A waking dream, the episode title, is defined as an experience you have while you are awake that feels similar to dreaming. It is an episode of dreamlike visual imagery experienced when one is not asleep. The term is sometimes applied to hallucinations, religious visions, and the like.
Yelena's motivation's are intertwined with one of the storylines from the motion picture True Lies (1994), as evident by the opening scene, which is set in Switzerland in 1994 (when the original film took place). After one of the sentry guards asks "Harry" for his invitation, and he sets off the explosive with the remote detonator, "Harry" speaks in an accent similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger's (the actor who played "Harry" in the motion picture).