Richard Linklater’s 2014 film Boyhood is a coming-of-age movie in the most literal sense, portraying characters who grow older in real time via a groundbreaking 12-year shooting period. One of Richard Linklater’s best movies, his innovative approach also buries subtle narrative details underneath the movie’s surface portrayal of a family dynamic evolving naturally during the course of a childhood. Perhaps the most intriguing detail casts Boyhood’s ending in a whole different light, adding a profoundly romantic dimension to its protagonist’s journey toward manhood. The film’s final scene sees Mason Jr share what feels like a formative moment with Nicole, the friend of his new roommate, on his first day of college.

As they gaze across Big Bend Ranch State Park, she raises the specter of fate which looms large over the movie, telling Mason, “The moment seizes us.” The two exchange awkward smiles in nervous anticipation of a possible first kiss, before credits roll. It might not be up there with the best scenes from cinema’s great romance movies, but as the end of a picture fundamentally grounded in the realism of acting your age, it’s perfect. What makes this scene even better, though, is its veiled reference to a brief but significant moment in the middle of the film.

Boyhood’s Ending Circles Back To Mason Jr’s First Crush

The Name Of His College Roommate’s Friend Rings A Bell

The character Nicole appears only once on the movie’s cast list, played by Jessi Mechler. Yet she appears twice across Boyhood’s 12 years, although it takes at least a second look to notice her appearance earlier on. In the movie’s second act, 10-year-old Mason Jr’s stepfather Bill cruelly forces him to have his hair shaved into a buzz cut. Mason is mortified by his new look, and has to be dragged to school by his mother. He hangs his head in shame upon entering his classroom and remains paralyzed with embarrᴀssment until a girl sitting several tables away pᴀsses him a note.

“Mason,” it reads, “I think your hair looks kewl!” Mason looks up and smiles at the girl across the room. She smiles back, and you feel his heart leap as he does the smallest of double takes and wonders whether she’s interested in him. We’re witnessing the precise instant Mason develops his first crush, an incredibly important moment in the progression of any child into adolescence.

It’s one of many scenes in Boyhood that helps you appreciate similar moments from your own life, that you might have otherwise neglected in a forgotten corner of your memory. Yet it becomes more important still once you realize that the girl has signed her name at the bottom of the note: Nicole.

Why Nicole At College Could Actually Be Mason’s Classmate From Primary School

Meeting The Same Girl Twice Would Tie Up A Loose End In The Plot

At first, it might seem unlikely that the two Nicoles in Boyhood are actually the same person. After all, when Mason is introduced to Nicole at college, it seems as though she’s a new character he’s never met before. If he went to school with her, surely he’d remember her.

But that ᴀssumption doesn’t take into account the instability throughout Mason’s childhood. He’s constantly moving house and school as his mother changes jobs and leaves a trail of unhealthy and abusive relationships in her wake. It’s likely that he only encountered Nicole in his final year of primary school, and they might not have exchanged much more than a smile before he was carted off somewhere else.

What’s more, the way the camera lingers on the look between Mason and Nicole in both scenes is an unmistakable visual cue that the two encounters are connected. Both the child and adolescent Nicole have similar physical characteristics, too, with dark features and long, dark-brown hair. It’s unclear whether they’re played by the same actor – which would confirm beyond doubt that they’re a single character – but it’s a definite possibility. Mason Jr actor Ellar Coltrane didn’t rule it out in an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit, stating, “I don’t know if it’s the same girl, but [it’s] definitely an Easter egg.”

Boyhood Writer-Director Richard Linklater Loves A Romantic Callback

The Filmmaker Behind The Before Trilogy Is A Specialist In Circular Romance Narratives

It’s hardly surprising that Boyhood’s writer and director Richard Linklater would work an Easter egg like this one into his magnum opus. He’s made an entire film series out of romantic callbacks. His Before trilogy is among the best romance sagas ever made, not least for the cross-references littered throughout its sparkling dialogue. Much of this dialogue was improvised by romantic leads Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, a method both Linklater and Hawke replicated while making Boyhood.

2004’s Before Sunset, in particular, harnesses the chemistry between its two leads to generate seemingly spontaneous callbacks to their first encounter in its predecessor Before Sunrise. But although Delpy and Hawke might have come up with some of the Before trilogy’s best quotes themselves, Linklater knew what he was doing. Likewise, he’s fully aware of the romantic narrative arc he’s shaping by circling back to the name Nicole at the end of Boyhood – and fans of his movies are here for it.