The Krugerrand is a South African gold coin first minted in 1967. It was the most popular choice for gold investors during the bull market of the 1970s, then fell out of favor during apartheid. In 2022, a 1 ounce Krugerrand coin is worth $2,007.40.
The title of this episode, "Exquisite Corpse," refers to a collaborative artistic technique created by Surrealists in the late 1910s or the 1920s. André Breton, one of the cofounders of the Surrealist movement, invented it as a game at a house party in Montparnasse, France, that was also attended by the poets Benjamin Péret and Jacques Prévert, the actor and screenwriter Marcel Duhamel, and the painter Yves Tanguy. The method involves drawing a person in several steps (usually the head, torso, legs, and feet); at each stage, the page is folded over so the next drawer can't see the prior artist's work. What results is a composite drawing of a person, sometimes comically mismatched. Toward the end of this episode, Nadia sees a mother and daughter playing this game with some paper and markers on the subway.
Nora's tarantula dance is reminiscent of Italian tarantellas -- types of quick, upbeat dances, usually with tambourines. The "symptomatic tarantella" is a solo of an agitated character, as if bitten by a spider. The "magico-religious tarantella" is a solo performed to cure the delirium and contortions of a spider bite or, later, to "cure" the behavior of neurotic women.