmetics released a Wonder Woman-themed line of makeup products, complete with Wonder
Woman artwork by renowned artist Michael Allred.
The line included such products as Obey Me nail polish, Athena's Kiss lip gloss and,
yes, Themyscira Mascara.
Toward the beginning of the fifth episode of season two, Gar goes into Rachel's bedroom
and finds a weird, oily black substance flowing out of and around Raven as she sleeps.
Eventually it cuts Gar, and later in the episode Rachel shows fresh cuts to Kori on her own
back from the nightly events.
We don't know what the exact nature of this energy is yet, though it seems obvious it
has something to do with how Trigon altered Rachel's powers in the season premiere.
As Gar enters the room, there's a shot of something that should probably be raising
some alarm bells, though we have yet to hear anyone mentioning it.
Posted on a cork board above Rachel's desk are a number of images that wouldn't necessarily
be disturbing... if they weren't being drawn by the daughter of a demon.
In fact, they're exactly what you'd expect any given evil-demonic-possessed kid to draw
before they go full Brightburn on everyone around them.
Rachel's creative side seems to be very interested in black, abyssal holes, which is likely connected
with the darkness continuing to emerge from Rachel herself.
Fans have been waiting for the return of Superboy and Krypto ever since the first season's finale
gave us a post-credits scene showing the pair busting out of a Cadmus laboratory.
They finally got their wish with the second season's sixth episode, "Conner."
After revisiting that post-credits scene and giving us a corny commercial for Cadmus, Superboy
and Krypto escape from the lab in the cold open of "Conner" and find themselves faced
with the skyline of the famous city of Metropolis.
Thankfully, the show's creative team don't forget an important detail — Metropolis'
most well-known landmark, the Daily Planet building.
The workplace of Clark Kent, the Daily Planet's most recognizable physical feature is the
massive ringed globe on top of the building.
The Titans crew does a wonderful job with the detail.
You wouldn't notice it if you weren't looking for it, but once you do, there's no mistaking
what it is.
After his escape, Conner walks around Metropolis with Krypto, taking everything in and seeming
to revel in it.
At one point he stops and raises his arms, taking in the rays of the sun, visibly overjoyed
to be among humanity rather than locked away in a lab.
A nearby street vendor is selling shirts, caps, and other Metropolis memorabilia including
a black shirt bearing the Superman logo.
The park behind the street vendors is Centennial Park, the fictional Metropolis' answer to
New York's Central Park.
In DC Comics, Centennial Park is the home of the memorial raised to honor Superman after
he dies in battle with the rampaging villain Doomsday.
It's a fitting location for Superboy to be as he experiences his own form of rebirth.
"Everything he's experiencing is for the very first time."
In "Fallen," Mercy Graves and her commandos raid Titans Tower, recapturing Conner and
Krypto.
Seeing Gar's transformation powers in action, Mercy decides to bring Gar along for good
measure.
The episode ends with Gar in a lounge-like prison, watching the 1939 classic The Wizard
of Oz.
It turns out that there's some meaning to the choice.
The scene Gar is watching brings the Wicked Witch's flying monkeys into view, and once
you see them it's difficult to not think of the moment earlier in the episode when Rachel's
powers summon a winged gargoyle who hunts down her new friend's abusive father.
In both this episode and the following episode, there are references and reminders of Dorothy's
trip to Oz.
While speaking to the phantom Bruce Wayne, Dick refers to Deathstroke's "tiny tin heart"
a reference to Oz's Tin Man, who has no heart.
And considering the brain surgery forced on Gar in that same episode, you could see him
singing "If I Only Had A Brain."
The two Luthors mentioned the most in "Conner" are the infamous Lex Luthor and his father,
Lionel.
But we briefly see at least one more member of the family: Lena Luthor.
Unlike her brother, she's actually smiling in the family portrait that Conner finds in
the Luthor home, and she's looking lovingly at the same man we know beat Lex after he'd
had too much to drink.
Lena Luthor has kind of a crazy history in DC Comics.
Depending on which comic book you read and when it was published, Lena Luthor is either
Lex Luthor's sister or she's his daughter.
She's risen to prominence more recently, moreso on the small screen than in the comics.
Katie McGrath plays Lena Luthor in CW's Supergirl series, and became a regular in the third
season.
Most episodes of Titans take their titles from the name of the character who will be
the focus of that particular hour.
Season 2's seventh episode, "Bruce Wayne," is a departure in that while Bruce Wayne shows
up quite a bit, it isn't really Bruce Wayne.
When Dick Grayson's mentor appears to him, it becomes clear that this isn't the real
Wayne, but Dick Grayson's insecurities haunting him in the form of his surrogate father.
One such scene is when Dick goes to a club looking for information on Deathstroke, and
Wayne appears on stage.
In an unexpected turn of events, he gives us a tribute to the late Adam West.
"Hold tight.
Bat turn."
Iain Glen's dance is brief, but long-time Batman fans undoubtedly recognized it as a
call back to Adam West's campy portrayal of Batman from the '60s.
In Batman's first episode, Batman finds himself in a disco with the Riddler's lovely assistant,
pulling the trademark moves Glen's Bruce Wayne gives us on Titans.
In "Jericho," Slade finally tells his son the truth about who he is.
The story is told through a series of flashbacks, all leading up to Jericho meeting his father
alone in a church to finally get the truth.
The meeting, uh...doesn't go well.
Viewers were no doubt expecting to get some concrete answers from that meet-up, but sharp-eared
viewers may have gotten a wealth of info even earlier in the episode.
During the episode's first flashback, you might have missed a super-quick mention of
a clandestine group called H.I.V.E .:
"He was part of a special unit called H.I.V.E.
Try to relax."
H.I.V.E. has been a mainstay in DC Comics since the early '80s.
When they first appear in the pages of New Teen Titans, their acronym stood for "Hierarchy
of International Vengeance and Extermination."
The group has a long history of animosity with the Teen Titans, including close ties
with the group known as the Fearsome Five, which includes villains we've already seen
on Titans like Shimmer and Doctor Light.
Season 2's ninth episode, "Atonement," opens with the Titans disbanding, leaving Gar to
watch over Connor and Titans Tower.
The subsequent montage shows Gar going from optimistic and excited to bored and stir-crazy
in three days.
Along with everything else, the post-its Gar leaves in the kitchen reflect his devolving
mental state...through the helpful influence of a couple of great songs and films.
On the first day he posts "Fitter.
Happier.
More productive," a line from Radiohead's "Fitter Happier."
By day two, his emotions are already sagging a bit, and he writes "Always look on the brightside
of life," which is the song that concludes the classic 1979 religious satire Monty Python's
Life of Brian.
It is a little strange that Gar chooses this phrase, since the characters singing it aren't
exactly in an enviable position at the time.
By day three, Gar is officially stir-crazy, and he lets us know by calling back to the
1980 thriller The Shining.
Rather than any affirmations, Gar writes out "ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES GAR A DULL BOY"
on multiple post-its and sticks them up in a row a post-it tribute to the moment in The
Shining when Wendy discovers what her homicidal husband has really been up to all winter.
Dick Grayson's time in prison represents a major turning point for his character arc,
thanks in part to his three new cellmates.
At first it seems like the three are more than happy with the idea of killing Dick,
but eventually Grayson learns his cellmates are deserters from a Corto Maltese cartel
in part because they refused to kill on the cartel's orders.
Instead of allowing themselves to be sent back to Corto Maltese where they'll be killed,
the three plan an escape.
During the 10th episode, we find Luis, the youngest of the three cellmates, carving an
image on the wall above his bunk.
He eventually tells Dick this is "Alazul," a guardian spirit of his home village that
protects his people.
In spite of Dick's warnings, Luis is convinced Alazul will help him escape.
"A bird that comes down in the night and saves people?
Yes.
He's gonna save us tonight, and we'll be free."
That conversation is part of the reason Dick decides to help the inmates near the end of
the episode, literally coming out of the night to save them.
And sure, the carving on the wall doesn't look much like the costume Dick eventually
wears as Nightwing, either here or in the comics.
But while Titans goes out of its way to make it clear that this dude is all about some
wings, viewers may have missed the subtle meaning of that monochromatic wall carving:
the word comes from "ala azul," which is Spanish for "blue wing."
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