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Cold Case is notable for double-casting: it will cast a young actor for the flashback sequences and an older actor for the shots in the present, and cut back and forth between the two, to show how the character has aged. The episode "One Night" managed to triple-cast one character, showing him in the present day, when he committed his murder and when he was a teenager.

Typically once the murderer is revealed, their confession is depicted in one final flashback in which the murder is shown. The episode then ends with a montage (with no dialogue) of the killer(s) being arrested, as well as the fates of other characters from that era, showing them in their current appearance, but briefly flashing back to their younger selves, and finally Rush or someone else close to the victim seeing a vision of the grateful-looking victim standing nearby, who then quickly vanishes (this aspect of the show is meant to represent Rush's imagination, since the show is not about the supernatural). There have been numerous variations on this pattern, however.

Each episode, during the flashbacks, will feature a different style of direction, whether it be the colors, lighting, shading, or camera angles. Flashbacks from an era such as the 1950s have been shown in black and white, an episode with a case from 1939 featured sepia-toned flashbacks, one episode set in the '80s used a split-screen style. Some popular films have served as inspiration for several episodes such as "Disco Inferno" (Saturday Night Fever), "Yo, Adrian" (Rocky), "Creatures of the Night" (The Rocky Horror Picture Show), "Detention" (The Breakfast Club), "Dog Day Afternoons" (Dog Day Afternoon), "Greed" (Wall Street), "Saving Patrick Bubley (Saving Private Ryan), "Forever Blue" (Brokeback Mountain), and "Knuckle Up" (Fight Club). Additionally, the episode "Bad Night" heavily referenced the movie Halloween as having possibly inspired a murder.