5.19 Hammer of the Gods

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Delegation of Gods.jpg
Title Hammer of the Gods
Episode # Season 5, Episode 19
First aired April 22, 2010
Directed by Rick Bota
Written by Teleplay:
Andrew Dabb
Daniel Loflin
Story:
David Reed
On IMDB Hammer of the Gods
Outline A group of gods plot to stop the Apocalypse.
Monster Gods
Lucifer
Timeline
Location(s) Muncie, Indiana
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Synopsis

A storm forces the boys off the highway, and they check into the the Elysian Fields Hotel - an unusually plush four-star establishment. As they are opening their room, they see an amorous couple enter the room next to them. Shortly after there is a commotion from the room, but when the boys enter, the couple is gone.

The manager at the front desk is evasive, and Sam decides to keep tabs on him, while Dean uses his EMF to see if there is any supernatural activity. As he passes one room he sees an elephant picking up a towel, but when he returns it is simply a man in a towel.

Investigating the hotel kitchen, they find a soup full of eyeballs, and then a number of people locked in the cool room. As they try to free the guests, Zao Shen and Baron Samedi capture them.

In a conference room, gods from many religions are gathered. Baldur sets some ground rules for their behavior, and he and Kali outline how they have gathered everyone together to address the fact that the Judeo-Christain Apocalypse as started by Lucifer threatens the Earth. They have captured Sam and Dean, who they know are vessels, to use as bargaining chips.

Gabriel turns up at the meeting - the gods know him as Loki, the Trickster and don't realize he is an archangel.

Gabriel explains to Sam and Dean he is there to save them, and that he once had a relationship with Kali, and doesn't want her or the other gods killed. Gabriel tells Sam and Dean that Kali has bound Sam and Dean to her with a blood spell. He goes to her room, pretending to be romantic in an attempt to retrieve the boys' blood, but she realizes his ruse and draws his blood, binding Gabriel to her.

In front of the other gods, Kali reveals that she has discovered that Gabriel is an archangel, and she uses what she thinks is an angel blade to kill him. Sam and Dean then agree they will help the gods call Lucifer, if the humans they are holding can be freed. While Dean is seeing the people to safety, he finds Gabriel hiding in the Impala - the blade Kali found was a fake. He tells Dean to get their blood from Kali so they can escape. Dean suspects he cares for the other gods, but Gabriel is unable or unwilling to use his blade to kill Lucifer.

Lucifer arrives and kills all of the gods, and is about to kill Kali when Gabriel intervenes, telling Lucifer that he has no legitimate grievance, being merely jealous that humanity replaced him in God's affections. Gabriel says he is not on Lucifer's side, or Michael's, but that he has come to agree with God: that humanity is better than them. Gabriel then tries to kill Lucifer with the angel blade, but Lucifer turns it on him and kills Gabriel.

After their escape, Sam and Dean play a Casa Erotica DVD Gabriel gave Dean. In it Gabriel tells them they may be able to re-imprison Lucifer, and that the keys to his cage are the rings of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse of which they already have those of War and Famine. A final scene shows the arrival of a very sickly Pestilence, accompanied by a swarm of flies.

Characters

Definitions

Music

  • "Women's Wear" by Daniel May (MasterSource)
(plays as Sam & Dean arrive at the Elysian Fields Hotell; also played in 2.05 Simon Said and 3.03 Bad Day at Black Rock)
  • "You Know You Know (I Love You)" by The Bachelors
plays while Sam and Dean check out the buffet
  • "My Fantasy" by Steve Jeffries (CPM / Carlin)
(plays over the Casa Erotic 13 DVD)

Quotes

Man: Heaven, right?

Dean: Trust me, pal... better. How you doing?
Kali: No.
Dean: But--
Kali: No.
Dean: Oh, lady, I'm just, you know--
Kali: I understand. And no.

Dean: 10-4. Yeah. Sam, unpucker, man. Eat something.
Baldur: Ladies and gentleman, thank you for coming. Although in all my centuries, I never thought I'd see this. This many gods under one roof.

Sam: Gods?

Baldur: Now, before we get down to brass tacks, some ground rules. No slaughtering each other. Curb your wrath. Oh, and uh, keep your hands off the local virgins. We're trying to keep a low profile here.
Baldur: Now we all know why we're here. The Judeo-Christian Apocalypse looms over us. I know we've all had our little disagreements in the past. The time has come to put those aside and look toward the future. Because if we don't, we won't have one. Now we do have two very valuable bargaining chips. Michael and Lucifer's vessels. The question is, what do we do now? Anybody have any bright ideas? Speak up. This is a safe room.
Odin: I don't know what everybody's getting so worked up about! 'Cause it's just a couple of angels having a slap fight! There's no Armageddon. Everybody knows, when the world comes to an end, the Great Serpent Jormungandr rises up, and I myself will be eaten by a big wolf!

Zao Shen: Here we go...
Odin: Oh yeah? And why is that? Because your beliefs are so much more realistic? The whole world's getting carried around on the back of a giant turtle? Ha! Give me a break!
Zao Shen: Don't mock my world turtle.
Odin: What are you gonna do about it?
Zao Shen: I'm gonna send you packing to Valhalla!
Odin: You watch your mouth when you talk to me, boy!
Zao Shen: Boy? I'm older than you.

Odin: No one's ever proved that.
Kali: If we fight--

Gabriel/Loki: You die.
Kali: And what makes you such an expert?

Gabriel/Loki: I've tussled with those winged ass-monkeys once or twice. Kali, no more tricks. I'm begging you, don't do this.
Gabriel: I'm not a spy. I'm a runaway. I'm trying to save you. I know my brother, Kali. He should scare the living crap out of you. You can't beat him. 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. I'm sorry.
Dean: All right you primitive screwheads. Listen up.

Sam: Are you outta your mind?
Dean: I'm outta options. Now on any other given day, I'd be doing my damnedest to, uh, kill you, you filthy murdering chimps. [chuckles] But, uh, hey... desperate times. So even though I'd love nothing better than to slit your throats, you... dicks... I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help you ice the devil. [pours a drink] And then we can all get back to gankin' each other, like normal. You want Lucifer? Well, dude's not in the Yellow Pages. But me and Sam, we can get him here.
Kali: How?

Dean: First, you let those main courses go. Then we talk. We can either take on the devil together, or you lame-ass bitches can eat me. Literally.
Lucifer: You know, I never understood you pagans, always fighting, always happy to sell out your own kind. No wonder you forfeited this planet to us. You are worse than humans. You're worse than demons. And yet you claim to be gods.
Gabriel: Lucifer, you're my brother. And I love you. But you are a great big bag of dicks.
Lucifer: Wait, what did you just say to me?
Dean: Horsemen, huh? Well we got War's... And we nicked Famine's. That's two rings down. Collect all four? All we need is Pestilence and Death.
Sam: Oh, is that all?

Trivia & References

The title "Hammer of the Gods" is a play on a reference in the Led Zeppelin single "Immigrant Song" in the lyric, "The hammer of the gods/will drive our ships to new lands" - an allusion to the hammer of the Norse god Thor. Led Zeppelin's sound subsequently was sometimes referred to as the "Hammer of the Gods." The phrase was also the title of biography of the band.
The idea of gods from different traditions coming together in America was the basis for Neil Gaiman's book American Gods. Eric Kripke has talked about Neil Gaiman's novels and his Sandman comic series being a big influence on his work.
The episode takes place at the Elysian Fields Hotel. In Greek mythology, the Elysian Fields are located in the Elysium section of the Underworld and are the resting place of the good and the heroic.
Mercury's name tag actually says "Chet," a reference to Steve Buscemi's unsettling bellhop character in the film Barton Fink.
Dean: How you doin'?
Possible reference to Joey Tribbiani's flirtatious catchphrase in the '90s sitcom Friends.
Dean: Wow. Look at this. We're like Rockefellers!
A reference to the famous Rockefeller family who are known for their enormous wealth.
Sam: Creepy.

Dean: Broke the needle. All right, well, I'll scope out the joint, and you keep an eye on Norman Bates over here. I mean, one night off. Is that too much to ask?

Norman Bates was the creepy serial-killing owner of the Bates Motel in the Hitchcock movie Psycho.
The scene where Dean sees Ganesh in elephant form is a literal play on the popular phrase "the elephant in the room", which is a metaphor for an obvious truth or problem that is being ignored or not being addressed. Gabriel later uses the phrase when he arrives at the meeting:
Baldur: Why are you here?
Gabriel: To talk about the elephant in the room. [Ganesh looks upset and begins to get out of his chair] Not you!
Sam: An elephant?

Dean: Yeah.
Sam: Like, an elephant?
Dean: Like, full-on Babar.

Babar is the main character in an eponymous series of books - about elephants. Babar was also mentioned in 5.11 Sam, Interrupted.
The Elysian Fields Hotel being a hotel that seems to be perfect but then reveals itself to be a gilded cage from which you can't escape is very reminiscent of the Eagles' 1977 song Hotel California and its eponymous hotel, particularly the famous lyric "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave."
Dean: Please be tomato soup. Please be tomato soup. [fishes eyeballs out of a pot of soup] Motel Hell.
Motel Hell is a 1980 comedy horror spoof which sent up movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. In the movie, a brother and sister capture people at their motel and use them to produce smoked meat.
The eyeball soup recalls the dinner party scene in the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In that movie, the villains are members of a Thuggee cult in India that worships Kali, who is one of the gods that appears in this episode.
Dean: There's somebody behind me, isn't there?
This line is reminiscent of a scene from the movie City Slickers, and is an old gag used in countless other movies and TV shows. It is a running joke on the crime procedural NCIS, where the character of Gibbs often approaches without warning while other characters are talking about him. In Pantomime, audience participation often takes the form of calling out "He's behind you!"
There are ten gods present at the Elysian Fields Hotel. Among those who are identified or have speaking roles in the episode: Mercury - Roman mythology, Ganesh - Hinduism, Odin - Norse mythology, Kali - Hinduism, Baron Samedi - Vodou, Baldur - Norse mythology, and Zao Shen - Chinese mythology. Along with the goddess Isis - Egyptian mythology, and two unnamed gods in non-speaking roles, though the name tags on one of the gods is legible as belonging to Dionysius - Greek mythology.
With the exception of Zao Shen, all the gods present at the Elysian Fields Hotel have a connection to death or human sacrifice from their worshippers in the past. The Roman, Greek, Egyptian and Norse all practiced some form of ritualistic killings as offerings to their gods of worship. Though human / blood sacrifice is still debated amongst scholars in regards to its validity in ancient Hindu texts.
Twelve guests are present at the formal gathering, including Sam and Dean, making Loki the thirteenth to show up when he crashes the party. This corresponds to a story from Norse mythology centering around a feast to which the trickster was not invited, and at which Baldur was killed.
Dean: Something tells me this isn't a Shriner convention.
Shriners International, formerly known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, is an appendant body to Freemasonry.
The scene in which Kali chokes Mercury during the meeting is very similar to Darth Vader's choking scenes in the Star Wars movies.
Gabriel: You think I'm behind this? Please. I'm the Costner to your Houston. I'm here to save your ass.
In the movie The Bodyguard Kevin Costner plays the bodyguard to Whitney Houston's character.
Gabriel: Oh, the end is still nigh. Michael and Lucifer are gonna dance the Lambada.
The Lambada is a Brazilian dance where two people hold each other closely and move their hips at the same time.
Gabriel: I don't care. But, me and Kali we, uh, had a thing. Chick was all hands. What can I say? I'm sentimental.
In Indian mythology, Kali is depicted as having multiple arms, ranging from 4 to 10 depending on which portrayal.
Dean: Okay, well then how about you do what we say, or we tell the, uh, Legion of Doom about your secret identity. They don't seem like a real pro-angel kinda crowd.
The Legion of Doom is a group of super villains who are the nemeses of the Super Friends, created by DC Comics.
Gabriel: I'm taking this seriously. Ship's sinking, time to get off. I mean screw this marble. Let's go check out Pandora.
Pandora was the home of the Na'vi in James Cameron's 2009 movie Avatar. Pandora is also the name of an inner satellite, or moon, of Saturn. Marble may also be referencing the end of the movie Men in Black when the Earth is revealed to be a marble.
Gabriel: Okay, okay! So I got wings, like Kotex. But that doesn't make me any less right about Lucifer.
Kotex makes feminine hygiene products, including pads with "wings" to help keep them in place.
Kali: If anyone gets to end this world, it's me.
In Indian mythology, Kali is a destroyer.
Dean: All right you primitive screwheads, listen up.
This line is a quote from the movie Army of Darkness aka Evil Dead III. The line is used by Ash (Bruce Campbell) when explaining to peasants about his rifle after being sent back in time to the Dark Ages to retrieve the Necronomicon. It's a classic, really.
Gabriel: Well, good luck with that. Me? I'm blowing Jonestown. Those lemmings wanna run off a cliff, that's their business.
Jonestown was the name of a community in the forest in Guyana run by cult leader Jim Jones, where he lived with approximately 1,000 followers. In 1978, Jones ordered his followers to commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking Flavor Aid laced with cyanide (often misidentified as Kool Aid), resulting in the deaths of more than 900 people. This incident is the origin for the phrase "drinking the Kool Aid," which is a metaphor for accepting an order, argument, philosophy, or belief without question (and a recurring theme and issue in Supernatural).
Lucifer killing Odin by stomping on his head is similar to how Bruce Lee finishes off several opponents in the movie Enter the Dragon.
Dean: Shazam us out of here, would you?

Baldur: We can't.
Lucifer: Of course you can't. You didn't say "Mother may I?"

A reference to the children's game Mother May I?.
In Norse mythology the death of Baldur is a harbinger of Ragnarök, the Norse apocalypse, which is instigated by the trickster Loki when Baldur is impaled by a spear Loki gave to Baldur's brother, the blind god Höðr, who killed Baldur. "Hammer of the Gods" makes reference to this by having Gabriel masquerading as Loki causing the gods to believe that they can stand up to the archangels, which led to Baldur being impaled by Lucifer's arm which was in the lead up to the final confrontation of the Apocalypse.
After impaling Baldur with his right fist, Lucifer spends the rest of the scene with blood nearly to his elbow, reminiscent of the song "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.
Gabriel: Not really. Better late then never, huh? Guard this, with your life. Lucy, I'm home.
The greeting of Ricky Ricardo when he got home from work in the 1950s sitcom series I Love Lucy. In fandom, Lucifer is sometimes referred to as "Lucy" or "Luci."
Lucifer: They are broken. Flawed! Abortions.

Gabriel: Damn right they're flawed. But a lot of them try. To do better, to forgive. And you should see the Spearmint Rhino! I've been riding the pine a long time. But I'm in the game now, and I'm not on your side, or Michael's. I'm on theirs.

The Spearmint Rhino is a franchise of upmarket strip clubs.

Minutiae

The depictions of the Hindu gods Ganesh and Kali in this episode were deemed highly offensive by the President of the Universal Hindu Society.
In the middle of the episode, there was an insert ad for the Ghostfacers Web Series.
The hotel room in the Casa Erotica DVD is 69.
In this episode we get our first look at Pestilence. He drives a green car with Nevada license plate SIKN TRD ("sick and tired").
The cashier that gets infected by Pestilence in the closing scene appears in the ER room in 5.20 The Devil You Know.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

Promotion



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