James Marsters makes his 100th Buffyverse appearance in this episode as Spike, dating back to his introduction in School Hard (1997).
Ben Edlund reportedly incorporated the spoon death scene as an homage to his comic creation the Tick, the superhero whose battle cry was "Spoon!"
Harmony mentions knowing Spike had a "twisted obsession" with the Slayer, having role played as her with Spike in Crush (2001).
This episode is focused on introducing the character of Spike to the show, explains producer Jeffrey Bell, "but it was also about 'We work for an evil company with an evil client and he doesn't want to go.'"