This is the first time that Buffy and the Mayor meet face-to-face, despite the fact that they were in the same room together at the city hall press conference in Gingerbread (1999) and they almost met in the sewers beneath Sunnydale in Band Candy (1998).
The twin-bladed dagger that Mayor Wilkins gives to Faith looks a lot like a Klingon Mevak from Sons of Mogh (1996).
The Mayor (Harry Groener) says "What would Toll House cookies be without the chocolate chips". The most notable chocolate chip cookie recipe was invented by American chef Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1938. She invented the recipe when she owned the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts. In this era, the Toll House Inn was a popular restaurant that featured home cooking. During World War II, soldiers from Massachusetts who were stationed overseas, shared the cookies they received with soldiers from other parts of the United States. Hundreds of soldiers wrote home asking their families to send them Toll House cookies. The Toll House Inn burned down in 1984, but the site is still marked with a historical marker and mounted restored sign.
Willow (Alyson Hannigan) gets accepted into the University of Oxford. The University of Oxford is one of the hardest universities to get into in the world. It is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation. Oxford has educated a wide range of notable alumni, including 30 prime ministers of the United Kingdom, and many heads of state and government around the world. Notable alumni include Stephen Hawking, Oscar Wilde, J. R. R. Tolkien and Hugh Grant. Bill Clinton, 42nd president of the United States, was partially educated there.
Harry Groener (The Mayor) was a fan of the show prior to being cast.