WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 15, Episode 11 of Supernatural, "The Gamblers."
The final season of Supernatural has Sam and Dean Winchester locked in a battle of the ages with none other than God; a supreme primordial being housed, in The CW series, in the body of a "squirrelly" novelist called Chuck. But as the season's eleventh episode reminds us, Chuck isn't the only deity still knocking around in Supernatural's multiverse. "The Gamblers" introduced us to Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck -- Lady Luck herself -- who, appropriately, runs a pool hall in Alaska where those down on their fortunes can literally bet their luck against another's in the hopes of winning more. Losing, however, could make you unlucky enough to become a magnet for death.
Sam and Dean are drawn to Fortuna's pool hall after discovering that Chuck has downgraded their status in his "story;" removing their plot armor, so to speak, to give them worse luck than they've ever had before. When Fortuna challenges Sam to a game of winner-takes-all pool, he manages to get her talking in the hopes of distracting her. This leads to Fortuna providing fans, for the first time, with an origin story for Supernatural's pantheon of non-monotheistic gods, such as Ra, Anu, Hera and Mixcoatl. This will no doubt have long-time viewers casting their minds back to the Season 5 episode, "Hammer of the Gods," which prominently featured these ancient beings in a showdown against the Devil.
Fortuna explains that, while God was responsible for creating everything, including other gods, humans were the ones to inspire their creation. "When you apes first climbed down from the trees, you didn't pray to Him. You prayed to the sun, the womb, the rain and the stars. Well, at first the Creator was furious. How dare you not recognize his beneficence? But soon enough, he birthed us." She goes on to say that the gods' purpose was really to act as God's scapegoats for when things went wrong on Earth, "plus, we made for epic stories. But his ego could only handle that for so long. Now he's happy to hide behind whatever religion has the best syndication deal, while we survive on scraps in the wilderness. Most gods, they've forgotten, but I'm old, I hold a grudge."
In "Hammer of the Gods," we also got a taste of these deities' displeasure with God and his angelic (and demonic) progeny when a committee of them, nicknamed the Legion of Doom by Dean, met in secret to come up with a plan of action to stop the Apocalypse. Among them were Kali, Ganesh, Odin, Baldur, Zao Shen, Mercury, Baron Samedi and Isis. Their plan was simple: Take Sam and Dean (Lucifer and archangel Michael's true vessels, respectively) hostage so they could cut a deal that would prevent the end of the world. Archangel Gabriel's warnings about what his older brother would do to them fall on deaf ears, and things take an inevitably violent turn when the Devil does indeed catch wind of their planned intervention.
The ensuing battle, featuring Lucifer cutting a bloody path through the gods -- and seemingly claiming Gabriel's life in the process -- has become a favorite among most fans. And for good reason. Not only does the episode show Lucifer at the height of his merciless powers, but this smörgåsbord of international supreme beings all gathered in one place expanded Supernatural's mythology to a more global scale.
Fortuna, played to sour, sassy perfection by Linda Boyd (who previously appeared as a Djinn in a Season 8 episode), opens up the opportunity for a "Hammer of the Gods: Part Two" in Season 15. Particularly as she made no secret of her deep disdain for Chuck. She even gave him a reason to come after her himself by restoring Sam and Dean's abnormally good fortunes -- noting their similarity to the legendary heroes of her own age, such as Hercules. Though many of the deities the Winchesters have crossed paths with have ended up meeting their doom, there are still a slew of them out there somewhere, like the aforementioned Ra, Anu, Hera and Mixcoatl, as well as Anubis, Thor and, most notably, Kali.
Kali was the sole survivor of Lucifer's massacre in "Hammer of the Gods." As a doomsday-bringing force of nature, Kali was clearly the most powerful of the group, and understandably indignant about Lucifer being the one destined to bring about the Apocalypse rather than her. However, rather than the bloodthirsty goddess fighting her way to freedom, she's saved from what is implied to be certain death at the fallen angel's hands by Gabriel, Sam and Dean.
This lends even more weight to the argument that a Round Two needs to take place, not only because it would just be cool to see another godly smackdown, but because it would give Supernatural a chance to make up for the glaringly problematic part of "Hammer of the Gods." Though it is beloved by a lot of fans, the episode took some critical berating when it aired for its imbalanced power dynamics. Having the likes of Ganesh and Kali outmatched by an archangel -- even the most powerful among them -- smacks of Western cultural bias; more specifically, Judeo-Christian theological bias.
Sure, Supernatural is an American-set story that revolves mainly around Biblical lore (Sam and Dean are the descendants of Cain and Abel). But in powering up its central Big Bad, the series insensitively powered down other religious figures that are still actively followed by large portions of the world's population.
Fortuna's comment about humans lending these gods their powers through the strength of belief could also be an interesting one to pursue further. Chuck's villainous turn is rooted in a "boot vs. ant" mentality about humanity and, well, pretty much everything else lower down than his divine self. There'd be no greater poetic justice than a creator who craves the worship of his subjects being left reeling by the beings humans once favored over him.
We're not saying that a rag-tag group of old gods will be the linchpin in the war on God, but #JusticeForKali -- and a cold dish of revenge served up by Fortuna -- is definitely something we want to see as the long-running series enters its closing episodes.
Returning Monday, March 16 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, the final season of Supernatural stars Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Misha Collins and Alexander Calvert.