History Fridge / DjangoUnchained

* D'Artagnan, that Mandingo fighter who ran away after three fights, [[spoiler:is killed by two dogs. Candie collected on the last two fights he was owed.]]
** Django later avenging [[spoiler: D'Artagnan's death]] isn't just for a one-liner's sake. [[spoiler: Upon returning to Candieland, Calvin asks how bad Stonecipher's dogs got her. If D'Artagnan hadn't run as well, drawing the attention of Stonecipher and his dogs, Broomhilda would have been the one being torn apart by hounds instead of being brought back by presumably a few fellow slaves.]] In a way, Django probably feels like he owes him one, since [[spoiler:he talked Schultz out of saving him to maintain their cover.]]

* Lara Lee (Calvin's sister) is a widow. Considering his very unsettling infatuation with her, is it really ''that'' far-fetched to consider Calvin might have had something to do with that so he could have her for himself?

* Stephen [[spoiler:eschews giving Django a painful death, instead [[FateWorseThanDeath giving him a slow and agonizing existence at the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company]].]] It seems like [[BondVillainStupidity a really stupid and pointless act of spite]] from an otherwise calculating man, but Stephen has underlying motivations.

** The LeQuint Dickey Mining Company isn't just bad, but it seems to make every effort to rob slaves of their humanity: taking away their identity, cutting out their tongues, and throwing them away like garbage is part of that cruel process. For a slave who tasted freedom and respect and even got revenge on his former captors, the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company was a truly terrible fate. Stephen, jealous and bitter at Django for being a freeman, would be happy to do anything to make Django feel weak and humiliated.

* The Candieland harpist playing "Für Elise" -- an instantly recognizable piece written by a romantic idealist who advocated for national and personal freedom, played in a slave owner's house. It seems that Calvin Candie follows trends and likes to play at being educated, but never gets beyond the superficial.
** "Für Elise" is a rondo with a structure of A-B-A-C-A. The harpist plays it as A-B-A-B-A, omitting theme C. As theme C is the most upbeat and whimsical of the themes, its omission is symbolic of how Candieland isn't as idyllic as it presents itself.
* Schultz freaking out over the harpist playing Beethoven makes a good deal of sense: he is exasperated at these brutal monsters parading his country's culture around without understanding what it really means.
* [[spoiler: The punishment Stephen has in store for Django is to rob him not only of his freedom, but his identity, his place in the world, and his voice. For a man like Django, who has fought for so long for these things, this is truly AFateWorseThanDeath.]]
* The moment where [[spoiler: Schultz shoots Candie]] is actually the first time in the entire film any of the primary characters breaks the law. Sure, Schultz's method of acquiring Django was legally iffy, but he was very careful to observe the forms of the law, and they did some lying and deceiving to their own ends, but there's not really any crime you could pin on them. All of their killings were legally protected. In contrast, Calvin, despite all the brutality, threats, torture, and murder, ''never does anything illegal'', because everyone he kills or mistreats is his legal property. Every time lawmen are present, they have no grounds to do anything about anything. It's a brilliant commentary on how utterly twisted the laws of this time and place were. These characters, heroes and villains alike, are as violent and immoral as in any Tarantino film, but in this context, even the worst bad guy is ''technically'' an upstanding citizen.
** Candie did break the law just before that by threatening the life of Broomhilda, who had just been granted her freedom.
** Candie also killed a lot of people, even if it was indirectly. Even before emancipation, it was a crime to kill slaves.
* Carrucan, Django and Hildi's original owner, is in huge measure the person responsible for the couple's plight at the start of the film (whipping them and branding them as runaways). So it rightfully disturbs a number of viewers that he seems to get off as the film's main (sole?) KarmaHoudini. But the Brittle brothers (his former henchmen) are no longer working on his plantation when we meet them, and are on the run from the law for a crime heinous enough to warrant a considerable bounty be placed on their heads. It wouldn't be too wild a bit of conjecture that they possibly murdered their former employer (Carrucan) for some reason...

* Schultz telling Django to keep the bounty note in his pocket [[spoiler: comes in handy later.]]
* Upon finding out that Schultz and Django have been putting on a facade, Calvin gives a lesson on the biology of slaves as a way of saying, "so you thought you could outsmart me, but you couldn't, 'cause I'm white." Of course, who was it that actually figured out they were being lied to? Stephen, a slave.

* Recall Schultz's story about Broomhilda: the king locks her up, puts her under the guard of a dragon, and so Siegfried comes and kills the dragon and rescues her. Pay attention: Siegfried ''does NOT kill'' the king. He kills ''the dragon.'' [[spoiler: Just like Django doesn't kill Candie; he kills [[TheDragon Stephen]].]]

* When Django first arrives to Candieland and stands at the bar, you may notice the house slave sitting at the bar immediately takes her drink and moves across the room. If you remember Django's earlier words, there's nothing lower than a ''black'' slaver.
* Django's status as TheQuietOne makes sense when you consider that even as a free man, white Southerners still view him with contempt due to his race. The only person he speaks to on equal terms throughout the movie is Schultz and ''possibly'' Schultz's marshal friend.
* Stephen makes it adamantly clear to Calvin that he wants Django's bed, sheets, pillowcase, and everything else burned after he leaves. [[spoiler: He gets his wish.]]
* When outlining the plan to rescue Broomhilda, Dr. Schultz uses the analogy that instead of offering to buy a horse, they should offer to buy a farm. [[spoiler: He winds up "buying the farm."]]
* According to Stephen, the [=LeQuint=] Dickey Mining Company kills their slaves when their backs give out, then tosses them down a hole. One of the miners is Quentin Tarantino in a cameo. So, unlike Jimmie, [[Film/PulpFiction storing dead niggers is his business.]]
* At the end of his encounter with the Speck brothers' slaves, Dr. Schultz has provided not only their freedom, but given them a weapon (one of the brothers' rifles), some cash (the money he "paid" for Django), and a general direction to head in. Dr. Schultz not only treats these slaves with respect, he gives them a more-than-decent shot at making it to a freer future. It really drives home how much he hates slavery and how much he's willing to do for those under its bondage.
* Going on the above, Schultz might have also had a somewhat selfish motive for freeing those slaves: eliminating a witness to his murder of one of the Speck brothers.
* Two words from the [[Film/DjangoUnchained main article]]: [[StealthPun Black Comedy]].
* Billy Crash is about to castrate Django to death before Stephen comes in at the last second to say Lara Lee has changed her mind and decided to sell Django to the [=LeQuint=] Dickey Mining Company. Billy remarks he should have been told earlier and Stephen simply gestures, likely because he was standing out of view the whole time and waited until the last second to torment Django.
* In the scene where Big Daddy and his men attack Dr. Schultz's wagon and attempt to kill him and Django, you can hear Big Daddy shout, "Get that nigger out from under that wagon and get that nigger lover out of the wagon!" Of course, [[spoiler: neither of them were there, but they went to the effort of placing a dummy under the wagon]] because although Dr. Schultz doesn't consider black people to be inferior to him, he knows that the men after them do and would expect Dr. Schultz to at least have what they consider to be some "standards" in his treatment of Django.
** The only survivor of the raid, Willard, RageQuit the raid because the rest of the group were [[EvenEvilHasStandards unfairly persecuting his loved ones and he stood up to them.]] This redeeming feature saved him from death.

* Broomhilda's nature as a textbook FlatCharacter and DistressedDamsel may seem strangely at odds with the movie's otherwise-progressive themes, but recall that the movie has a running theme of being based on the classic fairy tale plotline. Plus, a line from Stephen indicates that she actually ''has'' acted on her own initiative and tried to escape ''twice'' now.
* What is the origin of the handshake? To show good faith by demonstrating [[spoiler:you do not literally have a weapon up your sleeve]]. This makes Schultz's refusal (and subsequent action) quite poetic.
* Schultz is shown to be cool, calm, and collected, no matter how dangerous the situation is. The one time he loses his temper [[spoiler:dooms him, and very nearly dooms Hilde and Django]].
* Is it {{iron|y}}ic how Schultz -- a non-practicing dentist -- is the one who kills a man named "Candie"? A man, mind you, [[https://cdn3.whatculture.com/images/2018/05/b9e1162a176e449e-600x338.jpg who has a head full of visibly poorly cared for teeth]]?
* Calvin having bad teeth is understandable: he's a rich man who can afford sweets that would still be out of reach for the average Joe in the 19th century at a time when dental care was not only less developed but quite painful to undergo. But it is also implied that [[PsychopathicManchild Calvin is a spoiled brat underneath his civilized veneer]], so he was likely never taught anything about moderation.
* Dr. Schultz is [[spoiler: murdered by one of Calvin Candie's henchmen for killing Candie]], and near the film's climax, when Django returns to Candieland to free Broomhilda and get his revenge, he says his goodbyes to [[spoiler: Schultz's corpse, which is still on the premises, and later burns down the Candieland mansion]]. How appropriate is it that a German named "King", with a deep affection for Germanic myths and legends, ultimately [[spoiler: receives a VikingFuneral]]?
* Calvin's enjoyment of Dumas' work is one more example of Calvin's [[WickedPretentious pretentious intellectualism]] and lack of self-awareness.
** As Schultz points out, Creator/AlexandreDumas was black. Specifically, his father, Thomas Alexandre Dumas, was a creole man from colonial Haiti and his mother was a slave. Thomas had been born a slave until his father took him to France to be freed, where he would become a prominent figure in the French Revolution. Dumas' ancestry is that of a man oppressed for his race overcoming oppression and rising in the military ranks.
** Dumas himself faced no small amount of discrimination for his race. Dumas was also a staunch advocate of liberty and rights his entire life: he participated in the 1830 revolutions, he fled from France because he had become an opponent of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, and he would (after the events of this movie) participate in the Italian reunification. Dumas would definitely have tremendous contempt for not only Calvin's beliefs, but Dumas would see Calvin as another decadent aristocrat he would despise.
** The subject of Dumas' other famous work, the ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', is about a betrayed man getting back at elite assholes for leaving him to rot in prison. This almost reflects the conflict between Calvin and Django, and the former is too stupid to grasp the similarities.
* This has been confirmed in interviews that Schultz was a veteran of the 1848 German Revolution, which tried and failed to topple the corrupt aristocracy. Not only would this explain his liberal-for-the-time attitude toward black people, but would also explain his hatred for Calvin. America is supposed to be an asylum of liberty, and it would be infuriating to have to see Calvin, a living perversion of those ideals.
* Calvin's ''possibly'' incestuous desire for his sister is likely born from his white supremacy. Considering his desire for a pure bloodline, he would seek to dilute any "impurity" possible.
* Stephen eschews giving Django a painful death, instead [[FateWorseThanDeath giving him a slow and agonizing existence at the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company]]. It seems like [[BondVillainStupidity a really stupid and pointless act of spite]] from an otherwise calculating man, but Stephen has underlying motivations.
** A combination of pride and spite. Stephen revels in being the house nigger and having managed to claw as much authority as he can over both the slaves, his nominal employers, and an entire plantation. And he does this to cope with the insecurity of not being free or seen as an equal by those around him despite being smart enough to run a plantation. Django is no slave. He is not only free but is seen as an equal by the white man he works for. Stephen would be deeply envious of Django for having the freedom, and independence Stephen could never have.
** The LeQuint Dickey Mining Company isn't just bad, but it seems to make every effort to rob slaves of their humanity: taking away their identity, cutting out their tongues, and throwing them away like garbage is part of that cruel process. For a slave who tasted freedom and respect and even got revenge on his former captors, the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company was a truly terrible fate. Stephen, jealous and bitter at Django for being a freeman, would be happy to do anything to make Django feel weak and humiliated.

** An Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom post takes that idea and runs with it into the realm of pure {{dystopia}}.
* The sheriff's death. It's played off as dark comedy, but what if the sheriff had changed his evil ways? Maybe he felt guilty for his past crimes, so he decided to become a lawman as a way to make up for his sins.
* The implied IncestSubtext between Calvin and Laura. Not only is Calvin ''excessively'' eager to see his sister, she presents herself in a way that seems less like a sibling greeting her brother, and more like a lover... she obviously dolled herself up for his arrival.
* Stephen, on many levels. Despite being a slave himself, he is just as tyrannical and abusive (sometimes more so) to the slaves as the white owners. He is unquestioningly loyal and devoted to the Candie family, as well as the whole antebellum, bigoted way of life.
* Schultz's [[spoiler:final apology to Django]], and the look they share. Both men know that [[spoiler:Schultz just killed all three of them by assassinating Candie in a heavily fortified mansion that is teeming with gunmen who will cut them all down in retribution.]] He seems to know just how ''bad'' he's fucked them over, just when it seems they were on the verge of victory.
* Lara Lee (Calvin's sister) is a widow. Considering his very unsettling infatuation with her, is it really ''that'' far-fetched to consider Calvin might have had something to do with that so he could have her for himself?

* Calvin having bad teeth is understandable: he's a rich man who can afford sweets that would still be out of reach for the average Joe in the 19th century. But it is also implied that [[PsychopathicManchild Calvin is a spoiled brat underneath his civilized veneer]], so he was likely never taught anything about moderation.

** The LeQuint Dickey Mining Company isn't just bad, but it seems to make every effort to rob slaves of their humanity: taking away their identity, cutting out their tongues, and throwing them away like garbage is part of that cruel process. For a slave who tasted freedom and respect and even got revenge on his former captors, the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company was a truly terrible fate. Stephen, jealous and bitter at Django for being a freeman, would be happy to do anything to make Django feel weak.

* Calvin's enjoyment of ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' is one more example of Calvin's [[WickedPretentious pretentious intellectualism]] and lack of self-awareness.

** Dumas himself faced no small amount of discrimination for his race. Dumas was also a staunch advocate of liberty and rights his entire life: he participated in the 1840 revolution, he fled from France because he had become an opponent of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, and he would (after the events of this movie) participate in the Italian reunification. Dumas would definitely have tremendous contempt for not only Calvin's beliefs, but Dumas would see Calvin as another decadent aristocrat he would despise.
** The subject of the book is about a betrayed man getting back at elite assholes for leaving him to rot in prison. This almost reflects the conflict between Calvin and Django, and the former is too stupid to grasp the similarities.

* This has been confirmed in interviews that Schultz was a veteran of the 1848 German Revolution, which tried and failed to topple the corrupt aristocracy. Not only would this explain his liberal-for-the-time attitude toward black people, but would also explain his hatred for Calvin. America is supposed to be an asylum of liberty, and it would infuriating to see Calvin, a living perversion of those ideals.

* D'Artagnan, that Mandingo fighter who ran away after three fights [[spoiler:is killed by two dogs. Candie collected on the last two fights he was owed.]]

* Recall Schultz's story about Broomhilda: the king locks her up, puts her under guard of a dragon, and so Siegfried comes and kills the dragon and rescues her. Pay attention: Siegfried ''does NOT kill'' the king. He kills ''the dragon.'' [[spoiler: Just like Django doesn't kill Candie; he kills [[TheDragon Stephen]].]]

* At first the scene at the end of the winter montage where Dr. Schultz and Django meet a marshal friend of theirs felt out of place. But after the Candyland sequence it makes sense. The marshal offers them cake, which they accept. At Candyland, there's constant mention of dessert (a cake), that Candie goes on and on about. When it finally appears, Dr. Schultz refuses it. Why? He likes cake, but he's absolutely disgusted by Candie. It also serves as a ChekhovsGun for Django's [[spoiler: escape and]] comeback in the finale.
* The Candyland harpist playing "Für Elise" -- an instantly recognizable piece written by a romantic idealist who advocated for national and personal freedom, played in a slave owner's house. It seems that Calvin Candie follows trends and likes to play at being educated, but never gets beyond the superficial.

* [[spoiler: The punishment Stephen has in store for Django is to rob him not only of his freedom, but his identity, his place in the world and his voice. For a man like Django, who has fought for so long for these things, this is truly AFateWorseThanDeath.]]
* The moment where [[spoiler: Schultz shoots Candie]] is actually the first time in the entire film any of the primary characters breaks the law. Sure, Schultz's method of acquiring Django was legally iffy, but he was very careful to observe the forms of the law, and they did some lying and deceiving to their own ends, but there's not really any crime you could pin on them. All of their killings were legally protected. Whereas Calvin, despite all the brutality, threats, torture, and murder, ''never did anything illegal'', because everyone he killed or mistreated was his legal property. Every time lawmen are present, they have no grounds to do anything about anything. It's a brilliant commentary on how utterly twisted the laws of this time and place were. These characters, heroes and villains alike, are as violent and immoral as in any Tarantino film, but in this context, even the worst bad guy is ''technically'' an upstanding citizen.

* Carrucan, Django and Hildy's original owner, is in huge measure the person responsible for the couple's plight at the start of the film (whipping them and branding them as runaways). So it rightfully disturbs a number of viewers that he seems to get off as the film's main (sole?) KarmaHoudini. But the Schaffer brothers (his former henchmen) are no longer working on his plantation when we meet them, and are on the run from the law for a crime heinous enough to warrant a considerable bounty be placed on their heads. It wouldn't be too wild a bit of conjecture that they possibly murdered their former employer (Carrucan) for some reason...
* That Mandingo fighter who ran away after three fights [[spoiler:was killed by two dogs. Candie collected on the last two fights he was owed.]]
** Django later avenging [[spoiler: D'artagnan's death]] wasn't just for a one liner's sake. [[spoiler: Upon returning to Candyland, Calvin asks how bad Stonecipher's dogs got her. If D'artagnan hadn't run as well, drawing the attention of Stonecipher and his dogs, Hilde would have been the one being torn apart by hounds instead of being brought back by presumably a few fellow slaves.]] In a way, Django probably felt like he owed him one, since [[spoiler:he talked King out of saving him to maintain their cover.]]
* If the theory that Stephen was only playing dumb in the presence of others is true, then consider the moment where Dr. Schultz says the word 'panache' and Stephen acts all confused -- it's also evident that Calvin didn't get it either, judging by his expression and how he fields the reply so as not to look like he doesn't know the definition. It's almost as though Stephen got all over-the-top befuddled for Calvin's benefit.

* Schultz telling Django to keep the bounty note in his pocket [[spoiler: came in handy later.]]
* Upon finding out that Schultz and Django have been putting on a facade, Calvin gives a lesson on the biology of slaves as a way of saying "so you thought you could outsmart me, but you couldn't, 'cause I'm white." Of course, who was it that actually figured out they were being lied to? Stephen, a slave.
** It's also a brilliant ViewersAreGeniuses moment: what's the science that Candie uses to disparage Django and Broomhilda? Phrenology. Phrenology, for those that know, is a pseudo-science that even before the events of Django had been disproven as ''complete bullshit.'' So not only is Candie wrong on the "black brains are subservient to white brains" garbage, he's also an idiot ''by his own time period's standards.''
* Recall Schultz's story about Broomhilda: the king locks her up, puts her around a dragon, and so Siegfried comes and kills the dragon and rescues her. Pay attention: Siegfried ''does NOT kill'' the king. He kills ''the dragon.'' [[spoiler: Just like Django doesn't kill Candie; he kills [[TheDragon Stephen]].]]
* What are two Australians doing in the Antebellum Deep South? One of the first large immigrations of Australians to the US were miners who came to America for the California Gold Rush. Those two were probably former gold miners who moved on after the gold was all mined.
* When Django first arrives to Candieland and sets at the bar, you may notice the house slave sitting at the bar immediately takes her drink and moves across the room. If you remember Django's earlier words; there's nothing lower than a ''black'' slaver.
* Django's status as TheQuietOne makes sense when you consider that even as free man, white southerners still view him with contempt due to his race. The only person he speaks to on equal terms throughout the movie is Schultz and ''possibly'' Schultz's marshal friend.
* Stephen makes it adamantly clear to Calvin that he wants Django's bed, sheets, pillowcase and everything else burned after he leaves. [[spoiler: He gets his wish.]]

* According to Stephen, the Le Quint Dickey Mining Company kills their slaves when their backs give out, then tosses them down a hole. One of the miners is Quentin Tarantino in a cameo. So, unlike Jimmie, [[Film/PulpFiction storing dead niggers is his business.]]
* At the end of his encounter with the Speck brothers' slaves, Dr. Schultz has provided not only their freedom, but given them a weapon (one of the brothers' rifle), some cash (the money he "paid" for Django), and a general direction to head in. Dr. Schultz not only treated these slaves with respect, he gave them a more-than-decent shot at making it to a freer future. Really drives home how much he hates slavery and how much he's willing to do for those under its bondage.

* Billy Crash is about to castrate Django to death before Stephen comes in at the last second to say Lara Lee has changed her mind and decided to sell Django to the Le Quint Dickey Mining Company. Billy remarks he should have been told earlier and Stephen simply gestures. Likely because he was standing out of view the whole time and waited until the last second to torment Django.
* The scene where Big Daddy and his men attack Dr. Shultz's wagon and attempt to kill him and Django you can hear Big Daddy shout "get that nigger out from under that wagon and get that nigger lover out of the wagon!", of course [[spoiler: neither of them were there but they'd gone to the effort of placing a dummy under the wagon]] because although Dr. Schultz doesn't consider black people to be inferior to him he knew that the men after them did and would expect Dr. Schultz to at least have, what they consider to be, some "standards" in his treatment of Django.

* Is it {{iron|y}}ic how Schultz -- a non-practicing dentist -- was the one who killed a man named "Candie"? A man, mind you, [[https://cdn3.whatculture.com/images/2018/05/b9e1162a176e449e-600x338.jpg who has a head full of visibly poorly cared for teeth]]?
* Dr. Schultz is [[spoiler: murdered by one of Calvin Candie's henchmen for killing Candie]], and near the film's climax, when Django returns to Candyland to free Broomhilda and get his revenge, he says his goodbyes to [[spoiler: Schultz's corpse, which is still on the premises, and later burns down the Candyland mansion]]. How appropriate is it that a German named "King", with a deep affection for Germanic myths and legends, ultimately [[spoiler: receives a VikingFuneral]]?

* Stephen, on many levels. Despite being a slave himself, he is just as tyrannical and abusive (sometimes more so) to the slaves than the white owners. He is unquestioningly loyal and devoted to the Candie family, as well as the whole antebellum, bigoted way of life.
* Schultz's [[spoiler:final apology to Django]], and the look they share. Both men know that [[spoiler:Schultz just killed all three of them, by assassinating Candie in a heavily fortified mansion that is teeming with gunmen who will cut them all down in retribution.]] He seems to know just how ''bad'' he's fucked them over, just when it seems they were on the verge of victory.
* Lara Lee (Calvin's sister) is a widow. Considering his very unsettling infatuation with her, is it really ''that'' far fetched to consider Calvin might have had something to do with that, so he could have her for himself?

* Django's status as TheQuietOne makes sense when you consider that even as free man, white southerns still view him with contempt due to his race. The only person he speaks to on equal terms throughout the movie is Schultz and ''possibly'' Schultz's marshal friend.

* Recall Schultz's story about Broomhilda: the king locks her up, puts her around a dragon, and so Siegfried comes and kills the dragon and rescues her. Pay attention: Sigfried ''does NOT kill'' the king. He kills ''the dragon.'' [[spoiler: Just like Django doesn't kill Candie; he kills Stephen.]]

* Carrucan, Django and Hildy's original owner, is in huge measure the person responsible for the couple's plight at the start of the film (whipping them and branding them as runaways). So it rightfully disturbs a number of viewers that he seems to get off as the film's main (sole?) KarmaHoudini. But the Schaffer brothers (his former henchmen) are no longer working on his plantation when we meet them, and are on the run from the law for a crime heinous enough to warrant a considerable bounty be placed on their heads. It's not to wild a conjecture that they possibly murdered their former employer (Carrucan) for some reason...

* Recall Schultz's story about Broomhilda: the king locks her up, puts her around a dragon, and so Sigfried comes and kills the dragon and rescues her. Pay attention: Sigfried ''does NOT kill'' the king. He kills ''the dragon.'' [[spoiler: Just like Django doesn't kill Candie; he kills Stephen.]]

* Schultz's [[spoiler:final apology to Django]], and the look they share. Both men know that [[spoiler:Schultz just killed all three of them, by assassinating Candie in a heavily fortified mansion that is teeming with gunmen who will cut them all down in retribution.]] He seems to know just how ''bad'' he's fucked them over, just when it seems they were on the verge of victory.

** Django later avenging [[spoiler: D'artagnan's death]] wasn't just for a one liner's sake. [[spoiler: Upon returning to Candieland, Calvin asks how bad Stonecipher's dogs got her. If D'artagnan hadn't run as well, drawing the attention of Stonecipher and his dogs, Hilde would have been the one being torn apart by hounds instead of being brought back by presumably a few fellow slaves.]] In a way, Django probably felt like he owed him one, since [[spoiler:he talked King out of saving him to maintain their cover.]]

** On that note, pay attention to Stephen's hurricane of similes when Candie returns to Candieland. "I miss you like a baby misses mamma's titty" sounds like an innocuous and heartwarming line. [[spoiler: "I miss you like I miss a rock in my shoe" is the last one he says. You wouldn't miss a rock in your shoe. Stephen might be the head house nigger and he might help Calvin out a lot, but [[StealthInsult that's a subtle clue]] he isn't ''completely'' content with his lot in life.]]

* At first the scene at the end of the winter montage where Dr. Schultz and Django meet a marshal friend of theirs felt out of place. But after the Candieland sequence it makes sense. The marshal offers them cake, which they accept. At Candieland, there's constant mention of dessert (a cake), that Candie goes on and on about. When it finally appears, Dr. Schultz refuses it. Why? He likes cake, but he's absolutely disgusted by Candie. It also serves as a ChekhovsGun for Django's [[spoiler: escape and]] comeback in the finale.
* Lara playing "Für Elise" -- an instantly recognizable piece written by a romantic idealist who advocated for national and personal freedom, played in a slave owner's house. It seems that the Candie siblings ''both'' follow trends and like to play at being educated, but never get beyond the superficial.

* The implied IncestSubtext between Calvin and Laura. Not only is Calvin ''excessively'' eager to see his sister, she presents herself in a way that seems less like a sibling greeting her brother, and more like a lover... she obviously dolled herself up for his arrival.