IKARI:“The end of evolution is self-destruction.
Death itself.”
FUYUTSUKI:“Thus, we just need to accelerate its evolution.”
RITSUKO:“If the Angel considers it the only
practical means of survival,
it may choose to co-exist with the Magi system.”
UrsusArctos: The way the characters are standing and looking down at the display is very visually reminiscent of similar scenes in Uchuu Senkan Yamato. As noted in Episode 06 Cut 065 Anno is a huge Yamato fan so this was almost certainly a Yamato homage.
Dr. Nick: The bulkhead-closing action in this episode is also very Yamato-esque.
Of course, whenever Nerv's strategy meetings make use of those huge floor displays, that's likely referencing the original Mobile Suit Gundaminstead.
Zusuchan: The whole "end of evolution is self-destruction" idea bandied about by Gendo and Fuyutsuki seems weird and needlessly bleak, since they seem to think that evolution's end and an organism's subsequent death are both inevitable. Still, I'm pretty sure people and animals and so on don't die once they've stopped biologically evolving (and the end of intellectual evolution is only an intellectual, metaphorical death rather than physiological), so I'd argue both Gendo and Fuyutsuki are quite wrong here.
