Tabu

The plot of this episode closely resembles the true events of Patricia Hearst, a socialite and heiress, who was kidnapped in 1974 by a radical group. The group initially demanded a ransom in the form of food money for the needy in California, much like the demands of the fictional group in this episode who displayed similar altruistic beliefs, from their hostage's father, and again, like the fictional Ella Pierce, Patty Hearst eventually turned against her father and joined the group's cause as seen in her later participation in a bank robbery with the group.

Charlie's girlfriend Amita Ramanujan (Navi Rawat) says she can use the DTMF frequency of the sat phone to trace the call. This is patently absurd. DTMF is the pair of tones used on POTS phones to dial a telephone number, they are not used at all, ever, on cellular (or SAT phones). The only time DTMF is used after a call is connected is if the caller is connected to an auto-attendant (what most businesses use) or accessing your own voicemail. DTMF would never be used for a call in progress unless you accidentally bump one of the buttons, but that didn't happen here.

[This appears on the beginning of the episode] 2 demands 40 million dollars 2271 satellites 322 e-mails