There are many clear parallels between the story as presented in the early part of this episode and the death of Natalie Wood: husband and wife with strains on their marriage according to friends and family, on a boat, they both get incredibly drunk, the next morning one of them is found to have drowned as the result of head trauma, and the remaining spouse is suspected of having committed murder and has gaps in their memory (it should be noted that Natalie Wood's death has many key differences with the story as it unfolds later in the episode and was ruled an accident). Her husband at the time of her death was Robert Wagner, who years later played the father of Michael Weatherly (Jason Bull)'s character on NCIS (2003), Anthony Dinozzo, Jr.