Book of the Damned

• Does Sam regret what he said to Dean in season 9, about being willing to lose him?
• Will the Winchesters ever get their vacation?
• Will the Book of the Damned have an ill effect on Dean, like the First Blade does? Will he have to struggle against the call of the Book, encouraging him to do evil?
• What will Metatron do with the demon tablet now?
• How long will it take Dean to figure out that Sam (and now, Castiel) lied to him? And what will he do when he finds out?
• What will Rowena want in exchange for helping Sam cure Dean of the Mark? Can she actually do it? And what will be the "biblical" consequences if she uses the Book to do it?
• Will the Stynes continue chasing Charlie? Or will they come after the Winchesters or maybe Rowena (assuming she agrees to help Sam by taking possession of the Book)?
• Who are the Stynes? They are hard to kill, so are they something other than human? Jacob also knew about the Mark of Cain. Are they witches?
• Will Castiel be at full power now that he has his grace?

• Bobby had safe house cabins scattered all over the country; the Boys have access to those locations now
• The Winchesters have apparently never been to a beach
• Hannah is running heaven very well -- at the moment
• Sam finally seems to accept and understand that hunting is his life; he says he loves his life now

• This episode was dedicated to Japp Broeker. Broeker, who died in 2015, was a stand-in for "Born under a bad sign" in season 2.
• Metatron and Castiel were at the "Park Crest Diner" when Metatron was eating his waffles.
• At the library, the demon tablet was hidden inside a book called Simulacra & Simulation, by Jean Baudrillard. The actual book, written in 1981, deals with philosophical theories about society, reality, and symbolism.
• Charlie called the Winchesters from a pay phone in Des Moines, Iowa. The safe house was "near by" but we're never told its actual location.

• When Charlie is talking to Jacob Styne in the alley, she calls him "Gambit". Gambit is a fictional superhero from the Marvel Comic books The X-Men. The character is from Louisiana and has a Cajun accent, so Charlie was teasing Styne about his Southern accent.
• When Metatron and Castiel are in the car, the radio announcer says that the 1995 song "Isn't it ironic" by Alanis Morisette was going to play on the radio. The song lyrics mention how rain on one's wedding day and having only spoons when one needs a knife would be considered ironic. Metatron seems to disagree, but likes the song anyway.
• Metatron also seems to like the 1995 song "Sussudio" by Phil Collins, although he doesn't know what the song is about.
• Charlie tells Dean and Sam that she didn't know telephone booths still existed outside of "Bill and Ted's". This refers to the 1989 movie "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" in which a telephone booth is turned into a time-travel machine.
• When Metatron is eating waffles, he talks about "food, glorious food". These lyrics are the title of a song from the musical "Oliver". The musical is based on the 1837 Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, which deals with the adventures of a British orphan named Oliver.
• Charlie mentions "Alan Turing" when she and Sam are trying to decode the Book. Alan Turing was a British computer scientist and mathematician who helped the Allied forces as a code breaker during World War II.
• When Dean is talking to Sam about Rowena being Crowley's mother, he calls her "Mommy Dearest". A book titled Mommy Dearest was written in 1978 by Christina Crawford, the daughter of actress Joan Crawford. A movie based on the book was released in 1981. The story describes Crawford's difficult childhood and painful relationship with her mother.
• Dean discusses watching "pay per porn". He's likely talking about using the service "pay-per view", which allows someone to purchase a single movie for a nominal fee and watch the film on television.
• "Mother may I" is a children's game.
• Jacob Styne's compass may be a reference to the compass from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films; that magical compass points to the heart's desire of whomever is holding it.
• The clue Castiel needed to find his grace is from the 1605 novel Don Quixote, written by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra: "Take my advice and live for a long, long time. Because the maddest thing a man can do in this life is to let himself die."
• Another one of Metatron's clues is from author Mark Twain: "To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence."
• Charlie says that the "Bletchley Circle" would have trouble decoding the Book of the Damned. She was referring to a television series (2012 - 2014) about four women who work as code breakers during the 1950s.
• Charlie jokingly calls the Stynes the "Supernatural DuPonts". The DuPonts are one of America's wealthiest families; there are some dark chapters in the family's history.
• Metatron taunts Castiel about behaving like "Caine from Kung Fu". The 1970s era television series "Kung Fu" dealt with a fictional character (named Kwai Chang Caine) who roamed the American West doing good deeds for strangers.
• Charlie says that the life of a hunter is fraught with "Sophie's Choices". "Sophie's Choice" was a 1982 film about a woman who survived a Nazi concentration camp, but in doing so had to choose which of her two children to send to the gas chamber.
• Charlie jokingly says that Sam is the "Dread Pirate Roberts" of hunting. This is a fictional character from the 1973 novel and 1987 film "The Princess Bride".

• "The Boys are Back in Town -- by Thin Lizzie (plays as Dean and Sam are driving to meet Charlie)
• "Behind Blue Eyes" -- by The Who (plays during the montage when Dean, Sam, Castiel and Charlie are eating pizza)

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EPISODE 1019: The Werther Project