All the Party Down Easter Eggs You Might Have Missed

It’s been 13 years since we last saw them in action, so viewers have undoubtedly forgotten a few things about the Party Down gang. There are plenty of major details from the originals seasons’ runs that are worth refreshing before diving into the new season: Henry (Adam Scott) and Casey’s (Lizzy Caplan) romance, Lydia’s (Megan Mullally) role as momager for her daughter Escapade, Ron’s (Ken Marino) general misfortunes, and the infamous “Are we having fun yet?” beer commercial.

But there are plenty of smaller details that harken back to Party Down’s earlier days as well. The new season isn’t giving into fan service, so it’s not beating viewers over the head with references, which makes discovering the callbacks all the more fun. Here are the ones from each episode that you might have missed. (We'll be updating this post weekly.)

Episode 1: “Kyle is Nitromancer”

“No personal business on company time”

In the earlier seasons, Ron deployed this phrase often, mostly directing it at Casey and her constantly ringing cell phone. Now, it’s new Party Down employee Sackson (Tyrel Jackson Williams), a Gen Z content creator constantly making videos on his phone, who earns Ron’s ire. The main difference this time around? No flip phones.

“Party Down.” “Never heard of it, is it on cable or something?”

When Henry is trying to get into Kyle’s (Ryan Hansen) party, it’s assumed he’s in the entertainment business — the bouncer thinks Party Down is a show and not a catering company. It gives the show a chance to acknowledge its humble beginnings.

Constance is a widow and heiress

The previous run of the show ended with Constance’s (Jane Lynch) wedding to Howard Greengold, a mega-rich film producer. His daughter forces Constance to sign a pre-nup to make sure she doesn’t get all his money, but when he drops dead immediately after the wedding it’s revealed that Howard never actually signed the papers himself. Constance walks away with millions that seem to be still sustaining her all these years later.

Karma Rocket

The first reference to Kyle’s band was in the show’s pilot, and last we saw Karma Rocket, they were performing an original song at Constance’s wedding. We even get a glimpse of the performance from a floppy-haired Kyle in this episode when a video starts circulating and the internet calls out the song's seemingly pro-Nazi lyrics.

Ron was going to marry the boss’s daughter

In Season 2, Ron falls in love with Danielle Lugozshe, the daughter of Party Down owner Bolus Lugozshe. In the Season 2 finale, Ron convinces Danielle to leave her husband and run away with him. Sounds like things didn’t last.

Roman’s toilet paper magnum opus

While at Constance’s wedding in Season 2, Roman accidentally downs too many weed gummies. During his panicked high, he writes his hard sci-fi novel The Serpent In The Mirror on a giant roll of toilet paper. He’s still tweaking it 12 years later.

Roman’s prestigious blog

Roman’s prestigious blog was always a point of pride for the high and mighty aspiring writer. Now, times have changed, and the blog has evolved to a vlog. But it’s not because Roman is trying to keep up with the kids and their internet videos, it’s just a way to keep his carpal tunnel at bay.

Henry’s Parliaments

Throughout Seasons 1 and 2 of Party Down, Henry is often spotted with a pack of Parliaments for his mid-shift smoke breaks. The way he sneaks a pack from Evie (Jennifer Garner) in this episode makes it seem like he’s since shaken the habit, but can’t help but light one up when with the old gang again.

Episode 2: “Jack Botty’s Delayed Post-Pandemic Surprise Party”

Cut the lime with the grain

When Henry first rejoined Party Down catering as a bartender in the pilot, Ron confidently told him to cut the lime with the grain. Now Kyle is passing down that sage advice again. As Ron first said, “the lime’s grain runs north to south, nipple to nipple.”

Constance’s experience with roller skates

Throughout the series’s original run, Constance was often spouting stories from her early days as an actress in an attempt to mentor Kyle, despite the stories including less than inspiring details. In Season 1, she reminisced about the time she lost the role of “Roller Girl” in Cannonball 2 because she got hit by a car. She’s still going to that well of stories, this time to give Sackson sage advice. This time she tells an even darker story about the time she framed another actress for drug possession, handcuffed her to a radiator, and stole her identity to get a part. But she lost the role anyway — it required the actress to roller skate, and without any practice or experience, Constance rolled right off the set into the ocean.

R.D.D.

Sackson gets called out for trying to film a TikTok in the client’s bathroom, a real R.D.D. Sackson is confused by the acronym, but anyone who was around during Season 2 should know — that’s a Ron Donald Don’t.

Ron Donald bathroom mishap

This isn’t the first time that Ron has found himself in a compromising situation in a private non-party space (specifically, the bathroom). Back in the Party Down pilot, Ron was spotted using a stain removing stick on the crotch of his pants in a client’s bathroom — this time, he’s not quite caught in the act, but the scent of the limited edition conditioner gives him away.

Henry stealing Percocet from the Jack Botty’s medicine cabinet

In the show’s original run, the Party Down catering promise was that employees won’t go through their client’s medicine cabinets, even though Ron admitted that he used to do so all the time pre-sobriety. In the end, it’s an empty promise that can’t be kept by Ron’s employees, particularly Henry who is frequently seen searching for every host’s prescription bottle. And when Henry admits to being on Jack Botty’s Percocets, it’s clear nothing has changed.

Episode 3: “First Annual PI2A Symposium”

Kyle doesn’t know anything about Shakespeare

Kyle’s admission that he doesn’t know much about Shakespeare is a sign of growth. Back in Season 1, while putting on his most pretentious actor persona, Kyle glibly told Henry, “I’m way into Shakespeare.” But now, 13 years later (and desperate for a part), he’ll take any help he can get to understand the immortal bard. If Kyle had access to the teacher’s edition of Intro to Shakespeare back then, who knows where his career might be now.

The Hardier Boys

In the Party Down universe, the Hardy Boys are the best fictional detectives out there. In Season 1, Episode 4, “Investors Dinner,” Henry called himself a Hardy Boy as he tried to get to the bottom of what was clearly a scam. The popularity of the boy detectives must have caught on from there, because now Kyle is most recognizable for his role in the teen drama The Hardier Boys.

The main political attraction doesn’t make it in the end

The event in “First Annual PI2A Symposium” is leading up to the arrival of Seaver Hamlin, a fictional “free-thinker” who is a big deal among this group of nationalists. PI2A Symposium leader Stuart Glueber (Calum Worthy) teases Hamlin’s arrival throughout the event, only to be told he can’t make it at the last minute.

It’s a throwback to Season 1 Episode 2, “California College Conservative Union Caucus,” when similarly the arrival of then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzeneger was the get that would finally earn CCCUC Secretary Jeffrey Ellis (Josh Gad) some respect. In the end, Schwarzeneger didn’t make it, but that’s probably for the best — he would have walked in on Jeffrey and Ron stomping on an American flag.

Ron’s obsession with the comment card

It doesn’t matter that the group being served is basically Nazis — Ron wants to make sure everything goes smoothly so he can get some great feedback on that comment card. From the beginning of Party Down Season 1, Ron has been obsessed with getting a good review from his customers, pushing the comment card throughout the evening only to regret it in the end when something goes terribly wrong.

In the series’s original run, Ron was looking for validation that he was a good manager to prove to his boss Alan Duck (Ken Jeong) that he would be able to run a Souper Crackers. Now, he’s just trying to get as many good reviews as he can to bring in more, non-White Supremacist business.

Episode 4: “KSGY-95 Prizewinner’s Luau”

The crew does drugs on the job

There are plenty of times throughout Party Down when the catering crew indulgences in some illegal drugs while on the clock. In Season 1’s “Sin Say Shun Awards Afterparty," Casey took ecstasy at the start of her shift and Henry became obsessed with finding the guy giving out the pills for a high of his own. And in the Season 1 finale, “Stennheiser-Pong Wedding Reception,” Constance’s roommate Bobbie St. Brown (Jennifer Coolidge) dropped a psilocybin mushroom cap for a “magical evening” in nature. It’s basically business as usual when Evie shows up in Season 3 giving out shrooms like candy.

“I don’t need drugs to unlock my creative unconscious.”

In Season 3, Roman is still struggling to put the final pieces of his sci-fi magnum opus into place. When everyone else on the Party Down crew decides to partake in Evie’s gigantic stash of mushrooms, Roman at first says no, claiming that his creative unconscious is always unlocked.

Perhaps he’s not correctly remembering that it was too much marijuana in Season 2, Episode 10 “Constance Carmell Wedding,” that inspired him to jot down the original draft of his epic novel onto toilet paper in the first place. And just like last time, by the end of “KSGY-95 Prizewinner’s Luau,” he has a drug-fueled epiphany that helps him to finally finish his book.

The blue tube of consciousness

While Bobbie St. Brown was “tripping her balls off” in Season 1, she told Kyle she was in a “purple tube of consciousness” as she spaced out in the catering kitchen. Sackson must be on the same wavelength when he trips in Season 3 — after downing a handful of shrooms he later finds himself in what he calls a “blue tube of consciousness.” In this case though, it’s not just a state of mind, it’s a portable toilet.

Party Down airs Fridays at 9:00 PM ET on Starz and is available on the Starz app. Join the discussion about the show in our forums.

Brianna Wellen is a TV Reporter at Primetimer who became obsessed with television when her parents let her stay up late to watch E.R.