Nine seasons in, and they're still adding to the mythology. First it was Cain and the first blade, now it's the Pishtacos. It's the mark of a good when the writers continue to expand the universe, never believing that it's good enough. Some shows get dormant after a while and stop expanding, those shows generally die off. Supernatural is still going strong.
The brothers themselves finally addressed their codependency issue. Sam blamed it all on Dean, saying that Dean was afraid to live alone, while Sam would gladly let him die. I have a hard time believing that after the events of seasons 3 and 4, but there's been a lot of character development since then. I still think that Sam would at least try to save Dean if he was dying/dead. He might not go as far as to sell his own soul, but he wouldn't give up without a fight.
We've now had two episodes in a row using the "good monster with bad family" plot line. Sam and Dean initially suspect the good monster, before eventually realizing that it's their family member. I don't think the writers are going to be using the plotline again for the next episode. That one looks like a ghost story set in the bunker, at least judging by the trailer. Although, I suppose that doesn't mean there are two ghosts, one good and one bad. Also, Crowley and Cas both feature, so who knows. Either way, I hope they don't overuse this concept anymore this season.
The motel the brothers were staying at looked suspiciously like the one from Dog Dean Afternoon. I'm not sure if the interior was the same (although it was definitely familiar), but I'm confident the exterior shot was the same. I'm guessing the production team has only so many sets that they can use for the interior of motel rooms. However, there are thousands of motels scatter across the United States and Canada. There are probably a couple hundred just within a 200 mile radius of Vancouver. So far, we're 185 episodes in and not all of those have featured motels. I doubt they've used up all the motels within driving range and they definitely haven't used up all the ones within road trip range. The only acceptable explanation would be if both episodes took place in the same town, but they don't.
