The show has dealt with many disturbing subjects, but this is the first one that has prompted a public-service announcement. Following the end of the final act, Sarah Michelle Gellar did a voice-over on the dangers of teenage suicide.
Grace and James talk about a book Grace has lent him. The book is A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway. It is about a teen-aged World War I soldier who has a romance with an older woman - an army nurse. The relationship ends after she dies in a fashion that he blames himself for. It is based on events that happened to Hemingway.
After Willow gives Giles the rose quartz necklace that was Jenny's, you can hear the song "Remembering Jenny" being played.
Marti Noxon said that prior to working on the series, she had written several times about ghosts, which for her are figurative expressions of the need for "repentance and second chances", drawing on her own family background. "I realize that I was constantly telling the story of my family and fears," she says. Noxon was influenced in her storytelling by the movies Poltergeist (1982) and Truly Madly Deeply (1990).
This exchange from the script was cut:
- Cordelia: "Okay. So what's up with Buffy?"
- Xander: "How many times do we have to go over this? Nothing's up with Buffy. We're just good friends..."
- Cordelia: "No, I mean, what's up with Buffy? Like, is she okay?"
- Xander: "Sorry. I'm not used to you addressing subjects not directly related to ... you. She's fine. I guess. Why?"
- Cordelia: "She only blew off Ben Straley - the most eligible hunk in town. He's totally rad and his father owns a department store. I mean, he's the guy I'd be going out with if I wasn't so obviously brain damaged. No offense."
- Xander: "Oh no. Why would I be offended?"
- Cordelia: "Anyway. Ben told Lynette, who told Charity, that Buffy wouldn't even give him the time of day."
- Xander: "Good for her. She's providing much needed life experience for the rejection-deprived."
- Cordelia: "The guilt thing's just getting a little old, you know. Everybody's told her what happened to Angel isn't her fault."
- Xander: "Yeah. Everybody except the one guy she needs to hear it from."