Tropes in this episode include:
- Depraved Homosexual: Albi is a violent mob lieutenant who runs the KO with an iron fist. He's also gay and is willing to kill to keep this a secret since it would ruin his position within the mob.
- Dueling Hackers: Jet attends an underground hacking competition in order to find Malachi, who wrote a heavily encrypted messaging app used by the Albanians. Jet reasons that he would attend the competition, but not actually try to win it as he doesn't really need to.
- Love Theme: A variation on the Stabler Benson theme plays during The Reveal about the letter that Stabler gave Benson in Season 1.
- The Reveal
- The letter that Stabler gave to Liv back in Season 1, Stabler admits that Kathy wrote the letter instead of him (he tried to at first but he couldn't do it). Kathy volunteers as she felt that it would help ease both him and Liv into talking to each other after not speaking with her when he left SVU. In the letter, Kathy writes that whatever they felt for each other was not real, and that they would have gotten in each other's way into becoming the best person they could be, and if that Liv found another man, he hoped he would be good for her. But then Stabler snuck in a line before sealing the envelope - in a parallel universe, it would have been him and Liv together.
- Nova is short for Cassanova and that her real name is Carmen Riley.
- Albi is gay. At the start of the episode, he asks Stalber to bury a body in secret, which is not the normal KO procedure. Stabler leads the body to the OCCB to be ID'ed. The man turned out to be a petty crook named Tristan. Stabler initially thought he was Flutura's lover, but Flutura reveals that she doesn't know him and that Albi never spends time with her. Stabler then tails Albi to a gay club. Albi catches him and then takes him to an undisclosed spot in order to kill him. Stabler then puts it together that Tristan was Albi's lover and Abli reveals that he killed him because he was about to out him as gay (which is a huge taboo subject in Albanian culture).
- Secret-Keeper: Stabler convinces Albi that he will keep his secret, saying that he's strictly business and will protect his secret with his life.
- Shout-Out: The episode's title is a play on Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw Josey Wales.
- That Wasn't a Request: Nova asks permission to attend Penda's funeral (as she was killed in the drive-by last episode). Brewster refuses (as an Italian mobster was about to be released from prison and Nova was needed back with the Marcy Killers), and Nova responds by turning in her gun and badge.
- Villain Respect: Malachi compliments Jet's hacking skills as someone who can rival his.
- Wham Line: While drugged, Elliot makes a shocking confession to Liv.Elliot: I didn't write the letter.
Olivia: The letter you gave me when you got back from Rome?
Elliot: …Kathy.- After that confirmation, Elliot then drops another bombshell.Olivia: (reciting the letter) "But in a parallel universe—"
Elliot: "It will always be you and I." I wrote that. I slipped it in there before sealing the envelope.
- After that confirmation, Elliot then drops another bombshell.
- You Just Told Me: While trying to break Malachi, Jet tells him that she's aware of some of his hack jobs, including the Cayman Island hack. Malachi rants that he hacked Cayman Island Federal as a Take That! to the "man". Jet reveals that she wasn't talking about Cayman Island Federal. Caught with admitting that he did, Malachi makes a deal to give Jet the decryption key for a lighter sentence.
