Every Easter egg and secret in Bad Bunny’s halftime show you probably missed

Bad Bunny gave us one of the most memorable Super Bowl halftime shows of all time with an incredibly deep, layered spectacle that was a feast for the eyes. The message of the show was joy and love, celebrating Puerto Rico, Latin culture, and serving as an ode to every part of North America, South America, and Central America.

There was so much going on that it’s easy to miss every reference and cameo inside the 15-minute performance, but it’s okay because we’re here to break it all down.

The opening of the show was a nod to Puerto Rico’s largest agricultural export sugar cane, which dominated the economy for over 500 years. The export of the crop collapsed in the mid-20th century due to colonial mismanagement, making this an ode to a bygone era.

Walking out of the fields, Bad Bunny first encounters a chilled coconut stand. The meaning is the transition of Puerto Rico from an agrarian economy to tourism. He strolls past elderly gentlemen playing dominos, a nail bar, workers stacking cinder blocks, a staple of Puerto Rican construction, then to a piragua stand.

Handing a piragua to chef Victor Villa is literally a cultural exchange from Puerto Rico to Mexico. Villa’s Tacos is a nod to the impact of immigrants on the United States with the Los Angeles-based taco stand growing into three restaurants from family recipes, to one of the most beloved tacquerias in the city.

Pedro Pascal was partying on the porch during the house party alongside Young Miko, a Puerto Rican rapper who used to play soccer for the U20 team. The camera pans left to Ronald Acuña Jr, the Venezuelan MLB player for the Atlanta Braves.

It went over a lot of heads, but even this cartoon toad was full of meaning. This is Concho, the Puerto Rican crested toad which is a native, critically endangered species. It also serves as an “indicator species,” which is one that can show if an entire ecosystem is under threat due to habitat loss.

This was another loaded segue pointing to colonialism as Latin music and rhythm was dramatically interrupted by traditional European music. It wasn’t designed as a condemnation, but rather an acceptance of reality that Puerto Rico, and all of Latin America was changed by European colonialism.

The couple reportedly invited Bad Bunny to their wedding as a Hail Mary, almost a joke — but he turned the table and invited them to get married during the halftime show instead.

This one is more of an anti-Easter egg. Everyone was looking for meaning inside the moment of Bad Bunny handing his Grammy award to a young boy, with the speculation he could be Liam Conejo Ramos, who was detained by ICE — but in reality this was one of the few moments that should just be taken at face value. It was Benito handing the award to a younger version of himself.

Bad Bunny said before the show that he wanted to give an ode to both Latin icons, as well as queer icons. Ricky Martin was a bridge here.

The song “El Apagón,” (“The Blackout”) and the imagery behind this is about the inconsistent power grid in Puerto Rico, which has been a victim of corruption and corporate greed — while also making a pointed commentary about how the United States has largely abandoned Puerto Rico when it comes to basic infrastructure.

To close the halftime show Benito listed off every country that makes up America, from the south to the north — and he did this in order. The order in which he called off the countries literally went in latitudinal order.

Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, United States, Canada — and finally ended on Puerto Rico, which wasn’t in order, but his homeland and where the love came from in his performance.

With a football that read “Together we are America,” and a stadium screen reading “The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” it closed the show with the two prevailing messages. Nothing to read between the lines here, because it was everything we needed to know.