After Leo leaves Logan and Veronica's apartment, they discuss a San Diego detective and a rape case at The Grand. This was a reference to the plot of the second Veronica Mars novel "Mr. Kiss and Tell" in which Veronica and Leo worked together to catch a serial rapist.
When Veronica visits Mercer Hayes (Ryan Devlin) in prison to try to get some information about the case she is investigating, he complains about how long he has been in prison: "I've got a parole hearing coming up. It's about goddamn time, right? But we get the news in here. Ya know, guy at Stanford, he gets six months. Guy at University of Wisconsin gets three years for multiple rapes, and yet, here I am. Hmm? Learning harmonica and dragging my tin cup across the bars of my cell, well into my second decade. Where's the justice?" These are both references to real-life rape trials that received extensive press coverage and notoriety for what was widely perceived as their very light sentences for the rapists involved. The "guy at Stanford" was Brock Turner, a member of the Stanford swim team who in 2016 was found guilty of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster but (despite the prosecutorial recommendation of a six-year prison sentence) was nonetheless only sentenced to six months (of which he only served three). Outrage rose after Turner's father protested that even a sentence that short was "a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life"; the judge was later recalled and removed from the bench largely due to public dissatisfaction with his Turner sentence (the first time since 1932 that a judge had been recalled by California voters). The "guy at University of Wisconsin" was Alec Cook, who was convicted of raping, stalking, and/or choking multiple women (crimes to which he admitted and for which he could have received a maximum forty-year sentence), but he was only sentenced to three years. Six Wisconsin politicians, including several state representatives, wrote an open letter to the judge, expressing their dismay at the leniency of the sentence, saying in part that it amounted "to a slap on the wrist for a serial rapist whose violent and sadistic sex crimes will haunt his victims for years to come. . . . we are concerned about the impact that the perpetrator's privilege had on those factors in this case. The message your sentence sends to Mr. Cook's victims, to the UW campus community, and to our community at large is clear: In just three or fewer years, this predator will be back on the streets because men like Alec Cook, men with privilege, are above the law."
At one point Leo and Veronica are waiting outside Mars Investigations for Veronica's dad to finish talking with Clyde Pickett. Veronica asks Leo if he has M&Ms. Clyde Pickett us played by J. K. Simmons, who also plays the voice of the Peanut M&M.
Leo and Logan act as if they don't know of each other however Leo arrested Logan at Veronica's House in Season 2 episode 1
While visiting Tim Foyle in a California state prison, Veronica says he doesn't appear to be taking advantage of the copious free weights. The California Dept of Corrections and Rehabilitation doesn't allow inmates access to weights.