Battlestar Galactica

Tigh: Which side are we on. We're on the side of the demons, Chief. This may be a reference to the famous speech of Benjamin Disraeli, twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the 19th century, in which he said about the recent theory of evolution: "Is man an ape or an angel? I, my lord, I am on the side of the angels. I repudiate with indignation and abhorrence those new fangled theories."

The Swirl In his podcast, Ronald D. Moore, an avowed Seinfeld fan, confirmed that the "twist" and "swirl" are references to the Seinfeld episode The Fusilli Jerry.

The Great Escape In this episode's cliffhanger, the Cylons allow their human prisoners to step out of the transport under the pretense of a "rest break," apparently only to mow the prisoners down with gunfire. This parallels a scene near the end of the John Sturges movie The Great Escape (1963) in which fifty escaped POWs are captured by Gestapo officers, allowed to "stretch their legs," and then executed by machine gun. In his podcast, Ronald Moore confirmed the reference to the scene in The Great Escape.

Tigh: We're evil men in the gardens of paradise, sent by the forces of death to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go. The phrase "gardens of paradise" is a reference to the heaven that many Islamic suicide bombers in the modern-day Middle East hope to attain through acts of martyrdom.