When Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe) says "The bad news is, the rabbit died," she is referring to an early form of pregnancy test known as the rabbit test or the Aschheim-Zondek test. Developed in 1927, the test - originally performed on mice - involved injecting a woman's urine into a mouse or rabbit and later observing the changes in the animal's reproductive organs during its autopsy. While all animals involved in this testing would need to be killed in order for the examination to take place, the misconception that the animal would only die if injected with a pregnant woman's urine led to the usage of the phrase "the rabbit died" as a euphemism for a positive pregnancy test.
The opening scene shows Dylan McDermott's character (Johnny Morgan), seeing a therapist for impulse control. In season 1 he played a psychiatrist himself.
Frances Conroy (The Angel Of Death) and James Cromwell (Dr. Arthur Arden) co-starred together in Six Feet Under (2001) on HBO.