Recap – “Hammer of The Gods”
The lights in the ballroom start flickering and everyone gets worried. Sam looks especially freaked. Back to Lucifer in the hallway taking out all the other Gods in bloody fashion. This is a fine visual, but all Lucifer has to do is wave his hand and they all drop dead. It seems like this whole fight scene was a time killer. Either that or its in Mark Pellegrino’s contract that he must be badass in the bloodiest way possible. Lucifer stares at the piles of bodies with sheer hatred and moves on. Back to the ballroom and now Sam is outright freaking out. “It’s him,” he says. Dean tells them to zap them out of there but Baldur says they can’t and that’s because Lucifer is right there. “Of course you can’t,” Lucifer says. “You didn’t say ‘mother may I?'” Oh, he’s a cheeky Devil. He tells Sam and Dean it’s good to see them again and Baldur comes forward in a challenge. Good, this tool really needs a bloody end.
He gets it when Lucifer puts his hand right through him. “No one gives us the right, we take it.” Ah, I see, its conquest now. The themes in this episode are just way too big for the small dramatic moments here. We see the looks on Sam and Dean’s faces. They are both now internally screaming. Sam and Dean back away in horror so Kali tries next, her arms lighting on fire. Lucifer is pretty smug, especially when her fireball just bounces right off of him. Lucky for Sam and Dean, they’re able to duck behind a table as the flames swirl over their heads. Lucifer punches Kali across the room. Granted I’d say that’s no way to treat a lady, but she had it coming.
Sam asks Dean if he’s okay. “Not really,” Gabriel answers. He’s now there ducking behind the table with them. “Better late than never, huh?” Sam and Dean both nod in agreement. Gabe’s looking pretty nervous. I think he knows what’s about to happen. He hands Dean a DVD of Casa Erotica 13 and tells him to guard this with his life. Then he goes into action. Lucifer is about to take out Kali and is then flung backwards, sliding through the doors. He gets up to see Gabriel there with a sword. “Luci, I’m home!” That’s great! Leave it up to Gabe to challenge his evil brother with a popular pop culture reference.
Lucifer goes forward but Gabe stops him. “Not this time.” He picks up Kali and tells Sam and Dean to get her out of there. Gabe offers them full protection as they slip out of there. Lucifer thinks it’s funny that Gabriel is doing this over a girl. “I knew you were slumming but, I hope you didn’t catch anything.” Gabe smiles at him. He tells him he loves him, but he’s a great big bag of dicks. Lucifer takes offense but remembers Gabe still has the sword. Gabe decides to do some scolding. “Look at yourself. Boo hoo. Daddy was mean to me so I’m going to smash up all his toys.” Lucifer warns him to watch his tone.
“Play the victim all you want but you and me, we know the truth. Dad loved you best. More than Michael, more than me. Then he brought the new baby home and you couldn’t handle it.” I’m thinking he’s talking about humans, right? Raphael’s supposed to be in there somewhere too but I’m not sure anyone cares about him. “All this is just a great big temper tantrum.” They smile at each other. Gabe waves the sword. “Time to grow up.” In the meantime, Sam, Dean and Kali burst through the exits. “I’m not getting in that thing,” Kali declares. “Just get in the car princess,” Dean tells her. She does as told and they peel out of there. Off camera, she frees them of her blood spell and moves on. It’s really nifty.
Lucifer is wondering if Gabe is doing this for Michael. Gabe says screw him, if he were there he’d “shiv his ass too.” Ooh, this is sibling rivalry at its nastiest. Or what I call summer vacation. Lucifer calls him disloyal but Gabe claims he is loyal. “To them.” Lucifer wonders if he’s talking about the Gods. “To people Lucifer. People.” Lucifer can’t believe he’s willing to die for a pile of cockroaches. Why? “Because Dad was right. They are better than us.” “They are broken, flawed abortions,” Lucifer says with spite.
“Damn right they’re flawed,” replies Gabriel, “but a lot of them try, to do better. To forgive. And you should see the Spearmint Rhino.” I’m assuming he’s talking about the Vegas strip club. In other words, we’re fun. “I’ve been riding the pine a long time, but I’m in the game now. I’m not on your side, or Michael’s. I’m on theirs.” Gabe’s speech really saddens Lucifer. “Brother, don’t make me do this.” “No one makes us do anything,” Gabe says.
Lucifer doesn’t get the memo, because he’s a prideful stubborn asshole. “I know that you’re thinking you’re doing the right thing Gabriel, but I know where your heart truly lies.” Suddenly Gabe is behind him too and attacks with the sword. Lucifer feels him coming though and swings around and plunges the sword into Gabriel’s gut. “Here.” Lucifer taunts Gabe’s amateur hocus pocus. “Don’t forget, you learned all your tricks from me little brother.” Lucifer pushes the sword in further and Gabriel bursts into white light. Crud. Another character I really care about dying. Since when did this show become Lost? Oh yeah, both became each other this season.
Lucifer looks at his dead brother and it really is killing him inside. Forget Lucifer, this is killing ME inside. Not Gabriel! You fucking bastards. If you’re so sad Luci, why did you do it? The final shot pulls away to show a dead Gabriel lying on the floor in the middle of the dark wings. He’s really dead . You know, this one for me hurts the worse. Our beloved favorite character Gabe stood up for humanity and was taken out senselessly for doing the right thing. I really love the Trickster/ Gabriel if you can’t tell. He is my favorite recurring character. This is depressing on so many levels. I don’t think I’m ever going to watch this episode again. It was the same reaction I had when they killed Data in the Star Trek movie Nemesis. A pointless waste and I feel cheated. I’m taking this personally for once. Having said that though, Mark Pelligrino and Richard Speight Jr. rocked this scene. Brilliantly acted.
A disclaimer in red comes on with that typical porno music. The title card rolls, “Casa Erotica 13.” A chick in slutty high heels and slutty black underwear talks in her diary about how being a high powered executive is “super fun” but so exhausting. Oh brother. Sadly, the writers aren’t making that shit up. Pornos are like that. Slut needs to relax. She needs Casa Erotica. I can think of way better ways to relax. There’s a knock on the door for room service and it’s shown that Sam and Dean are watching this on Sam’s laptop. “Gabriel wanted you to guard this with your life?” “Maybe he’s a fan. It is a good one.” Oh Dean. Your tastes are so off. We learned that though with Dr. Sexy MD. Crud, that reminded me of the good ole days of The Trickster. I’m busting into tears again.
Back to the porno, and Gabriel in a cheesy mustache enters in a waiter’s outfit. He’s bringing the Kielbasa she ordered. “Ooh, Polish?” She asks. “Hungarian,” Gabriel says. Sorry, I’m giggling a bit more than usual, since my heart totally broken. He throws the tray and goes for the girl. Sam and Dean are still missing the point. There are scenes of Gabriel groping this girl all over while in a liplock and Sam and Dean look a little uncomfortable. Sam asks “what the hell’s going on.”
Gabe then turns toward the camera. “Sam, Dean, you’re probably wondering what the hell’s going on.” He rips off the cheesy Hungarian mustache. “Well, if you’re watching this, I’m dead.” That gets an eyebrow raise from Sam. “Oh please, stop sobbing, it’s embarrassing for all of us.” He goes on to explain that without him, they’ve got a zero shot at killing Lucifer. “Sorry! But, you can trap him. The cage you sprung Lucifer from, it’s still down there and maybe, just maybe you can shove his ass back in. Not that it’ll be easy. You gotta get the cage open, trick my bro back into it, and oh yeah, avoid Michael and the God squad. But hey, details, right?”
Okay, I’ve got a question. If Gabe knew about the rings, why in the world did he sacrifice himself by trying to kill Lucifer? No logic there. That only solidifies the death to be senseless. Gabe goes on, Sam and Dean at full attention now. “And here’s the big secret. Lucifer himself doesn’t even know. The key to the cage, it’s out there.” It’s keys plural, four keys. Actually four rings, the rings of the horsemen. They get them all, they get the cage. “Can’t say I’m betting on you boys but hey, I’ve been wrong before.”
Sam and Dean look at each other stunned by this new development. “And Dean, you were right, I was afraid to stand up to my brother. But not anymore.” He stands up. “So this is me standing up,” he says when complete seriousness. Then he goes back into character. “And this is me, lying down.” He goes back to doing it with the hot chick. Sam and Dean get grossed out and Sam shuts the laptop. Dean goes through the idea about the Horsemen. They’ve got two out of the four, but then editor still manages to work in the past scenes with War and Famine just in case we forgot. Also because they’re killing time. All they need is Pestilence and Death. They see the impossibility of the plan and drive on, I’m sure spending hours brainstorming in the car.
You know, I was brave enough to recap the other two really gross scenes from “My Bloody Valentine” and “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid,” but I’m not doing this one. Let’s just declare Dabb and Loflin the winners in the writers’ gross each other out contest. I’ll skim through it. An old beat up AMC Hornet in Nevada pulls up to a convenience store. Lots of mucus flies everywhere from one really sickly looking Matt Frewer! It’s Max Headroom! It must be Pestilence. I’ll only commend the inspired casting in this scene. He pulls away with a smirk for a job well done, his license plate donning “SIK N TRD” and a ton of flies swarming. Oh joy.
Okay, so this was a major disappointment for me, but for once I’m in the minority. This is replacing “Swap Meat” for me as the worst episode of the season. Onto the explosive next three, written by the power trio of Edlund, Gamble, and Kripke. Everyone get ready for some sleepless nights!
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!