While it has long been speculated that Picard is older than Patrick Stewart (the reasoning being that people age slower in the 24th century thanks to medical advances), his age is revealed here for the first time. Picard is 94, or born in 2305, while Stewart was 79 when this episode aired. His age had been implied in numerous episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), stating that Picard graduated from Starfleet Academy in 2327, presumably at age 22.
Riker mentions the Treaty of Algeron, the Federation-Romulan peace treaty that was first mentioned in The Defector (1990).
Picard quotes "We are such stuff / As dreams are made of," a line from the play The Tempest, by William Shakespeare; it continues, "and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep." It is spoken by the magician Prospero, a character whom Patrick Stewart played on the London stage in 2006. He has just made a large group of spirits vanish and is reminding his daughter and her fiancé that mortal life also ends quickly. Picard, quoting Shakespeare, is a callback to The Most Toys (1990), where Data is believed to be dead and Picard quotes Shakespeare's Hamlet, "He was a man. Take him for all in all. I shall not look upon his like again."
Seven of Nine and Raffi are seen playing kal-toh, a Vulcan strategy game first seen on Star Trek: Voyager (1995).
The title is Latin for 'Even in Arcadia, (there am) I' which is from the Nicolas Poussin painting 'Les Bergers d'Arcadie'. It depicts a pastoral scene with idealized shepherds from classical antiquity, and a woman, possibly a shepherdess, gathered around an austere tomb. It is held in the Louvre. It is a reminder that death is present even in utopia.