Carter criticized a movie about aliens whose weakness is water. She wonders why they would arrive at a planet mostly covered by it. This seems like an indirect reference to Signs (2002), written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
The episode title is a reference to a Greek myth about a musician, Orpheus, who journeys into hell to rescue his lover, Eurydice.
When Colonel O'Neill and the rest of the SGC team members reach the labour camp, O'Neill asks an officer named Penhall for binoculars. Penhall was the character name of director Peter DeLuise on 21 Jump Street (1987).