Raúl Esparza promoted to series regular, as confirmed by first appearance in the intro. Esparza was semi-regular cast the preceding season, having guest starred as Rafael Barba in eleven episodes.
Pablo Schreiber is cast as William Lewis. He also previously guest starred in an earlier season of Law and Order: SVU titled "Haystack (2007)" as a different character.
The episode title alludes to the signature catch phrase "Surrender Dorothy", the skywriting message the Wicked Witch left for Dorothy when she was taking sanctuary in Emerald City, in the children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), and its film adaptation The Wizard of Oz (1939).