The episode shows how the Cordyceps pandemic began in Jakarta, home of one of the largest flour mills in the world, and implies that contaminated flour likely caused the quick spread across the globe. Other than a radio broadcast that the Millers listen to over breakfast, the previous episode also hints at this by showing several instances in which Joel and Sarah unknowingly avoid eating flour: when Sarah is unable to make Joel birthday pancakes, when they turn down their neighbor's biscuits, when Joel forgets to get a cake, etc.
The opening scene in Indonesia takes place on September 24th, 2003 two days before the premiere episode's events. In that first episode a short radio segment mentions "disturbances" in Jakarta.
On the podcast for the second episode, Mazin and Druckmann mentioned an alternative cold open which was a flashback to Tess's backstory. It would've revealed that she had a husband and son who were infected during the outbreak. She would've killed her husband but locked her son in the basement when she couldn't bring herself to kill him. This was scrapped before filming in favour of the flashback to Jakarta.
The popular "piano frog" in the second episode was a fake frog that a (real) seagull was supposed to eat on screen, but the seagull would either not stay in shot or not eat the frog while a handler kept it in. So the final scene featured the frog only.
A toy stuffed giraffe is lying on the ground. Giraffes are a recurring motif in the first game.