I thought he looked younger and fresher than he has in ages.

Did anyone else think Dean (Jensen?) looked a lot better rested this ep that he has in a while?

He kinda looked like the shorter of those two random dudes they show in promos.

Weird.

They must have filmed this right after a shooting hiatus.

I lovedlovedloved the scene between Gabriel and Lucifer--Pellegrino and Speight brought it. Same kind of chemistry and energy as some Ackles-Padalecki scenes. They really worked well with and off each other.

VD--so, Elena and Damon are in the basement, waiting outside the panic room while Steffen detoxes from human blood? Okay!

Do you suppose the gods were also wearing borrowed vessels? Why else would they need to wear name tags to recognize each other? Whimsy? I mean, I know it was obviously done for the sake of the audience, along with the flashes of the book pages describing them, but it's not like they wouldn't know one another.

And not just the Greeks! Or was Mercury Roman? I can never keep it straight.

Yep, Mercury's Roman. With the Greeks I believe you'd look to Hermes for a similar God. Messages, sexuality, travel. One of my favorites.

I went to bed at 9 last night, trying (and failing) to lose my current headache. So I guess I'll be watching this episode after work today. Nice to see they went outside of the western pantheons, although it sounds like there was a fair bit of fail in how they handled things. No Cass, though? Darn. I quite like Cas. I watched 99 Problems last night and, while there were some aspects that made me try (and, again, fail) to raise an eyebrow, I did like Cas's confusion about setting up his voice mail. Also the bit about the bender.

It seems to me that comparitively speaking, there weren't that many gods in the hotel. Not only were the pantheons we saw only spottily represented, there were a crapload that were left out. I got the impression that the group was a) cherry-picked by Kali and Baldur as being most likely to go along with a plan they'd already decided on or b) only a small number of the invitees RSVP'd.

Also, I was so hoping that the Casa Erotica DVD was an escape hatch for Gabriel.

Had it ever been stated in-show that the Trickster was Loki? Or did we just get one hell of a nod to pre-S5 fanon?

When the Trickster was first introduced in Tall Tales, Bobby said the boys had a trickster on their hands, referencing Loki in his supporting explanation.

I am going to miss Gabriel/the Trickster. I love how he died. "I'm doing this for THEM."

I hope somehow that is seen favorably by God, wherever God is, and we can see Gabriel resurrected just as Castiel was.

Ah, so it was implied if not stated outright that he was/could have been Loki

I love how he died. "I'm doing this for THEM."

Oh, yes. I loved that whole last scene with Lucifer and Gabriel. I think Gabriel absolutely nailed it in that speech.

That brings to mind something else - given the show's themes, I think Lucifer shanking Gabriel with so little hesitation carries a lot of weight.

I like the idea that the gods were only there in vessels, and it's the vessels that were summarily executed. If killing an angel gets a light show, I would think killing a deity would get a lot more, and we didn't see any of that.

I think Lucifer shanking Gabriel with so little hesitation carries a lot of weight.

I think Lucifer is so sold on his own hype that he thinks anyone who stands in the way is his enemy, even his own brother. But, I did think he showed a little bit of reaction, maybe even regret, when killing Gabriel, and that might be telling when we get to a later confrontation.