In the DVD commentary, writer Drew Goddard claims that the Sjornjost scenes were written in Swedish but he intended for the lines to be dubbed badly in English. Thus, Emma Caulfield Ford and Abraham Benrubi were told that they did not need to memorize the Swedish that carefully because it would not be heard. Both actors memorized all of the alleged Swedish words phonetically, and the show creators were so pleased with their performances that they decided to subtitle the scenes rather than dub them.
In the DVD audio-commentary, writer Drew Goddard said he asked Joss Whedon to write a song for Emma Caulfield Ford. Whedon refused, arguing he was too busy (he was working on Firefly (2002) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) at the same time). The day after, Whedon showed up with the song, saying he could not stop thinking about it.
Sarah Michelle Gellar was only available for three days of shooting on this episode because of her wedding to Freddie Prinze Jr.. Drew Goddard said in his commentary for the episode that her hair in the show (the little braid at the side of her head) was her "wedding hair".
Drew Goddard considered a flashback to Hush (1999) rather than to Once More, with Feeling (2001), but decided that it would be difficult to show Anya defining herself through Xander without dialogue.
Anya (then Aud) and Olaf are speaking Swedish (or rather, they try to - some of what they say is actually Swedish, but the rest is gibberish).