Warning: Season 2 spoilers ahead! The sixth episode of Master of None, "New York, I Love You" is made up of a ton of vignettes about New Yorkers. The first one is Dev, Arnold, and Denise walking to go see Death Castle, a new film out that has just been released. The movie is mentioned a few times, showing in a really subtle way how even though people are totally doing their different things, there can still be some connection. So is Death Castle from Master of None a real movie or what? Alas, it is not. But it sounds really good. Dev and Arnold get in a mini fight because apparently there's a twist at the end of the blockbuster hit that no one sees coming — and it sort of ruins the whole thing, if you know a twist is coming, right?
Dev and Arnold aren't the only ones who have the movie spoiled. In a later scene, two girls get in the back of a cab and almost immediately start making references to it. They've both seen the film and gush about the twist. "The castle is heaven? And the black guy was Nicholas Cage the whole time," is apparently the mind-blowing twist. (Emma Watson and Tyrese Gibson also star in the fake movie, though the voice of "Nicholas Cage" at the end of the film was done by Andy Samberg)
Their cab driver calls his friend to complain about how taxi riders always spoil movies. And really, if you've ever talked about a movie, TV show, or book in the back of a cab, you may think twice before doing it ever again after this episode. But Death Castle isn't the only thing with a twist.
At the very end of the episode, the camera panned to the theater where viewers see all of the other characters from all of the other vignettes in the same theater. Dev is flipping out in his usual way. "Damn! I knew there was a twist but not something as crazy as that!," he told Arnold. And the cab driver was sitting right next to him, looking glum AF, while his other friends and the women they picked up watched on as well.
Even though you could suspect that it might be coming, it was still a great way to end the episode. Alan Yang, the co-creator, directed the episode, and said it was one of his favorites. They wanted to show that everyone is the "star" of their own story. Ansari and Yang really got into it. Yang told Mic:
We interviewed a bunch of cab drivers. We interviewed a bunch of doormen. We brought them in and really just asked them for stories — funny stories, sad stories, things that made them angry, things that brought them joy.
All that research really paid off in the end. Though someone should really talk to a Hollywood studio about turning Death Castle into a real movie. It sounds awesome.
