Supernatural: Hammer of the Gods
August 22, 2021 6:45 AM - Season 5, Episode 19 - Subscribe
The Winchesters are entrapped by a group of renegade gods who want to use them as a bargaining tool to stop the apocalypse.
Quotes:
Gabriel: Lucifer, you're my brother and I love you, but you are a great big bag of dicks.
Dean: How you doin'?
Kali: No.
Dean: But...
Kali: No.
Dean: Oh, lady, I'm just, you know...
Kali: I understand. And, no.
Odin: Your beliefs are so much more realistic? The whole world's getting carried around on the back of a giant turtle?
Zao Shen: [in Chinese] Don't mock my world turtle!
Odin: What are you gonna do about it?
Zao Shen: [in Chinese] I'm going to send you packing to Valhalla.
Odin: You watch your mouth when you talk to me, boy.
Zao Shen: [in Chinese] "Boy"? I'm older than you.
Odin: No one's ever proved that.
Gabriel: Okay, okay. I got wings. Like Kotex.
Odin: Everybody knows when the world comes to an end, the great serpent Jörmungandr rises up. And I myself will be eaten by a big wolf.
Gabriel: I've skipped ahead, seen how this story ends.
Kali: Your story. Not ours. Westerners, I swear, the sheer arrogance. You think you're the only ones on earth? You pillage and you butcher in your god's name. But you're not the only religion and he's not the only god. And now you think you can just rip the planet apart? You're wrong. There are billions of us and we were here first. If anyone gets to end this world, it's me.
Dean: [Looking at a pot of boiling red liquid] Please be tomato soup. Please be tomato soup. [Scoops out two eyeballs]
Baldur: Why are you here?
Gabriel: To talk about the elephant in the room.
Ganesh: [shuffles]
Gabriel: Not you.
Harry Spangler: If you're dead, you better stay dead.
Ed Zeddmore: Yeah
Harry Spangler: Because if not, we're gonna kill you.
Hotel guest: [At dessert buffet] Heaven, right?
Dean: Trust me, pal. Better.
Gabriel: Sam, Dean. It's always wrong place, worst time with you muttonheads.
Trivia:
While addressing the gods, Dean says, "All right you primitive screwheads, listen up!" This is a direct quote from the Sam Raimi film Army of Darkness, the third installment of the Evil Dead series.
The Elysian Fields are the part of the Greek mythological underworld where the souls of the heroic and the virtuous go.
When the boys discover the hostages in the kitchen freezer, Dean comments, "Motel Hell." This is in reference to the 80's campy slasher movie Motel Hell about cannibalistic motel owners.
Gabriel tells Dean he is "blowing Jonestown", a reference to the notorious mass suicide led by the leader of the cult, Jim Jones. There were 909 killed with all but two deaths caused by cyanide poisoning. On tapes recorded prior to the event Jones and other members referred to this suicide as "revolutionary suicide". In "Hammer of the Gods", the motel is in Indiana; Indianapolis Indiana is where The Peoples Temple cult was formed. In 1977 members of the temple moved to Guyana where Jonestown was erected in an effort to escape the building public pressure and allegations from various sources. Many of the members of The Peoples Temple believed the promise from Jones that Guyana would be a utopia, or paradise. This corresponds with what is happening between the angels, devil, and the gods.
When Gabriel says, "I'm the Costner to your Houston," he is referring to the film The Bodyguard, starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston.
The title is taken from the Led Zeppelin song "Immigrant Song".
Stunt coordinator Denny Erickson was a little too serious in the rehearsals for this episode, and Jared kept saying, "Why can't you be more chill, you know, stick around with us, relax," and then Jared and Jensen glued Denny Erickson to his chair. In return Denny used Liquid Nails on the doors of Jared's trailer, while Jensen watched lookout.
The Spearmint Rhino that Gabriel mentions to Lucifer is a gentlemen's club.
The license on Pestilence's car reads SIKN TRD (Sick and Tired).
Pestilence is played by Matt Frewer, who also starred in the 1990's mini-series adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Stand, in which a battle between heaven and hell takes place after most of the earth's population has been wiped out by an extremely aggressive flu.
Pestilence is driving a pale green car when, according to the pattern set by the colours of the horses belonging to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, it should be white. Pestilence rode a white horse, War a red one, Famine a black one, and Death rode a horse that was ashen or pale green (the colour of putrefaction).
When Gabriel suggests to Kali that they take a trip to "Pandora", it's a reference to the James Cameron film Avatar.
Throughout the episode there are references to how these other gods fit into the history of mankind. Kali says, "We were here first [before God and his angels]", which Lucifer seems to validate by saying, "No wonder you forfeited this planet to us." But in "The Man Who Would Be King" (ep. 6.20), Castiel recalls seeing the earliest days of mankind's evolution and that even then the angels knew how things would play out. If earth was forfeited to God and his angels, where were the other gods before that?
Most of the actors who play the pagan gods physically match the origins of the respective deities: Kali looks distinctly Indian; Odin has the looks of a stereotypical Scandinavian; Zao Shen is played by a Chinese actor etc.; yet Ganesha, a Hindu deity, is inexplicably portrayed by an actor of African, not Indian descent.
Quotes:
Gabriel: Lucifer, you're my brother and I love you, but you are a great big bag of dicks.
Dean: How you doin'?
Kali: No.
Dean: But...
Kali: No.
Dean: Oh, lady, I'm just, you know...
Kali: I understand. And, no.
Odin: Your beliefs are so much more realistic? The whole world's getting carried around on the back of a giant turtle?
Zao Shen: [in Chinese] Don't mock my world turtle!
Odin: What are you gonna do about it?
Zao Shen: [in Chinese] I'm going to send you packing to Valhalla.
Odin: You watch your mouth when you talk to me, boy.
Zao Shen: [in Chinese] "Boy"? I'm older than you.
Odin: No one's ever proved that.
Gabriel: Okay, okay. I got wings. Like Kotex.
Odin: Everybody knows when the world comes to an end, the great serpent Jörmungandr rises up. And I myself will be eaten by a big wolf.
Gabriel: I've skipped ahead, seen how this story ends.
Kali: Your story. Not ours. Westerners, I swear, the sheer arrogance. You think you're the only ones on earth? You pillage and you butcher in your god's name. But you're not the only religion and he's not the only god. And now you think you can just rip the planet apart? You're wrong. There are billions of us and we were here first. If anyone gets to end this world, it's me.
Dean: [Looking at a pot of boiling red liquid] Please be tomato soup. Please be tomato soup. [Scoops out two eyeballs]
Baldur: Why are you here?
Gabriel: To talk about the elephant in the room.
Ganesh: [shuffles]
Gabriel: Not you.
Harry Spangler: If you're dead, you better stay dead.
Ed Zeddmore: Yeah
Harry Spangler: Because if not, we're gonna kill you.
Hotel guest: [At dessert buffet] Heaven, right?
Dean: Trust me, pal. Better.
Gabriel: Sam, Dean. It's always wrong place, worst time with you muttonheads.
Trivia:
While addressing the gods, Dean says, "All right you primitive screwheads, listen up!" This is a direct quote from the Sam Raimi film Army of Darkness, the third installment of the Evil Dead series.
The Elysian Fields are the part of the Greek mythological underworld where the souls of the heroic and the virtuous go.
When the boys discover the hostages in the kitchen freezer, Dean comments, "Motel Hell." This is in reference to the 80's campy slasher movie Motel Hell about cannibalistic motel owners.
Gabriel tells Dean he is "blowing Jonestown", a reference to the notorious mass suicide led by the leader of the cult, Jim Jones. There were 909 killed with all but two deaths caused by cyanide poisoning. On tapes recorded prior to the event Jones and other members referred to this suicide as "revolutionary suicide". In "Hammer of the Gods", the motel is in Indiana; Indianapolis Indiana is where The Peoples Temple cult was formed. In 1977 members of the temple moved to Guyana where Jonestown was erected in an effort to escape the building public pressure and allegations from various sources. Many of the members of The Peoples Temple believed the promise from Jones that Guyana would be a utopia, or paradise. This corresponds with what is happening between the angels, devil, and the gods.
When Gabriel says, "I'm the Costner to your Houston," he is referring to the film The Bodyguard, starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston.
The title is taken from the Led Zeppelin song "Immigrant Song".
Stunt coordinator Denny Erickson was a little too serious in the rehearsals for this episode, and Jared kept saying, "Why can't you be more chill, you know, stick around with us, relax," and then Jared and Jensen glued Denny Erickson to his chair. In return Denny used Liquid Nails on the doors of Jared's trailer, while Jensen watched lookout.
The Spearmint Rhino that Gabriel mentions to Lucifer is a gentlemen's club.
The license on Pestilence's car reads SIKN TRD (Sick and Tired).
Pestilence is played by Matt Frewer, who also starred in the 1990's mini-series adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Stand, in which a battle between heaven and hell takes place after most of the earth's population has been wiped out by an extremely aggressive flu.
Pestilence is driving a pale green car when, according to the pattern set by the colours of the horses belonging to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, it should be white. Pestilence rode a white horse, War a red one, Famine a black one, and Death rode a horse that was ashen or pale green (the colour of putrefaction).
When Gabriel suggests to Kali that they take a trip to "Pandora", it's a reference to the James Cameron film Avatar.
Throughout the episode there are references to how these other gods fit into the history of mankind. Kali says, "We were here first [before God and his angels]", which Lucifer seems to validate by saying, "No wonder you forfeited this planet to us." But in "The Man Who Would Be King" (ep. 6.20), Castiel recalls seeing the earliest days of mankind's evolution and that even then the angels knew how things would play out. If earth was forfeited to God and his angels, where were the other gods before that?
Most of the actors who play the pagan gods physically match the origins of the respective deities: Kali looks distinctly Indian; Odin has the looks of a stereotypical Scandinavian; Zao Shen is played by a Chinese actor etc.; yet Ganesha, a Hindu deity, is inexplicably portrayed by an actor of African, not Indian descent.
I feel like the "Thuggee" paragraph of the post needs editing or removal -- the Wiki linked says that the 'cult' was probably an invention of the British regime, and it does seem like the kind of thing they'd invent/exaggerate to justify British rule, having it written up here as factual as the rest of the behind-the-scenes info feels wrong to me.
posted by oh yeah! at 9:36 AM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by oh yeah! at 9:36 AM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm going to miss Gabriel popping up unexpectedly in the future. He's a fun character and a great foil for the Winchesters.
posted by sardonyx at 10:34 AM on August 22, 2021
posted by sardonyx at 10:34 AM on August 22, 2021
I think you're right that the bit about the Thuggee is very suspect, oh yeah!, and I've flagged it for the mods, asking them to remove it entirely (ETA: and I see they've done it). My apologies -- I missed that Thuggee history was growing to be considered largely a fabrication on the part of the British when I was preparing this post.
posted by orange swan at 1:08 PM on August 22, 2021
posted by orange swan at 1:08 PM on August 22, 2021
I've been stung copy and pasting from IMDB without vetting it first before. I suspect that there were secret societies like the thuggee/ deceivers and they got MS-13ed; used indiscriminately as a false casus belli justification by the British empire whenever it felt convenient to go full brutal.
This episode felt really derivative of a scene from 'American Gods' (the novel). I guess if you're going to do it, might as well steal from the best.
But Richard Kadry's 'Sandman Slim' did a better version of angels-are-jerks, God-is-dysfunctional (because he bit off more than he could chew when he decided to get bossy-pants with all the other gods). The mythos here seems to be implying that the god God currently "in charge" is New Testament, and that the Book of Genesis is bullshit.
Does Dean just carry the Babylonian stake (? used to put down Kitchen god) in his back pocket these days?
Not convinced that the other gods didn't know that angels leave burnt shadow-wings behind when killed.
Huh. IMDB doesn't credit Baron Samedi. I guess he didn't get any lines despite the character getting explicitly name dropped. I'll forgive Baldur having an English-like accent, but he's Odin's kid.
The treatment of the other gods is all rather insulting without explaining why these New Testament assholes have so much more power. Even Dean takes one of them out.
I'm a big fan of Matt Frewer, so tease casting him in this one tempers my saltiness a little bit.
posted by porpoise at 3:51 PM on August 22, 2021
This episode felt really derivative of a scene from 'American Gods' (the novel). I guess if you're going to do it, might as well steal from the best.
But Richard Kadry's 'Sandman Slim' did a better version of angels-are-jerks, God-is-dysfunctional (because he bit off more than he could chew when he decided to get bossy-pants with all the other gods). The mythos here seems to be implying that the god God currently "in charge" is New Testament, and that the Book of Genesis is bullshit.
Does Dean just carry the Babylonian stake (? used to put down Kitchen god) in his back pocket these days?
Not convinced that the other gods didn't know that angels leave burnt shadow-wings behind when killed.
Huh. IMDB doesn't credit Baron Samedi. I guess he didn't get any lines despite the character getting explicitly name dropped. I'll forgive Baldur having an English-like accent, but he's Odin's kid.
The treatment of the other gods is all rather insulting without explaining why these New Testament assholes have so much more power. Even Dean takes one of them out.
I'm a big fan of Matt Frewer, so tease casting him in this one tempers my saltiness a little bit.
posted by porpoise at 3:51 PM on August 22, 2021
Also, why have the Chinese god be the only one not speaking English, beyond that they could cast someone who was fluent in Cantonese - which is a weird choice and even if technically correct (it isn't, technically) its at least anachronistic. smh
Though it is curious that the idea of a world turtle (likely) independently arose in Hindu, Chinese, and Eastern First Nations mythology.
posted by porpoise at 4:06 PM on August 22, 2021
Though it is curious that the idea of a world turtle (likely) independently arose in Hindu, Chinese, and Eastern First Nations mythology.
posted by porpoise at 4:06 PM on August 22, 2021
Anyway the whole "non-Christian gods are really monsters who eat people" thing is horrible racist garbage and it's maybe the worst single thing about the series.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:20 PM on August 22, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:20 PM on August 22, 2021 [3 favorites]
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It was fun seeing Kali shoot Dean down.
Gabriel: [to Lucifer] Lucy, I'm home!
Gabriel really is, or I suppose I should say was, so much like Dean. He's a total smartass and horndog who, deep down, cares about what's right more than anyone. And leave it to him to record his last message to Sam and Dean in the form of a porn video.
What on earth did Sam and Dean do with Kali?
"Don't mock my world-turtle!" is one hilarious line.
Major gross-out entrance for Pestilence.
posted by orange swan at 6:49 AM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]