Because French diplomat Gaetan Vidal is dead, Murdoch is asked to impersonate him. Régine Rivière even says that Murdoch bears a passing resemblance to the deceased. The role of Gaetan Vidal was played by Louis Paquette, who is the stunt double for Yannick Bisson, i.e. Murdoch.
When Julia meets British diplomat Montague Ainsworth, she pretends to be an Australian woman named Sheila Walker. Hélène Joy, who plays Julia, is Australian.
When Terrance Meyers says "we can't go on together with suspicious minds", he is quoting Elvis.
When a trick pipe gadget is explained to Murdoch, the person presenting says "This is not a pipe." That can be a reference to a famous painting by René Magritte called, "The Treachery of Images," which has an image of a smoking pipe with a caption below that says, "This is not a pipe" in French.
The Triple Entente discussed in this episode would be the essential military alliance of France, Russia, and the United Kingdom that would face the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy (Which would switch sides and be essentially replaced by the Ottoman Empire) in World War I.