The actor playing Red's (James Spader) chief of security, Baz, also happens to be a former CIA officer and veteran US Marine who founded an NGO which rescues kidnapped Children in the sex slave trade.
Alan Alda was nominated for "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series" at the 2015 Primetime Emmy Awards, but did not win.
The name Mr. Kaplan is a subtle joke the writers used to reference the counterfeit name of the decoy agent in Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest".