The popular "cherry stem" scene was inspired by an incident in Harley Peyton's life; he had been dining with friends during the time he was writing the script when a female friend demonstrated to the group that she could knot a cherry stem with her tongue. Peyton immediately added this to the script, finding it fascinating that he could witness something on one day, write it the next, and two weeks later see newspapers discussing his version of it. Sherilyn Fenn has admitted that she was unable to actually perform the trick, simply switching the stem for a tied one already hidden in her mouth; however, co-star Mädchen Amick has since demonstrated it during television interviews.
The character of Madeline Ferguson was named for characters in Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo-Kim Novak's Madeleine Elster and James Stewart's Scottie Ferguson.
The name of the insurance salesman who visits Catherine Martell is Walter Neff. This is a reference to the 1944 film 'Double Indemnity', which is about an insurance fraud plot also involving an insurance salesman named Walter Neff.
Caleb Deschanel, the director of the episode, recalls the teleplay for the episode being approximately 40-45 pages long, which he felt offered the show a "leisurely" pace compared to modern television episode, which are filmed from teleplays of up to 120 pages. This allowed the series to dwell on its subtext and unexpressed desires of its characters, rather than focusing solely on narrative action. Deschanel and Harley Peyton, the writer of the episode, have described the episode as exemplifying the need to "be a fan" of the series to fully enjoy it, as the progression and development of the characters occurs over multiple episodes and rewards the attention of a regular viewer. Peyton has also noted that the distinct personalities of the series' characters meant that he considered some of them much more difficult to convincingly write for than others. He found Cooper to be particularly tricky to write for, as the character had an idiosyncratic view of the world which needed to be maintained; but found Audrey Horne to be his favorite to work on as he considered the character-and actress Sherilyn Fenn-to be both sexy and smart, and to have developed substantially as the series progressed.