This episode's title, "A Hawk from a Handsaw," is drawn from Hamlet, Act 2, scene 2: "I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw." During this episode there is a production of Hamlet starring Kirsten (Mackenzie Davis) as Hamlet.
The Traveling Symphony troupe comes across a fan named Dan who begs to be allowed to audition again. He also asks to be allowed to perform something other than Shakespeare. When they accede to both requests, he performs Bill Pullman's climactic monologue from the 1996 action movie Independence Day, written by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. Though this goes unacknowledged in the episode, since that movie's release, many movie writers and Shakespeare scholars have noted the monologue's thematic and rhetorical similarity to one of Shakespeare's most famous monologues: the rousing "St. Crispin's Day" speech delivered by Henry V in the eponymous play. In the 2015 "Complex" article "The Oral History of the President's Speech in 'Independence Day,'" James Harris quotes Dean Devlin: "I said to Roland, 'It would be great if we could do a kind of a St. Crispin's Day speech.' You know, where the king basically rallies the troops....Roland turned to me and said, 'Oh great. We only have to write a speech as great as the St. Crispin's Day speech. How are we going to do that?'"
The dirge Alexandra sings is called Lyke-Wake Dirge, and versions of it date back to at least the early 1600s. Musicians in the 20th and 21st centuries have performed this dirge as well, including Indigenous Canadian-American folk musician Buffy Sainte-Marie.