Recap – “Hammer of The Gods”
A nice looking British guy is putting a necklace on the Indian woman from earlier. He calls her beautiful and kisses her neck. She calls him sweet and then says she hates sweet. Um, plot please? Red jacket enters and says the last guest has arrived. Everything is ready. The pantry is full. And the Winchesters? “Suspicious but under control.” Indian woman asks if he has their blood. He whips over to her Clark Kent like and gives her two vials. He boasts the boys never knew what hit them. Ugh! Can this scene please end? She thanks red jacket, calling him Mercury. I guess we have a name for him now. The Brit is ready to “get this show on the road.” Yikes, this reminds me of some really bad Super Friends cartoons.
Sam and Dean walk through the lobby and Sam is finding the elephant thing hard to believe. Why Sam? You’ve seen it all. Dean confirms, “Like full on Babar.” Cool, I like continuity in references. Then they notice there isn’t a soul around. Not good. They go to the front door. It’s locked. “So what, the roaches check in they don’t check out?” You know what, the dialogue has been really piss poor so far. What an overused line! It all clicks for Sam who is thinking about how they got there. A detour on 1-90? A freaking hurricane? Actually that did happen the year before last to us in Ohio. They do work their way up here sometimes. Just not in April. So Dean gets Sam’s point, they were led there. “Like rats in a maze.”
Sam and Dean investigate the kitchen and find a pot of soup boiling on the stove. “Please be tomato soup,” Dean says twice. He puts in the ladle, and finds two eyeballs. Nope. Both brothers wince in disgust. “Motel Hell,” Dean says. Sam spots the freezer and goes to check it out. Suddenly the man from the restaurant before appears in the window and screams to help them. The door is locked so Sam pulls out his lock pick. Dean tells Sam to hurry up but before he can let him know he’s working as fast as he can two mean looking guys are standing behind Dean. He knows that look on Sam’s face. “There’s somebody behind me, isn’t there?”
Next thing Sam and Dean are being escorted in not so courteous fashion into the grand ballroom. There’s a room full of people in there with nametags. First there’s Ganesh and we see his religious symbol of an elephant, then there’s Odin who’s some sort of Norse God, Kali in her form is known as the Destroyer (her picture holding a headless man seems to reinforce that), and Baron Samedi who I remember from Voodoo folklore because of a MacGvyer episode. Yes, I know that’s really wrong.
“Something tells me this isn’t a Shriner’s convention,” Dean says. That’s a great line! About time. Then Mercury walks in serving with delight the main dish. The head and entrails of the poor cop in the intro. Sam and Dean don’t look very hungry. Everyone applauds and there’s a spotlight on Sam and Dean. The Brit announces, “Ladies and Gentleman, our guests of honor have arrived.” Oh yeah, I’m sure they’re feeling the love.
Everyone is sitting at the tables in a u-shaped setup, and the Brit is speaking. Considering I have no idea who this guy is since we didn’t see his nametag, I go to supernaturalwiki. He’s Baldur, which is another Norse God. Okay, the Norse are represented. In all his centuries, he’s never seen anything like this, this many Gods under one roof. I’m sure that’s true for Sam and Dean’s twenty plus years too. Sam whispers “Gods” to Dean and yeah Sam, I don’t get it either. Baldur lays out the ground rules. No slaughtering each other and keep their hands off the local virgins. In that part of Indiana? I so doubt they’d find any. Sam whispers to Dean in a panic “we are so, so screwed.” Yeah, how so Sam? How more screwed than starting the apocalypse and being Satan’s chosen vessel?
The issue is the Judeo-Christian apocalypse looms and they should set aside their differences from the past. You see, I’m still trying to get this. Sam is looking REALLY nervous while Dean is intently listening. What’s the worse they could do to you Sam? They’re just a bunch of mythological Gods. The gist is if they don’t look toward the future, they won’t have one. Lucky for them, they have two bargaining chips. You see Sam, you and Dean are just pawns in their game! Nothing to worry about.
Baldur is taking suggestions on what to do now. This is where the whole concept gets a bit ludicrous. Okay, forget a bit. Some angry Chinese dude, who supernaturalwiki.com tells me is Zao Shen, says they should kill them, but Ganesh so wisely points out that they’ll only be brought back by the angels. Odin doesn’t see the issue, it’s just a couple of angels having a slap fight. He goes on about some legend about when Armageddon comes two serpents will rise and he’ll be eaten by a big wolf. I’m putting your religion Odin at the back of the bus with the ones created by sci-fi writers.
Zao Shen says in subtitles “here we go,” and Odin questions that his believes are more realistic. The whole world is getting carried on the back of a giant turtle. Sam and Dean are now seeing just how ludicrous all of this is. “Don’t mock my world turtle,” the angry Zao warns. Can’t we just mock everyone and call it a day? There’s a line in the Simpsons I think is perfect for all this.
Rev. Lovejoy: No Homer, God didn’t burn your house down, but he was working in the hearts of your friends be they Christian, Jew, or… miscellaneous.
Apu: Hindu. There are seven hundred million of us.
Rev. Lovejoy: Aww, that’s super.
That’s what I’m saying about all this about all the miscellaneous. “Aww, that’s super.” More words exchanged between Odin and the bald headed oriental dude so Sam and Dean turn tail and try to leave. A chandelier comes crashing down, thwarting that. It comes from Kali, the Destroyer. “Stay” she orders. Oh yeah, they’re sitting down.
Kali gets all tough. She wants to fight. The archangels only understand violence and this will end in blood. Now she’s talking sense! “It’s them or us.” Um, okay, you went too far there. It’s you babe. Mercury, still in bow tie and red jacket, points out they haven’t even tried talking to them. Kali gets mad and chokes Mercury with her mind, but Baldur tells her to stop. How did this tool end up running the show? He isn’t the Norse God of arbitration and mediation. He’s not much of a God at all if you ask me.
The tension is broken up when the doors fly open. It’s The Trickster/Gabriel! He’s using the overused Rodney King line “Can’t we all just get along,” but given his flippant delivery, it’s great. Sam tries to call him “Gabriel” but he silences Sam and Dean fast. I guess he’s got a cover to maintain. “Sam, Dean, it’s always wrong place worst time with you muttonheads, huh?” Ain’t that the truth! Then Baldur calls him Loki. Cool! I haven’t heard him called that name since season two.
He greets Baldur with animosity, mentioning his invitation must have gotten lost in the mail. Why is he there? To talk about the elephant in the room. Ganesh gets up and Gabriel tells him “not you.” No, the apocalypse elephant. He tells them they can’t stop it. Oh, but first things first. He turns to Sam and Dean. “The adults need to have a little conversation. Check you later.” He zaps them away.
Hey Alice,
OK, you have some very good points. I too thought Dean’s talk to Gabriel about killing his brother was WAY out of character.
However, the whole Gabriel buys the farm and then tells the boys about the ring thing….well.
Have you ever been under pressure and rationalized an idea to yourself that, given more time and clearer thinking you would not have done?
Or, look at it this way. Lucifer has always been stronger than Gabe. He knows it. (back before Lucifer ended up in his box, you can just picture it….Gabe being all, I’m a bad ass angel, and Lucifer grabbing him in a headlock and giving Gabe a nuggie going all “awe, you’re so cute little bro”…)
Then Luci ends up in a change, the tension at home is MASSIVE and Gabe books it for witness protection. Now he’s down with the humans, he’s stronger than all of them and he gets to know them the way NONE of this brothers have.
I think Gabe really had no idea what he was up against. Sure, he talked like he did, but I think it was all a front. He hasn’t had dealing with his brother in millenia. He would have an idea of what to expect, but he probably wasn’t really in the know any more than the Winchesters. I think it that he may have convinced himself that it was more likely he could take Lucifer out then the boys succeeding in getting the rest of the rings and getting Lucifer back in his cage.
I also agree with what Pete has said. Gabriel needed to get off the fence and stand up for himself.
And he did. In fine fashion. He will be missed.
Yes, Alice, even when you don’t particularly like an episode you do a great recap. Thanks.
Now the euphoria’s worn off some this one does look a bit shonky … Some good moments, especially at the end, but the Gods were all rather bargain basement. For the record Baldur was a D-list cutie whose sole claim to fame was that he was killed by his brother – Maybe that’s why they chose him and not Thor or someone more interesting. Odin did go in for hanged sacrifices, animal and human, but the whole canibalism thing was just a lot of cheap yuk-moments to fill out the story.
It might just be wishful thinking but I don’t think the Trickster’s going to stay dead. ( I mean, who does? ) The only God to go unsmushed was his not-entirely-ex-sweetie-pie who scampered off to parts unknown with a vial of his blood and mythology is loaded with characters who die and then get regenerated from their own toenails or whatever ( Osiris and, er … lots of others I’ll remember in a minute … ) So who knows? I really, really hope he does pop up again further down the line. He was great, and if they keep chopping throught the regulars at this rate there’ll be no-one left to to f*ck up the guys in S6!
Why did Gabriel have to die? I think the answer seems simple (I still hope it’s not, I always loved the multilayered complexity of the show) – the myth arc has to come to a close, angels have to go, respectively have to be killed off. That’s how it appears to be (again: hoping to be proved wrong, though, there’s one particular angel I’d like to see again – and I would have loved to see more or Richard Spreight Jr., I loved his character, my fave pain in the ass).
Why didn’t Gabriel with his knack for survival and hedonism come to the brothers, tell them how to get Lucifer into his cage and help them do it? That would have also been standing up to his brother in the end, but with a realistic chance (well, maybe) to perhaps survive the confrontation. Except – Gabriel was suicidal and hoped to be killed by his brother. His speech about humankind shows a different state of mind, though. He would have been more useful to the brothers alive, this sacrifice was senseless. He could have left his double to confront Lucifer while leaving with the Winchesters.
Initially I wasn’t crazy about this episode, but I kinda liked it. After reading your review on blogcritics I was having second thoughts, watched it again, and now I think I agree in many aspects with you.
Some things also bothered me, after re-watching it – the Gods, for instance. What kind of assembly was that? One of the Big Norse Kahunas, Odin and Baldur also? , but Ganesh (and if he was there, why was Kali also present, one Hindu God might have been enough)? The Roman Gods sent Mercury, probably to report to Jupiter (had it been the Greeks we would have seen Hermes here)… and what about the other religions?
I know, this might be a bit geeky here (or nerdy?) but why were some religions twice represented and other were not? A Voodoo guy, and Zao Shen but no other ones? Really cool would have been to bring Osiris into the mix (the guy certainly would not like to give his underworld thing to Lucifer, eh?) or some other goddess… there are so many religions out there. We never really heard of those, but now they’re brought up, shortly before the apocalypse?
The writers try to save this with Kali’s Western-arrogance speech, and I agree with you, Alice, poorly done. This was no goddess, more a whiny teen (I’m thinking ‘evil’ Galadriel when it comes to the goddess I would have loved to see here). None of the ‘gods’ actually convinced me to be a powerful, immortal being. This was a wanting Clash of the Titans impression.
And I agree with you Alice, several ‘Bazinga’ moments here – due to the writers who are not so familiar with the characters? What was this episode intended for? A filler before the real end begins? A means to get rid off another angel?
What did I like – well, I don’t mind watching the guys do their thing, as I just love the characters, even when an episode is not exactly the best one, but am disappointed when out of character moments happen. Same goes for Dean being his old self (just like that, as I said before, that was not authentic, to my mind) and Sam… well, that I bought more, as he might just be freaked out with Lucifer approaching, still in mind Dean’s open voiced mistrust concerning the matter. I still believe, Lucifer will ‘wear Sam to the prom’ (I would just love to see Jared play that again! I’m hungry for some great acting, always guilty of that), and I think deep down Sam believes that, too.
I loved Lucifer’s demonstration of power – we had not been informed before how powerful he exactly is. This is one scary dude. I loved the confrontation (minus the killing) of Lucifer and Gabriel and Gabriels I-believe-in-humanity speech. Hated him being killed off so senselessly, though.
Loved your recap, Alice. It’s always like watching an episode again. I concur with the other comments – even when you don’t like an episode, you give us a fine recap, and that’s what a good writer should be able to do. Kudos to you.
Best , Jas
One of the finest Simpsons lines ever!
To play devil’s advocate a few times, I get the whole save the world thing, but Sam and Dean versus a bunch of gods? Though I was disappointed that both Norsemen weren’t more hardass than they should have been.
To riff on Jas’ geekery, and this is only speculation, I assume that in the SPN cosmology, the power of a god or goddess rises and falls based on how much he/she/it is worshiped, prayed to, etc. Consider how weak they are compared to the minions of the largest cult on earth.
Plus, world serpents and turtles are far more interesting than monotheism, plus plus you’d be a bit bummed too if you had hypocritical Jesusheads running around fucking up your minions for centuries. This is why we’re lucky Ohio doesn’t have any. 😉
One thing I do agree with you is, where the hell is Raphael? Um, one of the archangels, might want to give him at least one more scene.
And nothing amps up the angst-o-meter like killing off a legitimate hero. I wouldn’t call his death senseless. Remember, he’s not shying away from the hubris either, been hoisting own petards for centuries. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he honestly thought he could knock Lucifer off. The Winchesters’ stubborn humanism rubbed off on him, and hell, he *was* shocked when Lucifer wasn’t fooled by his illusions.
Bugs? Seriously? I enjoyed this episode (though yeah, a few moments upon second reflection were a tad Bazinga-y perhaps) but at least you write the best recaps around or we’d have to go Simpsons again:
“Hey you, let’s fight!”
“Them’s fightin’ words!” 😀
Hi Alice,
Great recap! I too was crushed that Gabriel died – he wsa my favourite recurring character (followed by Chuck). Regarding the illogic of Gabe trying to kill Lucifer despite knowing about the rings – to me, it seemed that he was forced into that confrontation because Lucifer had Kali and the boys. Gabriel wanted to get them away, but had he gone with them, Lucifer would have been hot on their heels without anyone to distract/hold him off. I don’t think Gabriel expected to win – hence the dvd plan b – but he took a shot and if by some miracle he defeated Lucifer, all the better. I sincerely hope we seem Gabriel again – even if the storyline has to be brought to an end (which begs the question – what about Cas?!?!? He HAS to stay!!!) I’m sure the super clever minds behind this show could find a new way to use him.
Thanks for the recap!
T-minus 8 hours to episode 20!
Have to agree with the rest here Alice. Even when you don’t like an episode your review is still great and this one was really amusing.
I hated hated hated that they killed off my favourite antagonist the Trickster! Will really miss his irony and sarcasm something fierce. You perished being a real hero Gabe and will not be forgotten. (and hopefully be brought back sometime in the future. Perhaps Dad will take pity on his wayward son and being him back like he did Cas).
It was a relief to me to see Dean seem like his old self again. He even looked years younger. So good to see him smile again and get to eat his pie. Dean happy (or not entirely in despair) makes me happy. Sammy was a little bit of a wet blanket here, but then he’s not getting enough sleep and wore himself out last episode trying to fix his brother.
Rather than looking forward to the next episodes, I find myself only worrying about the safety of Bobby and Cas. The writers are hell bent on desiccating the cast of this show and I feel like mourning even though I presume our boys will triumph. And I have NO DESIRE to see either one of them being mere meat suits for Luci and Mike. I hope they stay human and that Team Free Will will be victorious in the end.
At the shallow end of the pool, didn’t they look gorgeous soaking wet at the start of the episode? Woohoo! 😉
BTW, just because everything seems to mean something on this show, I looked up the name of the motel on good old Wikipedia….
The Elysian Fields Motel
In Greek mythology, the Elysian Fields in Elysium were the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous.
Of course. 🙂
Just popping in quickly to say that I have to agree with you about this episode, Alice, though perhaps not as vehemently. I didn’t particularly care for it, mostly because the concept was really cool, but the execution not so much.
And I think what they were saying was “uberboned” not “overboned.”
Lastly, while I did think Dean’s asking Gabriel to kill his brother was a bit harsh, I’m not so sure how out of character it was for him since we’ve seen over and over again that he has an incredible double standard when it comes to his brother. At the very least he could have used a better argument.
I see that Dean’s “can’t or won’t” bothered many viwers, as it well should. I was one that found this comment very weird coming from Dean. But someone at another site commented that actually Dean was asking Gabriel the following question: ‘So you can’t kill YOUR brother, but you expect me or Sam to do it?’ This makes more sense when you come to think of it.
I’m thinking there’s no way they killed of Gabe for no reason. I feel like something like this went down:
Writer 1: (insert great idea here) But you know what that means.
Writer 2: We’re gonna have to kill off Gabe.
Writer 1: …
Writer 2: …
Writer 1: Well, fuck. No one’s gonna like that.
I agree that Dean was more commenting on the fact that everyone expects him and Sam to kill each other if it comes down to it, but everyone else is reluctant? Eh.
And oh goodness, I love Lucifer to pieces. Of course he’s evil and stuff, but I find him the most interesting thing either. When he showed up on earth he was so gung-ho, he was like “I’m gonna get this done, yeah!” and now he’s like “nothing’s going my way…UGGH” and killing people left and right and north.
I think this was a filler episode to the max. They had the issue of the other religions nagging at them and they needed to show how powerful Lucifer is and kill off Gabe before whatever’s gonna go down is gonna go down in the next three episodes and they were like “let’s just get it over with.” It’s like a whole episode of exposition…bet the writers drew straws for it. And overall, this isn’t a bad episode. It’s just relatively, compared to the run of intense awesome ones we’ve had, slow and boringish.
Loved your review Alice. Yes, I agree with all the ‘out-of-character’ moments you stated for the boys. Just couldn’t believe the boys would let someone be killed while they watched! So not SPN. Sam’s faces as Dean launched his plan, and when Luci appeared were SO Sam though, and Dean hitting on Kali….kind of nice to see his old ways again….even though she did him a favor by cutting him off. No way is she in Dean’s league. 😀
So you think she released them from the blood spells off camera? I hope so…as she is still alive, still upset about Luci and now, hopefully, upset about Gab’s death, I can see her wanting to keep a foot-in-the- door with the boys too.
Yes, it didn’t make sense to me that Gab would challenge his bro knowing about the rings. Really I don’t like bro vs. bro violence. Gab should have given Luci his speech, and left with the boys. No need to kill a sibling. But in all honesty, the writers have been inconsistent like this more than once this season. Hopeful this will end in season 6.
I really enjoyed this episode. As for Gab fans, myself included, God brought Cass back, and he can do it with Gab too… Here’s hoping!