The incidental music has more than obvious overtones of both The James Bond theme and From Russia With Love in it. Pierce Brosnan went on to play James Bond 007 in GoldenEye (1995). Brosnan was originally offered the role for The Living Daylights (1987) but was unable to accept it as he could not get out of his commitment to Remington Steele. In addition, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., who plays Captain Rios, is the son of Pedro Armendáriz, who played Kerim Bay in From Russia with Love (1963).
When Laura announces that she is going to Mexico, she rattles off the names of famous Mexican actors, Lupe Velez, Maria Montez, etc. Pedro Armendáriz is one of them. His son, Pedro Armendáriz Jr. appears in this episode as Captain Rios.
Steele books his flight to Acapulco using the name Michael O'Leary. Steele often used a character played by Humphrey Bogart as his alias; in this case, it's Michael O'Leary from the movie Dark Victory (1939).
In the first season the Remington Steele Detective Agency also employed another investigator, Murphy Michaels, and a secretary, Bernice Foxe. In the second season they were both replaced by Mildred Krebbs, Michaels having moved to Colorado to open up his own detective agency and Foxe having run off with a saxophone player.