Really, most things in Apex Legends are an Easter egg or homage to the Titanfall games. Set in the universe that Respawn introduced to the world with its fast-paced, mech-battling shooter, most of Apex’s characters and worlds have some sort of tie-in to the games that came before it. Some of those are obvious, like the Williams siblings’ service in the IMC during the Frontier War or the fact that Apex players actually see Kuben Blisk every once in a while.
Other references to the Titanfall games are broader and are there for background and building out the world. And some, like the lobby in season 14, are cleverly disguised.
The new lobby in season 14 is a little bit different from previous seasons. Usually, the lobby design is reflective of the new legend entering the game or is based on the map or map changes introduced with the new season. This season, however, the lobby is not Kings Canyon and it doesn’t seem to be influenced by Vantage’s hunter design, either. Instead, the lobby puts you in a prison, with cell blocks and a shadowy figure pacing nervously behind the glass.
The prison and prisoner is a clear reference to Vantage’s mother, Xenia Contreras, who is currently imprisoned and is the main reason Vantage joins the Apex Games. The shadowy figure behind the glass, however, is not Xenia Contreras at all, but a character model asset that appears to be re-used from a different game.
Data miner KralRindo brings the character out into the front of the lobby for players to see, and judging by his design, the figure appears to be a character model taken from Titanfall 2. In that game’s campaign, a mission called “Effect and Cause” sends protagonists Jack Cooper and BT to an abandoned facility, where they discover a means for Cooper to travel forward and backward in time. When Cooper travels back in time, he finds himself in multiple rooms with scientists dressed in the exact same uniform as the man behind the glass in Apex’s new lobby.
It’s not terribly surprising to see the game re-use assets from previous titles for the means of producing a shadow behind a glass, and this most likely isn’t indicative of a major narrative development in the game.
If you’re looking for a smoking gun, however, it’s this: the facility that Cooper and BT travel to turns out to be an ARES facility, the place where the IMC discovered the Fold Weapon from Titanfall 2. In Apex, there is one character with a major tie-in to the ARES Division. Wraith was a senior science pilot for ARES before lab experiments on her erased her memories, which she’s tried to chase down since. Near the conclusion of season 13’s quest, Family Secrets, Wraith encountered a mercenary fighting with The Forgotten Families that seemed to know her from her time in ARES, and the mere sight of Wraith reduced the mercenary to a shivering mess, fleeing the fight completely.
In all probability, this character model was simply the easiest way to complete the new lobby for season 14. But it also happens to be a pretty cool Easter egg, and the fact that Wraith just received more lore regarding her time in ARES only a few weeks ago makes the presence of an ARES scientist in the season 14 lobby a little bit conspicuous.