The season 22 premiere was originally set to feature the return of Elliot Stabler to Special Victims Unit. Following Christopher Meloni's departure after season 12, he will star in his own spin-off Law & Order: Organized Crime (2021).
This episode marks just the second time that a season premiere did not air in the month of September. The only other instance in which this occurred was the season two premiere Wrong Is Right (2000), exactly twenty years earlier.
The commission into the squad gives a speech about "guardians and gladiators", which they describe as officers who cover for but refuse to commit to corruption and officers committing it in the first place, respectively.
IAB Captain Renee Curry mentions that she and Benson met at Ed Tucker's funeral, which presumably happened off-screen after the events of The Longest Night of Rain (2020). Curry also mentions that Jayvon Brown had been stopped and frisked by Benson and her then partner Nick Amaro on the night of Mehcad Carter's killing at the hand of Jolene Castille, which happened in the episode American Tragedy (2013).