The Wonder Years connected both the original and the rebooted versions of the ABC show on Wednesday’s episode.

The following is a major spoiler if you haven’t seen the episode, so…you’ve been warned.

At the end of the previous episode, the Williams family learned that Dean’s (EJ Williams) older brother Bruce (Spence Moore II), who was away fighting in Vietnam, had been injured. This week, he returned home with a secret—he has a girlfriend and she’s an older woman. While convalescing at home, his family pesters him for information about Tammy (Yvonne Orji), who is later revealed to be a divorced, single mom.

Bruce, a former sports star, struggles to reacclimate to civilian life. He wants a job but is faced with few options. As a Black veteran in 1960s Alabama, the best job opportunity available to him is a janitor position, which understanably leaves Bruce feeling frustrated.

During a family dinner, it is revealed Bruce was awarded the Bronze Star for bravery in combat, which was something he decided to keep to himself, hiding the medallion in a drawer. It appears he is suffering with survivor’s guilt, which leads him to rush back to work so as to provide for Tammy, whom he proposes to. (She doesn’t accept.)

Bruce finally finds the courage to open up to his family about what happened in Vietnam that earned him the medal. He and his men found themselves on the receiving end of enemy fire, three were already down. He and his friend Brian went back to save them, leaving Bruce injured and Brian dead.

Bruce revealed they had made a promise to one another should anything happen they would write to the other’s family. When he finally sits down to correspond with Brian’s family, it is revealed that Brian is Winnie Cooper’s (Danica McKellar) older brother, who died in Vietnam in the original series.

Showrunner Saladin K. Patterson told Entertainment Weekly that he originally planned the reboot as a stand alone show with no connections to the original, which aired from 1988-1993.

But when we decided that Dean would have an older brother who went to Vietnam, and that he would come back alive, we knew the parallels to the character Brian Cooper, who also went off to Vietnam and did not come back. Before we even pitched it to the network, I bounced off of [executive producer Lee Daniels] “you know, it’d be very cool if we say that our character and Brian Cooper knew each other in Vietnam. That feels like a very respectful way to acknowledge that these families do exist in the same world.”

He continued, saying, that as the story developed, he decided that “if we’re gonna do the connection with Brian Cooper, is there a way that the emotional impact of that experience is also contributing to decisions Bruce is making now that he’s back from the war?” If he and Brian were close, and he realizes that Brian now does not have a future, then maybe part of what Bruce is doing is trying to have the future that he knows Brian can’t have now.”

Patterson told Deadline that “If there was going to be any overlap or an Easter egg between our two series, I thought this was a really respectful way to tip my hat to the original. It also makes a statement for the characters in our world because Vietnam was the first war where Black soldiers served as leaders of white troops.”

He also said that McKellar and Fred Savage were on board with the idea. Savage, who starred in the original series and who serves as executive producer on the new series, “thought it was a very powerful and respectful way to have the lineage overlap.” according to Patterson. And McKellar “said she felt it was a wonderful idea and was very supportive and she was more than happy to have us use her photo.”

If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you can stream it on Hulu.