The trademark "donk-donk" sound first appears in this episode during the introductory segment before the opening credits - very unusual for an episode of "Law & Order".
Detective Joe Fontana says that when someone is killed in United States territorial waters due to a criminal, reckless or negligent act the death can fall under federal jurisdiction. This is true for the most part, though in most situations the federal government leaves the investigation up to local police. However if the crime occurs more than three miles off the coast it is investigated by the United States Coast Guard, specifically C.G.I.S. (Coast Guard Investigative Service) which is the criminal investigative division of the Coast Guard.
This episode appears to be based on three separate cases/incidents:
- The 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash.
- The post-September-11-attack climate in the United States.
- The controversial Low Copy Number DNA profiling technique. Low copy DNA analysis was not a widely accepted method of testing DNA at the time of this episode's filming. However as of 2018 it is a widely accepted and accurate method of extracting DNA from a very small sample. In fact it is now possible to get a DNA sample from fingerprints, specifically from the skin oils in the fingerprint.