【The Erotic Witch Project 4: Lust in Space】

Even Sam (Jared Padalecki) and The Erotic Witch Project 4: Lust in SpaceDean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) have to face the legal consequences of their actions from time to time on Supernatural. With the number of laws they break on a daily basis while demon-hunting, the odds are never in their favor: they're bound to get caught once or twice.

Their latest endeavor was mistaken as an attempted assassination of the President of the United States, so it's no surprise that the Secret Service assumed they were deranged criminals.

Of course, what the Secret Service didn’t realize was that the POTUS was being possessed by Lucifer, so despite trying to save the world once again, Sam and Dean were labeled as enemies of the state and thrown into a figurative hole so deep that all hope seemed lost.

When Supernaturalreturns for the second half of Season 12 on Jan. 26, the Winchesters will find out that even though they've been stuck at a government black site feeling the prison blues for six weeks, the world has carried on without them.

Castiel (Misha Collins), their recently-resurrected mother Mary (Samantha Smith) and even Crowley (Mark Sheppard) have taken on new missions and built new relationships. And underneath everything is the lingering threat of Lucifer's unborn child -- conceived while he was possessing the POTUS -- growing more and more powerful somewhere out in the world.

Mashablespoke with Supernaturalexecutive producer Andrew Dabb about Sam and Dean's fight for freedom, Lucifer's progeny and more, including whether or not the longest-running CW series was trying to make any kind of statement with the devil becoming president so soon after one of the most controversial real-life elections this country has ever seen.

Now that Sam and Dean have been arrested by the Secret Service, how long are we going to see them behind bars? Is this something that is going to be a longer story arc or is just the crux of the first episode back from hiatus?

It's the crux of the return episode, but as we learn during the course of that episode, they've been behind bars for quite some time. There's about a six-week time jump before we come back, so we're not going to keep them in prison for multiple episodes.

But they've been away from the world for a while so that's had a big impact on our guys. They're being treated essentially as terrorists, so it's not just regular prison. They've been isolated, they haven't spoken to anyone, they haven't even spoken to each other. They've been living with their own thoughts, and Sam and Dean... what goes on in their heads is not super sunny, as we know. Our guys have a lot of baggage and trauma to work through.

What kind of impact does that have on their friends, family and allies, having them essentially disappear from their lives for so long?

Sam and Dean started off as two guys in a cool car killing vampires, but they've evolved into the lynchpin upon which the fate of the cosmos relies, in a lot of ways. Them being off the board creates a power vacuum that people like the British Men of Letters are quick to fill, but it also has ripple effects for Crowley, Castiel, Mary. The world is changing around them but Sam and Dean are stationary. When they do get back into the world, however that happens, they're walking into a world that changed, and our guys will have to adjust to that.

Cas and Crowley spent much of the first half of this season working together to hunt Lucifer, so now that he's gone what is their mission? Is this odd couple still going to be teaming up?

Now that Lucifer's gone, Crowley is very focused on reestablishing Hell and reestablishing his hold on it. Castiel, the disappearance of Sam and Dean spins him out in a lot of ways. Cas has really gotten to taking his cues from Sam and Dean and with them gone, there is a void for Cas. He's asking himself, "What do I do now?" And, "If Sam and Dean were here, what would they do?" This is a Cas who, for a chunk of episodes, is actually functioning like a regular hunter. He's still an angel with powers but now he's out there working regular cases, doing regular case-of-the-week things we've never seen him do before because Sam and Dean are not available. So Cas and Crowley, putting the two of them together on screen is fun and we love to do it, but for the time being they're being pulled in opposite directions.

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Now that Mary has committed to returning to life with the boys, once Sam and Dean get out of prison what is that relationship going to look like?

I love getting to explore the dynamic between Sam, Dean and Mary more. Sam and Dean had this idea that if their mom was around, their lives would be much more nurtured. She'd be a nurturing mother, making them pie and things like that. The Mary we're seeing now is not that character. She grew up a hunter. She grew up the same way that Sam and Dean did. She has her own baggage, drive and agenda. That's allowed us to make her a character who is more dynamic and active.

How Sam and Dean react to that is both positive and negative, because in the back half of our season, they love that mom is out there side-by-side with them hunting, but they're also desperately worried that something is going to go wrong. And that goes for Mary too. And then Cas becomes almost like a friend for Mary, because Sam and Dean are her sons and she needs someone she can confide in things that she can't tell her sons. Cas is the closest thing to a friend that Mary has had at this point. So we're evolving those mother-son relationships and that friendship even more moving forward.

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It took everything they have, including their freedom, but Sam and Dean finally sent Lucifer back to Hell in the winter finale. Is this the end of his arc on the show?

Even when Lucifer has been off the table, even back in Season 4 when he was locked in the cage, he was still orchestrating things. As we learned last season, even when he's in the cage he's not a benign figure. Even if Lucifer is off the table, he's not inactive. Certainly with his son, his child out there, he is not going to take that laying down. As we'll learn shortly in episode 12, there may be some people very loyal to Lucifer who are making a lot of trouble for Kelly [Courtney Ford] and our boys. The point being is his story is not over.

Speaking of that unholy offspring, I'm getting some serious Rosemary's Babyvibes. Lucifer having a child is going to be a huge problem for the world, right?

We're living in a world where, if you look at what certain people on the show consider to be propaganda about the devil's child, he's a bad thing and it's a dangerous thing. But from Kelly's point of view and motivating her choices, yes this is the child of the devil which on the surface seems pretty bad, but it's also her child. Even Lucifer -- before the Mark of Cain, before the fall -- was a good person. He was the chosen of God. This child is powerful, absolutely.

Powerful how?

We've mentioned nephilim on our show before. We've met one or two. But we've never really dived headfirst into their mythology. A big part of the second half of our season is about that. We will establish how powerful nephilim are, and how a nephilim born to an archangel is even more powerful. The question is, is this child destined to be a force for evil or is it something to be turned for good? It's like nuclear power – it can blow up a city or it can power a city. What is this child going to do? From Kelly's point of view, the nature vs. nurture debate, she believes that she can steer this child down the correct path. But there are certainly people in our world who we know and love who have other ideas.

Something Supernaturalalways does well is put a unique spin on old folklore/mythology, like how angels, typically shown as symbols of pure goodness, are actually corporate jerks on the show. What kind of liberties are you going to be taking with the mythology of nephilim?

Usually what happens with the spins we put on our mythology is that mythology in a general sense is already general, so it's hard to put a specific spin on it. When we were talking about angels or demons before they showed up, it was pretty standard biblical stuff. And then when those characters started showing up, it was more about character than it was about mythology.

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At this point, nephilim are still very theoretical. It's not until we meet one or two or Kelly has her child, that's when we'll get into more specifics. But that will happen. It's still evolving for us. It's not something where we'll be throwing curve balls right off the bat. At the beginning at least, we're shooting for the established version being that these are creatures of great power, more powerful than angels, so God [Rob Benedict] himself had to reach down to stop them. God is not really on the board for us at the moment as we know from last season, so if Kelly's child is born, can anything stop it? That's something our boys, Castiel, the British Men of Letters and everyone else, even Crowley, are going to be grappling with.

The timeliness of the episode in which Lucifer becomes POTUS was almost too pointed, given what's happening in the world right now. Were you trying to make any intentional statements with that episode?

I would like to say we could predict the future over here at Supernatural, but unfortunately we can't. That episode was written and filmed long before the presidential election happened. It's not really a commentary on anyone specific although I can certainly get how people could see parallels. It was more a comment on if the devil became president, you know what I mean? [Laughs.] Hell, we've made this in a world where that actually has happened, but we did not see that coming. Let's put it that way.

The British Men of Letters started off this season as antagonists for Sam and Dean, but now they all seem to be on the same side. How is this alliance going to play out moving forward?

It's always been our hope or plan or intent that when we talk about the British Men of Letters, we're talking about an organization of individuals. Every individual has their own thoughts and reactions about Sam and Dean and America and our world. We started off with someone who had a very negative view on Sam and Dean and acted on that. Now we'll get to see someone who is a peacemaker, an academic, who looks at Sam and Dean and respects and admires what they do. There will be more compromise. For Sam and Dean, they respond to that. Suddenly there is someone they can work with and who can maybe even help them win. In the back half of our season we're going to bring some people back and make some big moves that will prove that the British Men of Letters way gets results.

Have Sam and Dean's earlier issues with the British Men of Letters been put aside permanently?

Well, the British Men of Letters are much more strict with their views than Sam and Dean, like if you're a monster or have powers or have the potential to be a danger to humanity, you're dead. Sam and Dean obviously have a more nuanced view on that. Everyone wants the world to be safer and rid of monsters but the question is, do the ends justify the means? Sam and Dean will be struggling with that as they get to know and respect the British Men of Letters more and realizing how dark this organization can get. How much darkness can they bear?

Supernaturalairs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.

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