I went ahead and collected a bunch of easter eggs for you again, and I took the liverty of sorting them per chapters, so you can scroll down to see if the thing you thought was an easter egg is actually an easter egg, and pat yourself on the back if it is.
Some of these a nostalgia-eggs, for those of you who’ve read and remembered the previous books. That’s, like, a whole new level of easter egging.
Chapter One:
Rosalie has taken over as Chief of Police in Herringwood, after her father was injured on the job by falling out of a tree and breaking his back trying to rescue a cat. This mirrors Chief Watson catching Eddie up a tree outside Rosalie’s window in As Far As Souls Go. The cat Eddie tried to rescue was long gone, but he also fell out of the tree. Except he walked away from it.
Rosalie mentions to Eddie that Kayleigh wants to go to a concert of the Bensonhoist Lesbian Choir. For the story they’re an all-girl Type O Negative tribute band, but they actually exist. Or, existed.
Type O Negative would often mention the Bensonhoist Lesbian Choir in the liner notes. For me, most notably in Machine Screw, which opens the Bloody Kisses album. Not a track you wanna play on full blast when your mother is home.
The Choir would consist of Type O members, friends, family, and whomever else from their inner-circle they could use.
Chapter Five:
Rosalie hits Eddie in the head with the bedroom door because he is too close to it, trying to talk to her.
In Souls Helen hit him in the head with the same door, but he was too close because he was eavesdropping.
A cigarette is burning a hole in the rug that really tied the room together.
This is a reference I can’t help making when rugs are mentioned. Of all the quotable things in The Big Lebowski, this is the one that stuck around the most. I tried to get it into Herringwood Messiah, too. Maybe even managed, but I’d have to look up which version of that scene made the final cut.
Chapter Six:
Eddie has been to the funeral parlor, which is run by a guy called Stan. The section was originally longer and described much of Stan’s mannerisms, which would have made it perfectly clear what the reference was.
It’s another Monkey Island reference. Particularly, Monkey 2, where Stan has moved from selling second hand ships to selling second hand coffins.
Rosalie calls Eddie “Lone Starr” over a raspberry argument.
That’s obviously from the Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs, where Lone Starr jams the radar by launching a big jar of raspberry jam at it, because why not?
When Lord Helmet tastes it, he surmises there is only one man who dares give him the raspberry. Lone Starr!
Chapter Seven:
Lilith is blatantly ogling Scar and he jokingly calls her out on it. She replies with “I’m the Devil, I can do what I want,” which is a Tenacious D lyric from Beelzeboss. I probably could have worked in the follow up “Whatever I’ve got, I’m gonna flaunt” but I don’t know at which point the lawyers start braying for blood.
Lilith is at Processing, where she cuts in line and is angrily called out on it by a lady. Annoyed, Lilith asks to see her ticket, which says P1518.
In the other book about Lilith and Helen, Proverbs 15:18 states that “a wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.”
Immediately after, Lilith directs the lady to look at the screen showing the number for the next in line. The screen says M2016. Which in Bible (sort of a prequel, I guess) is Matthew 20:16, which aptly mentions that “so the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.”
Chapter Eight:
Vernon used to be like a rock, standing straight like an arrow.
From Bob Seger’s song Like A Rock. He doesn’t mention Vernon, of course, but it’s an accurate song for anyone who has ever been young and had to let go of that because life just kept making them older.
Chapter Nine:
Rooney states something is ironic, and Eddie calls him Alanis. I’m pretty sure I don’t have to explain that, but since this section is about explaining things, I’m just gonna point you to Alanis Morisette’s Ironic.
And also Ed Byrne’s set about why that song isn’t.
And now one that isn’t a pop culture reference. Not yet, anyway. Fingers crossed, though.
Eddie calls the Underworld via the payphone, but this time he isn’t answered by Linda. The operator is Nita.
Way back in Souls there was a storyline involving Nita Perez, who was the receptionist at Century Motors. It got cut for pacing reasons, as did a lot of shit, but at one point she was locked in a closet. Because the storyline got cut it was never resolved, I guess Nita never got out and died in there, so she’s now answering the phones in the Underworld.
Chapter Eleven:
Scar checks a broken pocket watch, and it’s stopped at two minutes to midnight.
It’s not really the goth choice, but 2 Minutes To Midnight is an Iron Maiden song.
This is a fun one, I think.
Lilith tells Kayleigh that she needs to be on the train in an hour. Kayleigh, on the verge of meeting her idol, Peter Steele of Type O Negative, says, “Unless it’s the D-train to Brighton Beach, I don’t think so.”
Alright, buckle up. In 1962, a guy called Billy Roberts wrote Hey Joe. A song about shooting your wife after catching her cheating, and then fleeing to Mexico.
The first known recorded version was in 1965 by a band called The Leaves. The version you know wasn’t recorded until 1966 by Jimi Hendrix.
Now, on to 1992, where a band called Type O Negative records an alternative version called Hey Pete, which is mostly the same, apart from killing your girlfriend after she’s caught fucking around, and fleeing to Brighton Beach on the D-train.
Chapter Twelve:
Rosalie is on the highway to Hell and she has faith in the Vindicator, but she’s going fast and with the flames and everything she worries she won’t see a sudden curve until it’s way too late.
Lifted that from the lyrics of Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell, because it’s awesome. That’s all the reason I need.
In the same chapter, Lilith puts Rosalie in a cell. She warns Steve to “check her for paperclips.”
In As Far As Souls Go, a paperclip was all Rosalie needed to start her escape from Toby’s office. Lilith wasn’t there at the time, but she’s heard the story by now. Steve was there, at the business end of Rosalie’s escape, and I’m quite sure he remembers it vividly.
Chapter Fourteen:
Eddie argues with Vernon and at one point thinks he’s ending the argument by saying “Game over, man. Game over.”
I could have just kept it at one normal “game over,” but this is like the rug from Lebowski. If you don’t know the reference, super-shame on you. Even if you’ve never seen Aliens, you will have heard the legendary Bill Paxton line somewhere. Now go watch Alien and Aliens. Rest of ‘em don’t matter.
Chapter Seventeen:
Eddie doesn’t remember the last time they ordered from Siam Palace. This is a quick little Big Bang Theory easter egg. Sheldon prefers Siam Palace.
At one point Eddie is trying to figure out if he’s a ghost, or perhaps can become one, and Lilith calls him “Mr. Swayze.” This references Ghost, the movie, obviously. My mother would love this reference.
Not much later, Lilith floors her car towards the tunnel and admits she likes going 88 miles per hour when doing serious shit. She says this, because I wanted to shoehorn in a Back To The Future reference.
Chapter Twenty-One:
The normally nice and collected Rosalie points a shotgun at someone’s head and urgently advises him to “don’t move, dirtbag.”
I always hear it the way Hooks says it in Police Academy.
Chapter Twenty-Five:
We find ourselves at a roadhouse called The Kickstand. It’s named so for the biker bar in the point & click adventure Full Throttle. The bartender is called Hoggy, because the bartender in the game is called Quohog.
Chapter Twenty-Five:
Michael keeps angrily wanting to draw his very sharp cavalry sable. Lilith, standing right next to him in the confined space of an elevator, orders him to “put that thing back where it came from, or so help me” which is a Monsters Inc. reference I can’t stop making.