The song "Running Up That Hill" is featured regularly in season 4. This is the first time a song is featured regularly since season 1's "Should I Stay or Should I Go". It should be noted that the Duffers have only done this when the song holds a special significance to a character. In this case "Running Up That Hill" plays a similar role for Max as "Should I Stay or Should I Go" did for Will back in season 1.
When Victor talks about how his family was killed, the flashback shows a kid sliding down a Rocket Ship slide. The same slide can been seen in New Nightmare (1994), where Robert Englund portrays both himself and Freddy Krueger.
After being featured in this episode, Kate Bush's 1985 song "Running Up That Hill" reached number one on UK's Official Singles Chart, number one on the Billboard Global 200 chart, number one on the Billboard Alternative Digital Song Sales, and peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time since its release (it had peaked at number 30 in 1985). The song remained on the top of the Alternative Digital Song Sales chart for over five weeks, and it also reached number one on both the Spotify charts in the UK and the US after earning 57 million streams in just one week. Bush now holds 3 Guinness World Records: oldest female artist to reach number one, longest time taken for a single to reach number one on the UK's Official Singles Chart, with it being 37 years since the single was first released, and longest gap between number ones.
In Victor Creel's flashback, his house is an homage to Pet Sematary (1989) (on a rise parallel to a main road) and the items in his attic are nods to various Stephen King books (white dress: Carrie; wheelchair: Misery; circus sheet music: It)
Robin points out that Nancy has a poster of Tom Cruise on her bedroom wall. This season takes place in 1986, the year Top Gun (1986) was released. This season premiered on the same day that Top Gun: Maverick (2022) released, May 27, 2022.