Sam: "By the way, the next time I say let's keep driving, let's keep driving."
Dean: "Next time."
Oooh! We have quest objects! Four rings to rule them all, and they already have two. Two more rings and a quick trip to Maryland, remove Sam's rib sigils... no, I know it can't be that easy.
I'm so glad they finally addressed other religions and other gods, even if all they did was mostly go for the ancient, childish, bloodthirsty types. (If they'd gone for more serious, active religions, it certainly would have offended somebody. Not me, I hasten to add; I worship Bast.)
And if it had to be our final episode with Gabriel, at least we got to see him as Loki again. I was really sad to see Gabriel go; he's been around a long time, and was in some terrific episodes. I'm not sure I completely bought his turnabout love of humanity (he did some pretty nasty things to humanity in other episodes, after all) but I bet some of his motivation came from a genuine affection for the Winchesters, as well as Kali. (Dan and I were both rooting for Kali. Wouldn't she make a great ally, like Jesse the tiny Antichrist?)
Lucifer was actually pretty scary this time. He blasted through those gods like they were tissue paper, and killed his own brother. You'd think Lucifer would draw a line at killing his little brother, but no. And I am again hoping this isn't foreshadowing. We have a season six, people. Season six without one of the two brothers, it cannot happen.
The final few minutes that introduced Pestilence made my list of top five grossest scenes on Supernatural. I actually started to gag. It was even more disgusting than the couple that ate each other. Apparently, for me, snot trumps blood.
Bits and pieces:
— Dean was pretty much himself again. Yay.
— Loved the "Hello my name is" nametags. Priceless.
— Happy casting dance for Matt Frewer as Pestilence. And another for Rekha Sharma from Battlestar Galactica as Kali.
— The Elysian Fields Hotel was in Muncie, Indiana, the "tri-state area." According to the internet, there are several tri-state areas in the United States; I grew up in one that was not in Indiana.
— Pestilence was in Las Vegas. He had Nevada tags that said, "SKN TRD".
— There was a "commercial" for the new Ghostfacers webisodes on cwtv.com. I still haven't seen them; it's on my "to do" list.
— There was also a clip of "Casa Erotica 13" that, of course, amused Dean and made Sam the prude uncomfortable. And see, I bet Gabriel knew they'd take it just like that.
— Still no Castiel. Still no Adam.
Quotes:
Sam: (about Mercury at the front desk) "Creepy."
Dean: "Broke the needle."
Sam: "An elephant."
Dean: "Yeah."
Sam: "Like, an elephant."
Dean: "Like, full-on Babar."
Dean: "Please be tomato soup. Please be tomato soup."
Baldur: "No slaughtering each other. Curb your wrath. Oh, and keep your hands off the local virgins. We're trying to keep a low profile here."
Sam: "We are so, so screwed."
Zao Shen: "Don't mock my world turtle."
Baldur: "Why are you here?"
Gabriel: "To talk about the elephant in the room. (to Ganesh) Not you."
Actually, I think Gabriel deserves a section of his own this time, since it's his last:
"Me and Kali had a thing. The chick was all hands."
"Screw this marble. Let's go check out Pandora."
"Okay, okay, so I got wings, like Kotex."
"Luci, I'm home."
"You're my brother and I love you, but you are a great big bag of dicks."
This was an amusing, interesting, scary and sad episode. Three out of four elephants,
Billie
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Billie Doux adores Supernatural which is a good thing since apparently, it's eternal.
I worship Bast, too! No wonder we get along so well.
ReplyDelete"Don't mock my world turtle" is right up there with "Tea parties? Is that all there is?"
And I, too, thought that final scene was the grossest thing I've ever seen. What does it say about us, that cannibalism is more or less okay, but snot freaks us out?
I also loved how this episode answered the question I've been asking myself: is this Judeo-Christian world? Now we know: nope, just a J-C apocalypse.
Odin, however, should only have one eye.
Another great review. I loved this episode. Yeah it was very serious and mega sad...but the humorous parts priceless (Dean walking down the hall & seeing an elephant! Jensen killed me with his reaction and facial expressions ROFLMAO)
ReplyDeleteLuci was really scary. All of Richard's scenes were great as Loki, the Trickster and Gabriel, and I'm so very very sad to see him dead. Again with the black wings, when I say them with Zack I cheered, but seeing them on Gabriel was tragic. Luci having not a second thought to killing his younger bro...I didn't like him before and don't like him even more!!!
And Pestilence I'm with you girl "The Grossest Scene ever in SPN" compared to this MBV scene was my favorite lol. I too am trump by snot over blood.
Hey these comments are actually on time. wonders never cease
Oh yeah I didn't remember this till I read your blog
"The Elysian Fields Hotel" wasn't that's Hercule's (Kevin Sorbo) his heaven. Clever twist on the hotel name.
I'm not sure if I should admit this, but I didn't really find it that gross. Sure it was disgusting, but I'm a horror movie aficionado and I've seen much, MUCH worse.
ReplyDeleteSo what does it say about me that I don't find snot, cannibalism, or mass orgies of blood and gore that revolting... yeah I probably shouldn't have admitted that one.
I loved this one, although it was a crying shame. Who honestly thought that the pagan gods stood a chance? I knew they were doomed. The JC angle is the main plot arc after all, and Supernatural is an American show, America being pretty strongly Christian. Having said that, the show has been doing such a good job of making angels and God out to be complete jerks that it's hardly like they're supporting the religion, are they?
ReplyDeleteBast? Oh no. I am so not a cat person. I'd take Anubis any day. Dogs are much nicer. I'm also really glad they didn't put Athena in the episode, she's like my favourite goddess ever, and I'd have been really upset to see them kill her off.
Yeah, Odin should only have had one eye. I don't think the writers did any more than a google search for info on these gods, which was a shame. Him arguing with one of the other gods was funny though. I also loved Kali's speech to Loki/Gabe about how arrogant the angels (and their followers) are, and how she and the others were here first. Really? So doesn't that mean that the JC creation/origin story is not true in the Supernatural verse?
Pestilence was really gross. Then again, after Famine I was kinda expecting grossness from him. I just hope to hell that Death isn't icky. Who do you think they'll cast as Death?
I gotta say I disagree You get a room stacked with gods and with all these cool characters in one room we dont get a decent tussle? Why not just have the room be full of girl scouts instead? waste of time
ReplyDeleteSo, I'll admit that, being a happy little heathen, I went into this episode sort of expecting it to rub me the wrong way. I was actually a little surprised to find that it mostly didn't, and I think that's partially because the show has been fairly merciless when it comes to depicting JC mythology, too. I don't mind so much, as long as they're equal opportunity about it. The only thing that bugged me was the people eating, and that was pretty much entirely because it kept distracting my little mythology geek self. Mercury? Serving human flesh? After the whole Tantalus/Pelops mishap? Really?
ReplyDeleteBut I'm pretty sure I'm over-analyzing that, because I severely doubt that most people found it as distracting as I did. It's funny, but I hadn't thought of the risk if they'd gone for more active religions with a greater following, but that does sort of point to the fact that Kali is given the most depth and careful characterization. I mean, Kali Puja still comes around once a year for a lot of people. The attendance at blóts is a bit more limited.
Now that I've dwelt way too long on that, the actual episode: Kali was awesome, there were some super funny one-liners, and Gabriel being dead makes me sad, because he was sort of awesome beyond all reason. I should have known that I'd enjoy this episode, because Trickster episodes always make me happy.
What really hit me, though, was the conversation between Gabriel and Lucifer at the end of the episode. Putting aside any believability about Gabriel's change of heart, the conversation itself had some fascinating elements. Did you see the look on Lucifer's face when Gabriel made that rather pointed comment about humanity's ability to try to forgive? And the little, "no one makes us do anything," remark from Gabriel in response to Lucifer's don't-make-me-kill-you-dead thing made me pause, because did we just get confirmation of free will vs. destiny? Sort of?
Also, I deeply wish that I had not been eating during that final scene with Pestilence.
Some day, I will write a response to one of your reviews that is less than thesis length. Truly.
A very strong episode. When I saw the preview last week, I was a bit concerned we were suddenly getting a one-off episode, but this was definitely not that. Yea!
ReplyDeleteI liked the whole 'American Gods' vibe of the hotel summit, but I was kind of bothered by Lucifer having so much more power than the old gods. I guess I can reason that the power of the old gods was reduced by their relative number of believers (perhaps more people believe in Lucifer than Baldur). But I would kind of expect Kali to be pretty powerful. I loved her line about how if the world was going to be destroyed, she'd be the one to do it.
The world turtle line was hilarious.
I was very sad to see Gabriel go. I was hoping it was another fake out, so the sight of his wings burned into the floor made me very sad. I think Lucifer did feel a little bit bad about taking out his brother. There was some kind of emotion that passed over his face after doing it.
I agree that Pestilence completely grossed me out (but yea, for Matt Frewer!). I think My Bloody Valentine grossed me out more, but this was definitely up there in "grossest ever" SPN moments.
Let the quest for the rings begin!
The Elysian Fields, or the Elysian Plains, were the final resting places of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium
Great name for a hotel :-)
I DON"T WANT GABE TO BE DEAD!!!!!!!!!! D :
ReplyDeleteThat final scene is really gross. Yuck! I liked this ep except for that Ghostfacers segment which I feel was totally out of place.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't Baldur have realized that Gabe wasn't the real Loki, considering that the real Loki was the one who killed Baldur in the original mythology?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the above was the first post I've ever added to your site, but I have to tell you how very much I enjoy your work! Thanks for giving me such a brilliant set of commentary to enjoy!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Anonymous. Glad you're enjoying the site.
ReplyDelete