In the think tank room, Shawn comments that it would have been cooler if they had chosen Danica McKellar instead of the actuary guy. This is an obvious reference to her famous second career as a mathematician and girls in math advocate. However, it also an inside joke because the episode writer, Andy Berman played Chuck Coleman to her Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years (1988) for two seasons.
When he's on the phone with the Bulgarian consulate, Shawn (James Roday Rodriguez) answers in Spanish and identifies himself as "Shawnito Rodriguez." According to his IMDb profile, James Roday's birth name is James David Rodriguez.
Some of the Think Tank people, Fred Boyd and Alan Zenuk were named after some actual crew members of the show, something that episode writer Andy Berman often does in his scripts.
Lassiter said he was going to call "Bill McGoldrick" the head of Bonaventure's security. Billy McGoldrick is the name of Zachary Levi's character (The Thin White Duke) in Psych: The Movie. Bill McGoldrick was also an EVP at USA Network who worked on Psych.
Spot the Pineapple: Shawn has a pineapple eraser on the top of his pencil in the opening scene, and while at the pizzeria he asks. "Where's the pineapple?"