In the briefing, Judd Crawford's date of birth is revealed as 15th December 1949. This is his actor Don Johnson's real date of birth.
Call-outs to Batman were made at the beginning of this episode. It is mentioned that Revenger was caught about a month earlier, whose motivation is sometimes thought to be getting revenge for his parents' death. And Mr. Shadow was shown being captured, whose appearance resembles Batman.
The hotel Laurie Blake stays at is called "Black Freighter Inn", referencing a comic inside the original graphic novel, Tales of the Black Freighter.
The chief's funeral takes place in "Tartarus Acres." Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato's Gorgias (c. 400 BC), souls are judged after death and the wicked receive divine punishment.
The front cover of "The Rorschach Journal," Rorschach's published journal entries, shares a strong resemblance to the cover of William L. Pierce's 1978 novel "The Turner Diaries," which depicts a violent revolution in the United States which leads to the overthrow of the federal government, nuclear war, and, ultimately, a race war leading to the systematic extermination of non-whites. All groups opposed by the novel's protagonist, Earl Turner, including Jews, non-whites, "liberal actors" and politicians, are exterminated. The language used by Turner in the novel is similar to the language used by Rorschach in his journal, and by extension, similar to the language used by the Seventh Kavalry in their video message to police shown in the first episode.