In this penultimate episode of the series, Michael (Jason Bateman), Buster (Tony Hale), and Gob (Will Arnett) encounter Saddam Hussein lookalikes, one of whom is played by Larry Thomas, who famously portrayed the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld (1989). This is an inside joke for the series, as George Bluth (Jeffrey Tambor) comments in an earlier episode that when he first met Saddam, he thought he was meeting the man who played the Soup Nazi.
The character of Cho (Mitsu) came from an idea that Mitchell Hurwitz had that Wayne Jarvis (John Michael Higgins) lived a double life as a Green Hornet-like hero by night. The Green Hornet had a Japanese sidekick named Kato.
One of the Saddam look-alikes says that they "wanted to keep the house for just one more season," referring to the Arrested Development writers, who felt the show had ended too early.
George Michael (Michael Cera) was going through Maebye (Alia Shawkat)'s address book to send out invitations for her surprise party. The name under Steve Holt in her book is R. Howard as in (Ron Howard), the narrator and producer of this series, as well as a feature film director, who later references why he wasn't at the party.
In Iraq, many of the roads appear to have been renamed after U.S. political figures. Richard Shaw (Gary Cole) mentions "the Cheney Expressway was backed up all the way to Halliburton Road," referring to Dick Cheney's former position as CEO of Halliburton Energy Services, and the corporation's role in the rebuilding of Iraq. Later, Buster (Tony Hale) can be heard saying "Take Condoleezza Rice Lane. It's quicker." Both Cole and Hale would be featured in the cast of (Veep (2012)).