The Rising Son

• Who is right about Jack -- Dean or Sam? Or are they both right, but for different reasons?
• Asmodeus professes loyalty to Lucifer, but tried to raise the shedim right away, despite having been punished for trying to do that in the past. Why does he want them freed? Does he have different motivations than what he's telling the demons?
• What will happen if the shedim are eventually freed?
• Why is Dean still so unwilling to believe that Mary is alive? Dean, of all people, should know better than to give up on someone until you know for sure (Sam abandoned Dean after Dean was sucked into purgatory), right?
• When Asmodeus was talking to Dean (pretending to be the bartender) he said that he hated his father, so he ran away. Was he telling the truth about himself?
• If Lucifer gets out of the alternate universe, he plans to find the Winchesters and trade Mary for Jack. Will the Boys let Mary die to keep Jack safe and away from Lucifer? Will Mary let her sons make that choice? If Jack does end up with Lucifer, will the Winchesters have influenced him enough to help him make the right choices and not turn evil?
• Why isn't Jack telling the Winchesters what he remembers about Lucifer's telepathic messages?
• Why would Sam not ward the hotel room using chalk instead of spray paint? We've seen them use chalk before.
• Why can Jack pick up a bible and read it without it bursting into flames, but when Kelly was pregnant with him, she couldn't even touch one?
• Sam spent over a year in the cage with Lucifer, so he likely knows him better than most people. But he still told Jack that Lucifer is "not an easy guy to get to know" suggesting that he doesn't know much about him. Why would he say that?
• What does Michael need Lucifer for? And what do his plans mean for Mary?

• Asmodeus says that he's planning to rule hell in Lucifer's place until Lucifer and his son return.
• Lucifer wants to keep Mary alive so he can trade her for Jack when they get out of the alternate universe.
• Asmodeus was severely punished by Lucifer in the past for trying to free the shedim. But he still tried to do it again.
• We know very little about the shedim, other than their description as creatures that are so terrible that Chuck and Lucifer both wanted them locked away.
• Jack apparently can teleport.
• Jack remembers Lucifer reaching out to him telepathically when Kelly was still pregnant with him, but he isn't telling the Winchesters that he remembers that, or what Lucifer said to him during those times.
• Much as the angels felt an energy pulse when Jack resurrected Kelly, Donatello felt an energy pulse when Jack was born. He can also feel Jack's current power and he can use that to locate the nephilim.
• Sam thinks that whatever Jack's powers are, they can be used for good. Dean and Donatello disagree.
• According to the lore Sam found, a nephilim is more powerful than the angel that sires him.
• There is a hell gate in Jasper, Wyoming. That hell gate leads to the location where the shedim are locked away.
• Unlike in our world, where the battle of Armageddon was fought in Lawrence, Kansas, the Lucifer/Michael battle in the alternate universe was fought in Abilene, Texas.

• The previous episode (Lost and Found), and the season 12 finale (All Along the Watchtower) both take place largely in North Cove, Washington, where Jack the nephilim was born. As the current episode opens, Dean, Sam and Jack are driving back to the bunker in Lebanon, Kansas, which is a 26 hour drive (approximately 1,795 miles).
• Amara ate Donatello's soul in season 11 (We Happy Few). Donatello had only been a prophet for a few days before that encounter. Before that, he was an atheist and a university chemistry professor living in Lewis, Oklahoma.
• Asmodeus is the 4th and only surviving prince of hell. The others were Azazel, Dagon, and Ramiel.
• Jack wanted to watch the cartoon Scooby Doo. Supernatural is planning to film an animated Scooby Doo episode later in season 13.
• For everyone who was wondering whether Sam Winchester still has his anti-possession tattoo, we saw it in this episode. The last time we saw Sam's tattoo was when Castiel burned it off in season 9 (Road Trip) so Crowley could possess Sam to help him expel Gadreel.
• The Winchesters, Jack and Donatello stayed at the Black Hat Hotel. The bar downstairs was called the "Black Spur" Bar. In season 10 "Black", Demon-Dean and Crowley also spent some time at a bar called The Black Spur.
• The actor who played the demon in this episode (the one who attacked Dean) also played one of Meg's demons in season 6 "Caged Heat". The actor was not credited in either episode.

• Drexel said that Lucifer will "Make hell great again." This refers to a campaign slogan embraced by candidate Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
• Asmodeus tells the demons "There's a new sheriff in town"; a phrase that originated in the old West, when the previous sheriff was killed or otherwise ineffective. In many cases, the "new" sheriff tended to be harsher and less amenable than his predecessor.
• Donatello says he asks himself "What would Mr. Rogers do?" when making decisions. This refers to actor Fred Rogers, who starred in the long-running children's television show "Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood" (1968 - 2001). The show was considered loosely educational, and often dealt with teaching lessons about being kind and neighborly.
• Donatello says that he was prepared to retire and was looking for "a condo in Boca", referring to Boca Raton, Florida, a popular retirement destination.
• "Simba" the lion was the main character in the 1994 Disney animated film "The Lion King".
• “Shedim” appears to be a Hebrew word for a type of “storm demons” that destroy everything in their path. In the lore, they look like oxen, but are very bad news.
• Lucifer refers to the alternate universe as the "Land of Bizarro". He may have been referring to "Bizarro World", an alternate reality universe featured in a series by DC Comics.
• "Spaghetti Western" films emerged during the 1960s from Italy, and are considered a subset or sub-genre of Western films.
• Dean says he hopes Asmodeus, the last of the princes of hell, is "the last Kardashian", referring to the Kardashian family popularized by reality television shows and tabloid media.

• "Blades" - by The Zellots (plays in the tattoo parlor)
• "Graveyard shift" - by Lynda Kay (plays in the bar when Dean is talking to the bartender)

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EPISODE # 3: Patience