The Scorpion and the Frog

• How did Bart get Dean's phone number? Asmodeus stole Castiel's cell phone, so possibly he gave it to him?
• How long will it take the Winchesters to find Jack? Will Asmodeus or the angels find him first?
• When will the Winchesters realize that Castiel is missing? Asmodeus has them tricked for now.
• The Winchesters still have half of the spell. Will they find a way to use it (like they used half of the demon tablet)?
• Will killing Bart release Alice from her deal?

• Asmodeus is still pretending to be Castiel and talking to the Winchesters via Cas' cell phone to feed them false information.
• The demon summoning ritual Dean used in this episode didn't require him to cut his hand/arm or use his blood. Most of them do.
• Bart has presumably been the king of the crossroads demons since Crowley left that post at the end of season 5 to become king of hell.
• Dean might be afraid of spiders.
• Luther made his demon deal approximately 200 years ago. Since Alice seems stuck in the 1990s, she may have made her deal back then.
• At the beginning of the episode, Sam finally seems willing to admit that Jack is dangerous. And by the end of the episode, Dean seems to have regained his faith and once again believes in their mission.

• The nephilim tracking spell was stolen from the fictional Cambridge Museum in Cambridge, England.
• The Winchesters met Barthamus at the Smile Diner
• A parchment (or more likely a papyrus) from the time of King Solomon (circa 900 BC) would likely not be in such excellent condition and would likely be too fragile to be handled. Perhaps the museum found a copy of the spell that was produced much later.
• It may seem surprising that Dean's blood could be used for the safe-tracking spell, but not Sam's, since they both went to hell and returned. According to Assistant Director, Kevin Parks, and Meredith Glynn, who wrote the episode, Dean's blood was different because Dean (like Luther) actually made a demon deal that sent him to hell, whereas Sam jumped into the cage without making a deal first.
• Alice was drinking an energy beverage called "Nerve Damage" that has more caffeine than is legally allowed. Research has shown that caffeine toxicity can cause nerve damage, although this seems to be a relatively rare occurrence. Caffeine dosages above 78 mg/beverage are considered unsafe for children, and dosages above 7 to 10 grams are considered unsafe for adults. There are energy drinks that have caffeine levels near the safe limit for children.
• Matthew Kevin Anderson, who played Grab in this episode also played a police officer in "Southern Comfort" (Season 8).
• At the end of this episode, Alice boarded a "Great Plains Bus Lines" bus out of town. This fictional bus company has been featured previously in Supernatural, including in "About a Boy" (Season 10):

• The episode's title comes from a fable in which a scorpion asks a frog to help him get across a pond. The frog initially refuses, presuming the scorpion will sting him. The scorpion promises that he won't, so the frog relents. When the two are half way across the pond, the scorpion stings the frog. As they're both sinking to their deaths, the frog demands to know why the scorpion lied. The scorpion says "What did you expect? I'm a scorpion." The lesson from the fable is that one's nature can not be denied. This may presume that demons (like Bart) can't be trusted.
• When the demon is breaking into the secured room at the museum, she passes signs for a Monique Mees photographic exhibit. Monique Mees is a photographer and artist based in Vancouver, BC, Canada
• Dean openly doubts that Barthamus is telling the truth about the nephilim tracking spell, saying he's just as likely to have won "the Powerball'. The Powerball is a multi-state lottery in which winners can win millions of dollars
• According to the Urban Dictionary, a twinsie is a selfie taken of two people in which the subjects imitate each others' facial expressions or gestures as if they are attempting to be mirror images or twins of each other
• "Raison d'etre" is a French idiom that means one's reason for being
• Barthamus suggests that it's "Kismet" that the Winchesters are working with his demons. Kismet means "fate"
• Sam's alias, John Dortmunder, is a fictional character and master criminal from a series of books written by Donald E. Westlake, including The Hot Rock (1970) and Get Real (2009).
• Dean teases Alice about her boots, calling her "Winona" and saying that her boots belong in the 1990s. He may have been referring to actress Winona Ryder, who was popular during the 1990s.
• In mythology, a basilisk is a giant snake that supposedly can kill a person simply by looking at him. Similarly, the gorgons were three sisters who had snakes for hair and could turn a person to stone if the person gazed upon them. Medusa is possibly the best known of the gorgons.
• Alice got her dangerous energy drink on Ebay, an online seller-to-buyer company that permits shoppers to bid on items directly from a seller. Hard-to-find items can often be located on Ebay.
• A "dowsing rod", also called a "divining rod" is normally a Y-shaped branch that supposedly can lead the person holding it toward water or something else of value or importance.
• Dean jokes about the floor-puzzle being "dollar-store Indiana Jones crap". Dollar stores tend to sell sundry items at greatly discounted prices. This episode did feature some elements from the popular 1980s-era Indiana Jones action films, about an archaeologist who often solves puzzles and riddles, or defuses booby traps to get to a valued object. Dean having to stick his hand into the wall/lock likely alludes to a similar scene in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (1984) in which one of Jones' partners must stick her hand into a stone lock that is swarming with insects and spiders. A booby-trapped floor puzzle was also featured in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981).
• Dean jokes about getting home in time to watch Game of Thrones, referring to the popular fantasy novels by George R.R. Martin and the HBO TV series "Game of Thrones" (which premiered in 2011) based on the book series.
• Dean jokes that although Luther is immortal, he has a "glass jaw"; this is a boxing term to describe someone who is easily knocked out.
• Dean comments that the booby-trapped floor is not like the laser beams in "Entrapment", referring to the 1999 action/drama film in which Catherine Zeta Jones plays a master thief who must negotiate a maze of laser beams to get to a valuable object in a museum.

• None

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EPISODE # 9: The Bad Place