Of course there’s a great “Stranger Things” Easter egg in Netflix’s latest, “The OA”
The comparisons between Stranger Things and The OA was bound to happen. After all, both are Netflix series. Both also feature mysterious girls with abilities, small town teens, and exploitative scientific research. Now, it seems, at least some of that is deliberate. In fact, there’s actually a Stranger Things Easter egg/reference in Netflix’s The OA.
Before it dropped on Friday, we could only speculate as to the mystery of The OA on Netflix. Netflix only revealed cryptic tweets and a really vague synopsis. Apart from the Stephen King comparisons, the creepy trailer for Netflix’s Stranger Things garnered similar reactions.
While Netflix couldn’t have predicted the success of Stranger Things before The OA was already in the works, it’s clear the two shows bear a lot of similarities. Now we know that it just might be intentional.
The Easter egg appears in episode 4 of The OA. In the scene, Jesse (Brendan Meyer) comes home from a nighttime gathering led by The OA (Britt Marling). His sister is on the couch, smoking weed and watching TV. It’s what she’s watching that’s important, though. Because she’s watching Stranger Things – specifically that early scene where Will gets abducted.
It’s kind of tough to tell, but you can sort of make out the handlebars of Will’s bike and you can definitely hear the show’s music. Obviously, this is surprising; after all, it seems a little *too* meta for a Netflix show’s character to be watching a Netflix show. Especially one so similar to what they (or people close to them) are actually living.
However, normal people do watch Netflix. It makes a whole lot of sense for a character in a small town to binge a popular show. Still, we have to wonder — is there a deeper meaning to the direct Stranger Things reference?
Unless The OA creators Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij address it, we may never know. We sure hope we get some answers. In the meantime, though, we might as well lean into that Netflix binge.
