Richard Thomas followed up on this by contacting John Kwiatkowski, a publicist for HBO, who told him, "One of the series' writers once dated a girl from Duluth and wanted to give the city a shout-out; the reference was in no way meant to imply anything negative about it."

Thomas also was able to provide the muttered dialogue that sort of trails off at the end and is difficult to hear.

Zak: So, Duluth.
Patty: Yeah, Duluth.
Zak: Yes, yes. I flew over it once.
Patty: Uh huh.
Zak: Still took too long.