Amber Skye Noyes also appeared in the episode Townhouse Incident (2016) as a different character. In this episode, she has blonde hair while in her previous appearance she had red hair.
This is the first season premiere of the series to premiere at the start of a year as well as halfway through a regular network television schedule. It is also the third season premiere that didn't premiere in September. The second season premiere premiered in October 2000 while the twenty-second season premiere premiered in November 2020 due to production delays as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is confirmed in this episode that John Munch has died, making this the first episode of SVU where a main character has died. Munch's actor Richard Belzer died in February 2023.
The opening montage shows the following scenes from previous episodes:
- Benson comparing the boy in Jeffrey Jackson's apartment to missing child Henry Morton in the episode Conscience (2004)
- Benson getting Viva Nuñez and her daughter, Luisa Nuñez, out of the house that William Lewis had been holding her in the episode Surrender Benson (2013)
- Benson giving Mrs. Panachek the card for victim's services in the episode Payback (1999)
- Benson interviewing Ashley Tyler about her attack in the episode Undercover (2008)
- Benson and Fin rescuing Maria Recinos from being buried alive in the episode 911 (2005)
- Benson crying outside of Mike Dodds's funeral in the episode Heartfelt Passages (2016)
Carisi's cousin asks Benson about the pendant she is wearing, which she received as a gift from Elliot Stabler in the Organized Crime episode With Many Names (2023).