In the comics Jack Spheer, known as Biomax, was the CEO of Biospheer Technologies, which developed the Biomax process, a plasma that could control organic tissue. He intended to use it to change and revolutionize the way food was produced, but a number of people became sick due to Biospheer additives. Confronted by Green Arrow and Black Canary, Spheer was accidentally pushed in to a vat of the Biomax formula, mutating into a sentient version of the formula and able to control minds.
Snapper Carr yells out "Miss Tessmacher!" in the same fashion as Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) in Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980).
In one scene, Mon-El is reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
This episode takes place in April 2017.
When Winn is in the bar before his fight with his girlfriend the song playing in the background is "how you like me now" by "the heavy".