This episode serves as the first in the second "pod" of episodes for the season, subtitled LMD.
The music that AIDA is playing to May at the beginning is the fourth movement of Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony. The piece was composed as a love letter to Mahler's wife. Despite this, it has been used for the soundtrack to Death in Venice (1971) and was also played at the funeral of John F Kennedy.
Henry Simmons (Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie) and Natalia Cordova-Buckley (Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez) were named as honorable mentions for TVLine's "Performer of the Week" for the week of January 9, 2017, for their performances in this episode. The site praised the pair for their comedic performances, keeping the episode "light and lively--and marvelously meta."
"Broken Promises" originally aired on ABC on January 10, 2017 and was watched by 4.66 million viewers within a week of its release according to Nielsen Media Research.
At 38:38 Mack says, "Small Wonder" in response to Fitz's comment about how Dr Radcliffe views the Aida android as his child. "Small Wonder" was an American sitcom from 1985-1989 about a scientist who made a child robot.