When Glen Morgan and James Wong took over the series as showrunners in the second season, they printed up t-shirts that read "98% less serial killers". This was part of their desire to shake Millennium (1996) out of its creative rut that many had criticized Season 1 for. Thus far, Season 2 had explored the motives of the Millennium Group so, at this juncture, it felt right to revert back (seemingly) to a serial killer episode. Freelance writer Richard Whitley - who had been part of the writing team on Roseanne (1988) - was drafted in expressly to write such an episode.
The Bobby Darin song 'Beyond the Sea' is referenced in this episode. It is also the title of one of the key episodes of The X-Files (1993) first season.