When Dean is talking to Luther, he makes reference to being home in time to watch an episode of Game of Thrones. Richard Brake "Luther" played the Night King in Game of Thrones.
The building used for the front of the Cambridge Museum is The Permanent, an event space in Vancouver. The interior set was previously used as an abandoned bank inhabited by a vampire nest in Live Free or Twi-hard (2010) and a bank in Hunteri Heroici (2012).
The episode title is a reference to an animal fable where a scorpion asks a frog to carry it across a river. The frog hesitates, afraid of being stung, but the scorpion argues that if it did so, they would both drown. Considering this, the frog agrees, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When the frog asks the scorpion why, the scorpion replies that it was in its nature to do so.
In the Cambridge Museum, a poster can be seen advertising an exhibition called "Reflections of the Pacific" by Monique Mees. She is a visual artist, and one of the painters on the show.
One of the paintings the demon can be seen passing by in the museum is "St. Jerome and the Angel of the Judgment".