This is dedicated to the late Meshach Taylor (Harrison Scott), good friend of Joe Mantegna (Rossi). Joe Mantegna directed this episode as a tribute to Meshach Taylor, who died of cancer late June, 2014. The two had been close friends for 44 years. Taylor graduated from Florida A & M University, which is located in Tallahassee, where the episode takes place.
In Rossi's flashback, Harrison Scott told him "Scars remind us where we've been. They don't have to dictate where we're going." Rossi used this quote himself in The Slave of Duty (2009).