Ben asks one of the Icelanders if he is familiar with the works of Knut Hamsun. Hamsun, a Norwegian author who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, was known for works that explored deep psychological themes with imagery bordering on surrealism and was a major influence on Franz Kafka, David Lynch's favorite author.
The llama snorting in Cooper's face was confirmed by Kyle MacLachlan as a "happy accident."
The One-Armed Man is a reference to the real killer in The Fugitive. His name, Philip Gerard, is in reference to the police officer pursuing the title character.
Robert Engels, the writer of the episode, has identified several 1960s television series-The Wild Wild West, Mayberry R.F.D. and The Fugitive-as being influential to the series as a whole. Engels has also noted that the series would make use of normal, conventional story lines and everyday occurrences as a "familiar" framework, allowing subtle details to seem slightly more unusual against this backdrop-he particularly cites this episode's parole hearing for Hank Jennings as an example, as it offers nothing out of the ordinary other than the single domino which Jennings is playing with at all times, drawing attention to the item as it is the only thing which seems out of place.