41 details you might have missed in 'Station Eleven'

• Warning: Spoilers ahead for the HBO Max series "Station Eleven."
• The post-apocalyptic drama, which aired its finale on January 13, juggles multiple timelines and subplots.
• There are plenty of details and Easter eggs throughout, including a mysterious recurring symbol.

"Station Eleven" is an adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel's novel of the same name.

"Station Eleven" premiered on December 16, adapting Emily St. John Mandel's 2014 novel of the same name into an HBO Max limited series. 

A pandemic show based on a pandemic novel airing two years into a global pandemic, "Station Eleven" may seem fatigue-inducing. However, as The Ringer's Alison Herman wrote, the show leverages our own experience of the pandemic to indoctrinate it into its own vision. Even after incredible loss, the apocalypse of "Station Eleven" is green, lush, and full of humanity and art. 

Like the book, the series juggles multiple timelines and characters that overlap and unfold gradually episode-to-episode. It's also full of details, symbols, and brief references that enrich your understanding of the series: — here are 11 that you might have missed in the first three episodes. 

One of the earliest shots in the show is a playbill for "King Lear," billing Arthur Leander.

Within the show's first minute, we see a playbill for the "King Lear" production starring Arthur Leander that kicks off the story's action.

The shot shows the playbill lying unfolded in a puddle, surrounded by dim greenery and miraculously still intact. As the sequence progresses, we learn that this is the theater in which Leander's final performance took place, and where "Station Eleven" begins.

There's another advertisement for Leander's "King Lear" production on the L.

After Arthur and Kirsten prematurely get off the L on the way to her home, the screen on top of the stairs flips to an advertisement for the "King Lear" production starring Arthur Leander. 

It's the same image that appears on the Playbill at the beginning of the first episode. 

Jeevan buys strawberry Yoo-hoo at the grocery store, minutes after his sister Siya recounted a story about it from their childhood.

Jeevan buys three bottles of Yoo-hoo, a flavored drink, during his grocery trip with Kirsten. He gets three bottles: two chocolate and one strawberry, hearkening back to his earlier conversation with his sister Siya in the first episode. 

After Siya breaks the news about the flu to Jeevan on the train, she talks him down from an apparent panic attack by recounting a story from their childhood.

"Everyone had chocolate but you found that one strawberry," Siya tells Jeevan over the phone.

Arthur and Kirsten open to the exact same page of "Station Eleven," 20 years apart.

Arthur Leander and (older) Kirsten read the same page in "Station Eleven," Miranda's completed graphic novel, twenty years apart in the show's first episode, "Wheel of Fire."

The page shows Dr. Eleven, the spaceman of her novel, with a speech bubble. "To the monsters we're the monsters," he says.

In the episode, Arthur cracks open the book after Miranda visits him in Chicago, later passing it on to Kirsten. A relic of the pre-pandemic past, Kirsten carries the novel with her into adulthood. In the first sequence in which we see her as an adult, played by Mackenzie Davis, she's lying in the sand reading the book. 

In the second episode, the mysterious man (credited on IMDb as the Prophet) quotes this line back at Kirsten, heightening her suspicion of him. 

Dan's audition monologue is a speech from the 1996 film "Independence Day."

Dan, a familiar stranger, approaches the Traveling Symphony on their way to St. Deborah by the Water in the show's second episode, "A Hawk from a Handsaw." He, and other members of the Traveling Symphony, wheedle Dieter to allow him to audition with non-Shakespeare material. 

He proceeds to give a monologue from the 1996 alien invasion film "Independence Day" that was originally delivered by Bill Pullman as President Thomas J. Whitmore. 

"Good morning," Dan says, his voice echoing as if he was speaking into a megaphone. "In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world."

The Traveling Symphony's motto appears on the side of a truck.

There are a few glimpses of the Traveling Symphony's motto, "survival is insufficient," on the side of a truck in the second episode.

The motto nods to the symphony's mission of bringing music and theater to post-pandemic communities.

Kirsten's tattoos match a symbol on the side of the road, as well as a mark left by the Prophet's bloodstains.

The multiple, small tattoos on Kirsten's hand match a symbol that she finds intertwined with a sign on the sign of the road in the second episode. 

Later in the episode, Kirsten observes the same symbol drawn in the suspicious man's blood on the rocks where she stabbed him. 

Kirsten quotes Hamlet when receiving her switchblade.

When a member of the Traveling Symphony (played by actor Prince Amponsah) presents Kirsten with a switchblade, she quotes Hamlet, the play that the symphony is performing that evening.

"This likes me well," she says, quoting Hamlet in Act 5, Scene 2 of the play, when he selects a rapier.

Miranda doodles the J-shaped cross symbol on a napkin after she and Arthur first meet.

Miranda draws the J-shaped cross symbol on a napkin in the series' third episode, shortly after meeting Arthur Leander for the first time.

While the symbol cropped up multiple times in the second episode, this is chronologically the first time it appears. Miranda describes it as "a feeling" to Clark.

"What's the feeling?" he asks.

"Cut and run," she replies. "When a squall comes up so fast, you got to cut the anchor and just go."

Miranda references Hamlet, which the symphony performed in the previous episode, by asking Arthur and Clark which one of them is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Miranda cheekily references "Hamlet," the Shakespeare tragedy of the previous episode, while talking with Clark and Arthur at a bar in episode three.

She asks which one is Rosencrantz and which is Guildenstern, referring to the two characters, who are Hamlet's old friends that he turns on when they prove untrustworthy. The characters are, in essence, two halves of one whole, as Clark and Arthur joke in the episode, saying that they're "interchangeable."

"You guys end up the same, at least," Miranda says. "You both get killed by Hamlet."

Miranda sees an Instagram post about Arthur that appears to be from Kirsten's account.

In episode three, Miranda scrolls through the #arthurleander tag on Instagram after learning about his death. The first post she sees is a black-and-white image of Arthur, uploaded by an account with the handle @Kikiacts1. The profile image is of young Kirsten, presumably in her "King Lear" costume. 

It's possible that Kirsten uploaded the image during the continuity of the first episode, as Jeevan watches her scroll through Instagram while waiting for the L.

The fourth episode's title is a twist on the title of a famous, "Hamlet"-adjacent play.

Episode four is titled "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Aren't Dead," and it could be a reference either to a line from the fifth act of "Hamlet" — "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead" — or to Tom Stoppard's play, titled after the line. 

Stoppard's play explores the events of "Hamlet" through the eyes of its titular characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Liszt's "La Campanella" plays throughout episode 4, and it's the melody found in the second.

The melody that Sarah plays on her keytar in episode 4 is the same as the one she's playing in episode 2, during the moment that she and Kirsten first meet. It's pulled from Lizst's "La Campanella," an étude that's considered to be one of the most difficult works written for piano, and is the same work Sarah references playing on the CD that the man from the Museum of Civilization brings her in the same episode.  

Later in the episode, Sarah plays "La Campanella" in full on a piano at Pingtree, the country club where Gil, the Traveling Symphony's ex-director, resides. 

Gil quotes Prospero from "The Tempest" to Kirsten in episode 4.

In his conversation with Kirsten, Gil quotes from "The Tempest."

"Our revels are now ended," Gil says to Kirsten. "Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, our little life rounded with a sleep."

It's an abbreviation of several of Prospero's lines in the first scene of the play's fourth act, speaking to Miranda and Ferdinand.

Young Kirsten is watching an episode of "Star Trek" that references "Hamlet" in episode 4.

In the cabin, before she hears the sound of a motor and runs outside, young Kirsten is watching an episode of "Star Trek" titled "The Conscience of the King" on the television. 

The episode's title is plucked from "Hamlet," the same Shakespeare play that the Traveling Symphony performs in the show's second and fourth episodes, and quotes a line from its second act. 

Aside from the Hamlet reference, the plot of the "Star Trek" episode itself also plays into "Station Eleven."

In the briefly audible dialogue from the episode, Captain Kirk speaks in his Captain's Log about diverting the Starship Enterprise to investigate a synthetic food capable of curing famine. He's then heard asking another character, Dr. Thomas Leighton, if he asked him to divert the ship's course "just to accuse an actor of being Kodos." 

Older Kirsten pulled a similar trick earlier in the same episode of "Station Eleven," diverting the Traveling Symphony from its path in order to investigate the Prophet. She did so by lying to Sarah that she had heard a rumor that Gil's lover had died. 

Furthermore, the "Star Trek" episode deals with a traveling troupe of actors. The lead of the company is actually Kodos, the former governor of the Earth colony Tarsus IV. Faced with famine, Kodos executed half the population to mitigate the effects of famine, and both Kirk and Dr. Leighton were survivors. 

In the "Star Trek" episode, like the Traveling Symphony, Kodos' troupe is performing "Hamlet."

Clark quotes "King Lear" to Tyler in episode 5.

While "Station Eleven" plucks quotes from a variety of Shakespeare's works, "King Lear" still remains at its center. 

"The worse I may be, yes. The worst is not, as long as we can say 'This is the worst,'" Clark says to Tyler, who has headphones on. 

It's a slight alteration to one of Edgar's lines from "King Lear."

"And worse I may be yet. The worst is not / So long as we can say 'This is the worst,'" Edgar says in the first scene of the play's fourth act. 

The carpet at the Severn City Airport in episode 5 depicts the Great Lakes.

While Severn City isn't a real city, it's meant to be located somewhere in the Great Lakes region. The biggest clue to that in the show is the carpet in the airport's largest lobby, where Clark gives a rallying speech to those who remain at the airport. 

The carpet is an abstraction of four of the Great Lakes: Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, from left to right.

Clark lays out a Spock figurine among the gadgets in the airport tower in episode 5.

As he begins to collect human technology to preserve, Clark lays out a figure of Spock, one of the primary characters in the "Star Trek" franchise. Given the show's prior fixation with "Star Trek," it's a notable addition to his budding museum.

"La Campanella" plays once again in episode 6.

"La Campanella," the Lizst piece, plays as Kirsten — both old and young — searches for Alex. It's a different arrangement than the ones that played in episodes 2 and 4, composed of a full orchestra rather than a grand piano, as in episode 4, or Sarah's keytar, as in episodes 2 and 4.

There's also sheet music for "La Campanella" on a baby grand piano in Frank's apartment building in episode 7.

When Jeevan begins to venture out of Frank's apartment in episode 7, he finds a grand piano. On it, there's a score of "La Campanella." This score, however, has the words "it's impossible" written on it. 

"La Campanella" is also the credits music for episode 7, beginning immediately after Older Kirsten says goodbye to Frank's skeleton in his apartment.

Kirsten names both a cat and later, her horse, Luli.

Luli is a recurring animal name in "Station Eleven." In episode 6, the older Kirsten calls out to her horse named Luli as she searches for it in the woods. As a child, she also named a cat Luli while living in Frank's apartment — she pets it in episode 4, and later calls out to it in episode 7.

Luli is a significant name in the book as well. Miranda names Doctor Eleven's dog Luli after her own, and the Prophet names his dog Luli in the book as well.

Frank serves Kirsten hot chocolate in a Northwestern mug.

Frank's mug of choice grounds the series just a bit more in Chicago. Viewed in both episode 3 and episode 7, Frank hands Kirsten a mug with the Northwestern University logo on it. The university is located in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago where the Chaudhary siblings live.

Northwestern is known for its Medill School of Journalism, Media, and Integrated Marketing Communications, and as a former journalist, it's possible that Frank was a student within the journalism school.

The song Frank raps in episode 7 is "Excursions" by A Tribe Called Quest.

Frank's rap performance, which he initially disguises as a "way to stay hot" amid the freezing temperatures of Chicago in the winter, is a reinterpretation of "Excursions" by the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest. 

He recreates the track's bass line by chopping up an audio transcript on his recorder, pitching the vocals to create a beat. He also changes some lyrics while covering the song, such as "That's the right hand, Black man" to "That's the right hand, brown man."

There's a half-drank bottle of strawberry Yoo-Hoo on the table in episode 7.

The bottle of strawberry Yoo-Hoo that Jeevan buys in the first episode of "Station Eleven" makes a reappearance in episode 7, half-drank on the table in front of Frank. 

It hearkens back to the anecdote that Siya told Jeevan in episode 1 to quell his panic attack: When they were children, Jeevan picked the solitary strawberry flavor when everyone else had chocolate.

Frank's stab wound is in roughly the same location as the Prophet's.

In episode 7, Frank allows a stranger to stab him on the lower left side of his torso. It's roughly the same location where Kirsten stabbed the Prophet in episode 2. 

The knife Kirsten takes from the man who raided Frank's apartment in episode 7 is the same one she's carrying as a child earlier in the season.

As Jeevan and Kirsten prepare to leave Frank's apartment in episode 7, Kirsten takes the knife that belonged to the man who killed Frank from the kitchen counter. It appears to be the same blade that she's wielding as a child when she meets Sarah in episode 2.

Older Kirsten has a line at the end of episode 7's credits.

At the end of the credits for episode 7, older Kirsten, without appearing on-screen, is heard saying, "I wanted to say thank you for letting me stay here." It's seemingly a continuation of her goodbye to Frank's skeleton before the credits. 

Clark plays the instrumental to Smash Mouth's "All Star" on the karaoke machine in episode 8.

Clark presents a karaoke machine to the children at the Severn City Airport. When he demos it, the song he plays is the instrumental to Smash's Mouth's "All Star," which notably was featured in the first "Shrek" film.

There's a Starship Enterprise model in the Museum of Civilization.

It seems that Clark has saved more than one piece of "Star Trek" memorabilia in the Museum of Civilization. There's a brief shot of a Starship Enterprise, the iconic ship from the original series, amid the collection in episode 8. 

The name Tyler gives Clark in the tower is that of a character from Miranda's "Station Eleven."

In episode 8, Tyler tells Clark that his name is Lonergan, which is the name of one of the characters in Miranda's "Station Eleven." It's also the role that Frank plays, and dies in, in Kirsten's stage adaptation of the novel as a child. 

Clark tests Tyler with a "Hamlet" quote to verify that he's an actor.

In the tower in episode 8, Clark tests Tyler's Shakespeare knowledge with an exchange from Act 4, Scene 2.

"What hath you done with the body, dear lord?" Clark asks Tyler.

"Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin," Tyler replies.

Kirsten picks up an "Airplane" (1980) themed mug in the control tower.

During her scene with Tyler to prove their identities as actors, Kirsten picks up a mug as a prop. It just so happens to be themed after the 1980 parody film "Airplane," depicting the film's iconic twisted fuselage art. 

Alex performs Lisa Loeb's "Stay (I Missed You)" on the airport tarmac.

The karaoke machine from episode 8 makes its way out to the Traveling Symphony in the same episode. On a jetway, Alex sings Loeb's 1994 song, using a microphone. 

The device Tyler uses to destroy the Museum of Civilization is his childhood handheld console.

During Clark's test of Kirsten and Tyler in episode 8, Tyler takes his handheld console that he had as a child, and hides it within a vent. 

Later in the episode, he retrieves the console, carrying it when he rendezvouses with Kirsten in the jetway.

In the first year of the pandemic, Jeevan stands by the water slide outside of what will become St. Deborah by the Water.

In episode 9, we finally get a better view of Kirsten and Jeevan's time at the cabin on the lake. At one point, during the winter, Jeevan looks out onto the lake, spotting a platform with a water slide — the same one that Kirsten, Alex, and Sayid swim around in episode 2, 20 years in the future.

In episode 2, both Alex and Sayid reference Kirsten's history in the area. Sayid asks Kirsten if she's checked out the cabin, while Alex says that she knows the woods make her think of Jeevan.

Jeevan is reading a copy of Gray's Anatomy in episode 9.

At the department store birthing center, Jeevan's seen carrying out the seminal medical textbook "Gray's Anatomy."

The orphan child's name is Alexandra.

In episode 9, Terry hand-writes a birth certificate for the children born in the department store. That includes the orphaned infant, whose mother Rose died during childbirth.

That child's name is Alexandra, and it doesn't seem too far a leap to assume that she may grow up to be Alex of the Traveling Symphony.

St. Deborah by the Water, the post-pandemic town, is seemingly named after the doctor who recruited Jeevan to deliver children.

In episode 9, Terry clarifies she took her husband's name after his death so that she would "miss him less." Her real name, in fact, is Deborah. 

It seems likely that she's the namesake for the town that the Traveling Symphony stops at in episode 2, St. Deborah by the Water. On the journey into the town, there's a shipping canister that bears the logo of the department store Deborah operates out of in episode 9. A statue of the town's patron saint in episode 2 shows her holding a newborn.

In episode 2, Kirsten says that Deborah died in a chemical fire.

Jeevan finds Frank's compass on the table in the cabin in episode 9.

When Jeevan finally returns to the cabin after his abduction, he confirms that Kirsten has since left. However, she's left a signal for him behind — Frank's compass, which he gifted to her in episode 7, left on the table.

The bookshelves in the airport library used to store liquor.

In episode 10, Clark, Kirsten, and Elizabeth have a conversation in a library-like nook, with shelves stacked with records, DVDs, and other memorabilia. The shelves were originally used for a different purpose, however — they're labeled to house vodka, rum, and gin, likely remnants of an airport convenience store

There's an adirondack chair and side table shaped like the state of Michigan in the airport.

Outside of the converted airport store, there's a Michigan-shaped chair. Its back is the shape of the "glove" part of the state, while the side table is shaped like Michagn's upper peninsula, which protrudes from Wisconsin. 

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