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.

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.

This was my take as I was watching last night.

The brother stuff was great in this episode. I also enjoyed every single moment Gabriel was on screen. You'll be missed dude. I enjoyed Kali shooting down Dean and not being fooled by Gabriel. I laughed at the various pop culture references, esp., "I'm the Costner to your Houston."

But I DID NOT like Lucifer defeating a room full of Gods. I think they were so busy being Gaimanesque and clever they missed how insulting they were being. I prefer to think that over they realized but just didn't care. Sigh.

I like the idea that no one really died. Perhaps Gods are not actually killable. And yeah, could Zeus just come down and knock Lucy on the nose with a newspaper? I'd like that.

It would have been interesting if their power were commensurate with people's belief in them. But if that were so, there were some serious inaccuracies in strength portrayed. Wasn't that canon in the Xmas episode with those pagan Gods?

Also, would Gods really not have minions to handle their kill/offerings?

As a side note, I really like how similar Mark's Lucifer is to Jared's.

I think the problem for me was that they were treating all of the gods as MotWs--they were killing people for no apparent reason other than they could, Dean's attitude towards them was typical of how he treats MotW, and they ended up being cannon fodder for the Big Bad. And you know, they're all gods. Why not have a Gods War Council without MotWing them. That would have been really cool, and even if they had died, it wouldn't have bothered me as much.

It would have been interesting if their power were commensurate with people's belief in them

I think that's supposed to be the basic reason Lucifer could beat them, because Judeo Christianity has so many more followers, but still. Weakly executed.

I've mulled, and come to the conclusion that within the show's theology, what really bothers me is what they had to do so that Dean could be pissed at them and insult a room full of gods and not want to work with them, more than the killing (and the vessel thing makes sense, now that it's mentioned)--the human sacrifices. If they honestly had a room full only of gods that accepted them, that would be cool. But I'd be really surprised to discover that. Who did we have?

• Kali
• Mercury
• Baldur
• Ganesh
• Odin
• Baron Samedi

Who else? Who was the Chinese guy?

It makes basic sense that Dean wouldn't want to work with the gods, since he's not that guy, and that Sam would get there easier, but I think it could have been more elegantly (okay, maybe I'm asking Show to be a different show) achieved.

eta: or you know, like in less words, what Perkins said.

It would make me laugh if Thor were to show up and knock Lucy into next week for messing with Daddy.

Dean's attitude towards them was typical of how he treats MotW

Dean doing that didn't bother me as he has been shown as a man of no religious faith and they eat people. He's killed Gods before.

I agree with you about the show treating them as MotW and that was an unfortunate story choice.

I'm ready for this apocalypse to conclude. I'd like a religion-free S6.