Alexis Denisof was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy just before filming of the final season commenced. During the shooting, Joss Whedon was careful to keep most of Alexis' shots on his right profile, as the left side of his face was fairly immobile at the time.
The long shot in which Fred, and subsequently the other characters, arrive at the Wolfram and Hart building is three and a half minutes long and took 27 times to get it right.
For the first time since the show's inception, Joss Whedon could now devote his attention exclusively to it. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) and Firefly (2002) both ended their runs the previous year.
T.J. Thyne who would later play alongside David Boreanaz on Bones (2005) makes the first of several appearances on Angel (1999) in this episode.
This is the only season premiere not to feature Cordelia Chase. In 2021, Charisma Carpenter revealed that Joss Whedon "unceremoniously" fired her from the series after she gave birth, accusing her of "sabotaging" the show by getting pregnant and calling her "fat" to her colleagues. She said that came after years of constant "harassment" and "serialized abuses of power" that triggered a chronic physical condition from which she still suffers.