According to Christian Kane's Twitter account, he received 17 stitches in his forehead due to a stunt in this episode during the elevator fight scene. The injury can be seen in the next episode, when it's written into the script as an injury the character receives during an on-screen fight, and is hidden during this episode in a variety of ways, mostly a beanie but also an awkwardly-angled forehead scratch before Eliot puts the beanie on and some fancy camera work.
The close-up scenes where Nate is performing card tricks feature the hands of Apollo Robbins. He was the consultant who taught Timothy Hutton and Beth Riesgraf how to perform the magic tricks and the latter (and the rest of the cast) how to do "thief stuff," and appears as a rival thief/pickpocket "Apollo" in the next episode "The Two Live Crew Job."
This was the first appearance of gummy frogs, Hardison's favorite snack along with orange soda.
The company Vice President Erik Casten's name is based on Erik Prince, the CEO of defense contractor Blackwater. Unlike other episodes in the series, he doesn't seem to be based on a single specific person in the real world, but an amalgamation of generic corporate sharks in a common story of contaminated products not being recalled in favor of profit (a story the series plays on a few times in different variations).
Parker's alias as Nate's assistant, Clea, is likely a reference to the otherworldly Clea, the longtime partner to Marvel's Doctor Strange. Hardison's alias, Frank Brunner, may be a nod to Frank Brunner, an artist who worked (among many other things) in Doctor Strange.