Lotus” — (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET) (TV-14, DLV) (HDTV)

THE CHASE CONTINUES – Lucifer’s search for power and influence in a vessel lands him in the White House. The President of The United States (guest star David Chisum) unknowingly makes a deal with the devil, leading Sam (Jared Padalecki), Dean (Jensen Ackles), Castiel (Misha Collins), Crowley (Mark A. Sheppard) and Rowena (guest star Ruth Connell) to band together to fight the Dark Lord. Directed by Phil Sgriccia the episode was written by Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner (1208). Original airdate 12/8/2016.

A big lover of sci-fi, Lobo has now joined the "Supernatural" fandom with his roles starting in next week’s episode revolving around the White House and Lucifer. The popular actor had plenty to say about his experience on the set of the hit CW series. Out of Toronto, actor Stephen Lobo is known for his roles on hit shows such as "Artic Air," "Continuum," and "Motive," and can be seen in the new series "Beyond."　

Colleen Bement: What can you say about your experience on the set?

Stephen Lobo: My experience has been great. The whole production is this well-oiled machine. The writing, the actors, the crew, all have the energy and vitality of a show in it’s prime. It's a family, and watching Jensen and Jared do their thing was really exciting. They bring the magic. These are two seriously smart, talented, completely professional guys who are having a blast doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing. They have a tremendous amount of respect for everyone else’s job and are totally on top of their own.　

The atmosphere of any set is largely defined by the stars. I’ve been on a few procedurals where the lead actors, although really lovely people, have the air of someone trapped in some sort of self-inflicted "Groundhog Day" scenario. Coming on to guest on a show in its 12th season, who knows what state these guys might be in, but there wasn’t a whiff of that with these two gents.

Jensen and Jared off camera fun
CB: My Twitter followers want to know if there were any shenanigans on the set.

SL: It can be stated that Jensen and Jared are on a constant search of finding new ways to crack each other up. It was very endearing to watch. Basically if they were on set it would go like this: Shenanigans. Shenanigans. Shenanigans. Roll camera. Flawless bit of acting badass-ery from Jensen and Jared. Blooper reel material. Cut. Resume shenanigans.　

The crew was also very capable in this department. We were on an exterior night shoot in the woods; it was like 3AM and everyone's exhausted. They had two cameras on me. One camera was bent over shooting up at me. The second assumed his position standing directly behind him. It made for very suggestive imagery. I had no dialogue so they weren’t recording sound. The director calls action and these two start grunting like barnyard animals in heat. I was crying with laughter. Later I said to one of the AD’s, did you see what they did to me? She said, oh yeah they do that all the time.

The character I play on "Supernatural" was incredibly fun to develop. I won't give specifics, but after you see it you will understand why. Very challenging and offered infinite possibilities. One of the most enjoyable experiences in my 22 year career. I am excited to see the final product and that is saying something because it is normally very painful to watch myself. I think I am going to like this one. I was constantly laughing to myself while filming. Extremely fun to shoot!

“He wants adulation. He wants to be loved,” showrunner Robert Singer tells EW. “That was escalating, and we figured the biggest thing was to do the president.” However, Lucifer doesn’t make the jump straight from rock star to POTUS. In between, we’ll see him inhabit both a captain of industry and an archbishop as he makes his way up the food chain.

As showrunner Andrew Dabb puts it: “We’ve always really focused on humanizing Lucifer as a character, and really explaining where he’s coming from and how he has a point of view that is not 100 percent wrong. It’s not that he’s a good guy necessarily, but I think he’s a very understandable character. There’s part of Lucifer that is extremely prideful — that’s the classic Biblical ‘pride of the devil’ thing — but there’s also a part of him that’s incredibly insecure because here’s this guy that was rejected by his father. Going into the president is a way for him to have power, create destruction, but also get away from being himself.”

It’s an idea that wasn’t an immediate hit in the writers’ room but one that Singer says he and Dabb were convinced they could make work in an episode that he thinks turned out to be “really cool.” But all of this isn’t to say that Sam and Dean are heading to Washington, D.C. As much as Dabb and Singer loved the POTUS idea, they drew the line at breaking into the White House. “When Sam and Dean encounter the president, he’s in Indianapolis, he’s in the middle of a fundraising swing,” Dabb says. “It still allows us to explore the president, his aides, his security detail — all that acts as nice things for Lucifer to play off of and really strong obstacles for Sam and Dean.”

Those obstacles will be faced by the Winchesters, along with Castiel, Crowley, and even Rowena as the episode puts everyone on the same team to try to take down Lucifer. “It’s the big showdown with Lucifer, part 1,” Singer says, noting that the archangel will return later in the season. Dabb adds, “There’s a new chapter being opened in the Lucifer story line.” And part of that has to do with the return of the British Men of Letters.

Starting in the mid-season finale, Dabb says, “The British Men of Letters are going to come back a lot stronger, and then we’ll bring them more to the foreground as the season goes on. But it starts in this episode when we introduce a character — we’ve heard his name a few times and we’ve seen him a little bit but we get our first big introduction to him in episode 8 and use this as a launch pad into the next two-thirds of our season.” (Perhaps we’re talking about Mr. Ketch?)

And of course, as with any mid-season finale, there’s a cliffhanger that will carry fans into 2017 and specifically into episode 250 (the first episode back in the new year). “[Episode] 250 is a continuation of a two-parter so we’re completing that arc with the mid-season cliffhanger and then figuring it out,” Singer says.