This is the 100th episode.
Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, and Ian Somerhalder are the only actors to appear in all of the first 100 episodes.
It was confirmed by Rebekah that it has been almost three months since I Know What You Did Last Summer, placing the events in this episode in the late November 2011 or early December. This means that the The Originals is on the same timeline as well.
This episode featured the song "Love Don't Die" by The Fray. The music video in the song featured Candice Accola.
"500 Years of Solitude" is a reference to the book One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In this case, it refers to Katherine's time on the run from Klaus.