1. Droughts. I feel like I’m memeing, but they and the upkeep of the rivers in Poland have been our problem for quite some time.

2. The people who were passing their matura exams in 2014 had more difficult questions than those who were passing in 2015 and 2016. The conspiracy theory is that the ruling party of the time wanted to confirm that their changes to the educational system they’d brought were paying off. There was a meme going on saying that one of the next years’ question will be “draw a gnome”. Oh, I forgot that this year we also had related discourse. The teachers who created the exam questions were also gathered on one site which offers additional private lessons, which then some people pointed out to be a possible conflict of interest.

3. I’m not sure what they went with the translations, but when the aristocrat was asked about a “pociąg”, this word means either a “train” or a “predilection to something or somebody (usually meant in the context of libido)”. It most likely stems from "(po)ciągać", ie "to be pulling".

4. The dream sequence could be a reference to Gombrowicz’s “Ferydurke” (about a grown up man named Józef, who gets isekaied into his past) and the pupils’ protests in Września in 1901-1902 against germanisation.

5. “Cossack” also stands for a “person with swag” in Polish slang. There are other, related phrases, but anyone curious about Polish can access more of this stuff through miejski pl, the Polish equivalent to Urban Dictionary.

6. There’s this meme: person A’s getting on person B’s nerves through private messaging, only to come back later with “Do you want something from [a brand with cheap cosmetics and MLM scheme going on]?” when in financial trouble.

7. There was a lot of drama related to crash of a Polish plane during a diplomatic visit to Russia in April, 2010. At some point a cross was taken away from before the presidential palace during the mourning phrase, and people started chanting and making memes with the shout: “where is the cross?”. At first I thought they’re going to reference “Where the fuck is Zbyszek?” instead.

8. We've got some issues with the corruption related to the hunters’ lobby and the national institution assigned with looking after the forests in Poland, which is why the men’s bickering wouldn’t lead to anything other than the animal’s extinction and why they weren’t thinking about the long-term consequences for the land.

9. While “Lach” is one of the words for the Poles, “Lachożerca” (“The Lacheater”, idk with what they went with in other languages) can also be a pun related to the “lacha” – “a blowjob” or “a woman (usually meant to signify contempt for her, but can also refer to her hotness if it's a topic of gossip among some chavs)”.

10. If you’re familiar with the New Age stuff and the related websites, there were some stories about the indigo children of Russia floating around the Polish net. It’s just, no one expected the superpower will be visions of an ad-ridden local news/tabloid, Polish website.

11. The queen is Eleonora of the Habsburgs and her lady-in-waiting, Klara Izabela Pacowa, was a well-known persona and apparently, also a schemer who wished for France to have more influence in the Polish-Lithuanian politics. I assume that the sort of receptionist was supposed to be her, based on the paintings of her where she wears a blue dress. The queen herself was recorded as being generous and also loyal. She didn't remarry despite being with of the weakest Polish kings.

12. The capons were considered a staple of 17th ce cuisine among the wealthy Poles.

13. I think there’s a possible reference to Mr. Twardowski, a Faustian figure in Polish literature. At some point, the devil flies, kidnaps him and tries to drop him on the Earth, but instead, drops him on the Moon. There’s no single version of the story and the reason of the failure. There’s also a flying rooster in the story, which Twardowski can ride on.

14. Aniela takes up work from the foundation, a concept popularised during the positivist period, ie. the 19th century, when the educated folk would try to spread knowledge and try to better the lives of the peasants.

15. It's not a new tactic for the politicians to diverge attention from themselves to the marginalised people, and I feel like it became more common during the political campaigns leading to the presidential election in 2015. In the show, it was Jan Paweł choosing to sacrifice the Jewish man to the angry mob and the peasants caught the bait easily, much like what happens in real life.

15. Andrzej says he brings peonies (“piwonie” in Polish) as a gift when Zofia overcame the compulsion to drink. The flowers' name in Polish contains the word “beer” (“piwo”). :P

16. Thanks to k-oov-i, who caught the chorus of “Moja i Twoja Nadzieja” (some translations are here). This completely flew over my head when I was watching the 1st episode. The shortest summary of the song would be: try to take the first step to help build something worthwhile in the world. The band released it again with a group of other Polish singers in order to encourage people to help those affected by the flood in July, 1997 in Central-Eastern Europe; it was given the moniker of "of the millennium" due to the devastation it has caused.

17. “Konstytucja” refers to the Constitution of May, the 3rd – this document gave some rights to the peasants, but didn’t abolish serfdom and feudalism. Here’s an article in Polish which writes about it in more detail. This word also became one of the slogans in the protests held against the Law And Order political party, and which tend to be not very effective, tbh.

18. One of the peasants says “this is a vision of communism, unfortunately”, which calls back to a TV presenter, Przemysław Babiarz, who described Lennon’s song “Imagine” this way. Said quote was the reason of his suspension from the station, TVP. Thanks to stayathomekowboy for bringing this up to my attention.

19. There was a period where the later Millennial pupils were given drawings instead of the marks on their homework, like a sun, a cloud etc. It was supposed to lessen the stress, but I remember mostly confusion.

20. Jan Paweł, when asked about what's beating in his chest, says "I'm more of a humanist". The term of a "humanist" changes its meaning in Polish slang to someone who doesn't know much about mathemathics and the STEM subjects in general.

21. One of the examinators bears the surname of "Ankwicz". Searching this surname brought me to Józef Ankwicz, a Polish noble who joined the faction of Targowica Confederation, which betrayed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for Russia.

22. While trying to assess who the unnamed Latin Hag was supposed to represent, I found nothing in particular, save for the article "Nauczycielka łaciny" in Nonsensopedia, an internet encyclopedia for nonsense in Polish. There, the female teacher of Latin's described as a tyrranical and solemn, older woman. Her students need to be very careful with what they ask, because the answers may not clear things up and bring more misery to the students. My other lead was the cartoon "Włatcy Móch", particularly the character of Ms. Frał.

23. Most of the louder, more Overtone window-turning initiatives in Poland gets eventually snuffed by the people who hold more influence within the society, and who also care more about the red scare, the status quo or the protests being too disturbing.

24. In similar manner to the above, there was a movement among the patriotic writers to publish texts in order to "light up the hearts" of the common folk, who in turn they hoped would rise in order to fight the invaders.

25. In one of the episodes of Ranczo, a contemporary tv series with its story taking place in an Eastern village, has a therapist ask 2 couples to swap each others' places in order to learn of the possible reasons for their issues. The local priests aren't too bothered by their shenanigans till one of them mentions the bishop's about to visit. It's on Netflix and TVP VOD.

26. Kmicic appears in the 2nd and 3rd seasons. He's the protagonist of "The Deluge", one of the entries in Henryk Sienkiewicz's Trylogia, also adapted into film by Jerzy Hoffman. The major theme of his character is change from an unruly, vagabond man to a hero to Poland. I must warn that Trylogia's not kind to the subjects of the Polish nobility.

27. This isn't an Easter egg as much as an explanation as to why Aniela would know about the various facets of queerness. The book called "Gejerel" lists various intances of queerness in the history of Poland, and is one of the first to do so. One of the records describes a hanged couple, where one of the people was described as "trying to live as a woman". We know that gay and/or trans people were present in the past, despite what the bigots of nowadays would say, so it's not out of character for Aniela to know about such matters.

28. The liberal messages and "I bought myself up by the bootstraps" attitudes are often present in Polish mockumentaries, which is probably what the guy with the bag on his head represents.

29. Jakub's cleaning sequence reminds me of the Polish entry for Eurovision 2014, which had actresses doing laundry and food-prep in "provocative" poses and clothes.

30. Thanks to mattikitku for noticing that Mirek's name was most likely a shout out to Mirosław Hermaszewski, the first Pole sent to space.