Recap of Supernatural
Season 8, Episode 13
Everybody Hates Hitler
"Shaped by clay and brought to life by rabbis to protect the Jewish people in times of, I don't know, general crappiness."—Aaron
"A Jew, two Gentiles, and a golem walk into a bar. And it doesn't end with them coming out."
—Commandant Eckart [to Aaron, Sam, Dean, and the golem]
Written by Ben Edlund.
Directed by Philip Sgriccia.
Air Date: February 6, 2013.
The boys investigate the spontaneous combustion of a Rabbi who was a part of the Judah Initiative, one of the groups the Men of Letters were affiliated with. He turns out to have been researching Nazi necromancers. Then they're attacked by an out-of-control golem, and have to help the Rabbi's grandson stop it.
Body Count:
For this episode = 8 humans and 2 Thule necromancers.
For the series so far = At least 871 humans (of which 6 were witches), 121 demons, 59 angels, 48 ghosts, 43 vampires, 36 Jefferson Starships, 19 zombies, 19 gods, 9 hellhounds, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 5 shapeshifters, 5 werewolves, 4 ghouls, 4 Leviathan, 3 djinn, 3 dogs, 2 Amazons, 2 arachnes, 2 kitsunes, 2 rugarus, 2 Thule, 2 vetalas, 1 crocotta, 1 dragon, 1 fairy, 1 Khan worm, 1 lamia, the Mother of All, 1 okami, 1 phoenix, 1 Purgatory creature, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 reaper, 1 shojo, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 wendigo, 1 whore of Babylon, and 1 wraith.
Tropes
- The Ageless: The necromancers have achieved this, and haven't aged a day since the Second World War.
- Avenging the Villain: At first, Eckart doesn't bring up the matter of the previous necromancer, but when Dean makes light of his death, he turns it into It's Personal territory:Eckart: His name was Torvald, and you will pay dearly for that.
- Big Electric Switch: Used to turn on the power at the Men of Letters headquarters.
- Big Little Man: Dean finds the man tailing Sam, crouched low in the bushes, then has an Oh, Crap! reaction when the golem stands up and Dean realises just how tall he is.
- Blood from the Mouth: The Nazi soldier tossed through the window in the teaser.
- Bond One-LinerNeccromancer: Long live the Thule![Golem breaks his neck]Dean: Or not.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: After revealing the library in the Men of Letter's headquarters, Sam says Dean's "son of a bitch".
- Cool Old Guy: Rabbi Bass was considered this by his grandson and the two girls that Dean interviews, even for a "Conspiracy Nut".
- Continuity Nod: Dean is almost as excited about the water pressure in the bunker's shower as he was about the steam shower in "Bugs" (S01, E08).
- Chekhov's Gun: The red leather ledger in the teaser.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The battle at the German camp, which the golem easily wins.
- Defiant to the End: Rabbi Bass, knowing he's being tailed by a Nazi necromancer, calls him out and dares him to kill him. When the Nazi does so, he dies laughing in the Nazi's face. As a religious Jew, he probably should have been saying the Shema.
Still awesome, though. - Destination Defenestration: The golem tosses a German soldier through a window in the teaser.
- Disposing of a Body: Aaron is freaked out by the sight of the Winchesters digging a grave, throwing in the body, pouring petrol on it, then warming their hands over the subsequent fire.
- Faux Yay: Dean notices that a guy has been following him around town. When Dean questions him, the guy (Aaron) pretends to be gay to allay suspicion.Aaron: [to Dean] So, what you're saying is that, uh...you and me...we...didn't have a moment?
- Final Solution: The plan to close all Hell Gates permanently, trapping all demons in Hell, the hunter tendency to kill anything supernatural, such as the golem itself, and the fact that hunters have nearly exterminated certain types of supernatural beings take on
Unfortunate Implications in this episode, which features Nazis and a Holocaust survivor. - Genocide Backfire: The rabbis of Vitsyebsk, Belarus ended up creating a golem that devastated the Nazi base.
- Ghostapo: The Nazist Thule Society was investigating the art of necromancy, resurrection of the dead. They eventually accomplished this.
- Golem: He destroys a German base during World War II. In the present day, he has been inherited by Aaron from his Rabbi grandfather, a member of the Judah Initiative.
- Guardian Entity: The golem is one for Aaron, albeit a snarky and disapproving one.
- Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: After being asked by a (supposedly) gay guy if they were "having a moment", Dean feels the need to mention to Sam that the women he was talking with prior to that were "very hot".
- Historical In-Joke: The Nazi Commander's name is Eckart. This is a reference to Dietrich Eckart, an early member of the Nazi Party and associate of Adolf Hitler.
- Historical Villain Downgrade: In Real Life, thousands of Jews died in the Vitsyebsk Ghetto in Belarus, and Vitsyebsk, Belarus, was the site of many atrocities, such as burying Jewish children alive.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: The Thule Society was a real life German occultist organization in the early 20th century and had some links to the foundation of the Nazi Party (sponsoring them and sharing some members), but, suffice to say, they did not possess supernatural necromantic powers in real life. It was even dissolved and forbidden by the Nazis in 1935.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: The golem lists the various ways in which Aaron has shunned or disgraced his Jewish heritage, ending with the fact that he eats pork.Aaron: I keep telling you, everyone loves bacon!
- Immune to Bullets: The golem just shrugs off bullet fire from German soldiers.
- Implacable Man: Swords, bullets, magic darts—nothing stops the golem.
- Incendiary Exponent: Eckart disappears in flames in the teaser.
- Kid with the Leash: Aaron with his golem, much to his displeasure. The Golem's not too happy about it either.Aaron: Why can't you just tell me what I don't know?
Golem: [slams table] It is not my place to guide the Rabbi, to teach the teacher. It's not my place! Yifalchunbee! - Magical Library: The hidden library of the Men of Letters, which Sam and Dean find in this episode. It contains all the documents and magical spells collected by the order for the past thousand years, and even has comfy living quarters. The brothers quickly make it their base of operations.
- Mistaken for Gay: Dean. Subverted in that the guy turns out to have been following Dean and used it as a cover-up when Dean noticed.
- Mundane Utility: Using the burning body of a Nazi necromancer to...warm your hands? Okay, Sam.Aaron: They're insane.
- Nazi Hunter: Rabbi Bass and the Judah Initiative.
- Necromancer: The Thule Society.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Eckart tells Aaron how to take charge of the golem.
- No Ontological Inertia: As soon as Torvald is dead, the effect of his enchanted darts is reversed.
- No-Sell: The golem is immune to Torvald's enchanted darts.
- One-Man Army: The golem takes on an entire German army base in occupied Belarus in 1944, and kills almost everyone in it.
- "Open!" Says Me:
- The golem smashes through the door of the office at the Nazi base.
- Dean lockpicks his way into the library after hours.
Aaron: What, do you two just break in wherever you go?Dean: Well, our dad wanted us to have a solid career to fall back on, just in case this hunter thing didn't pan out. - Ow, My Body Part!: "Oh, my spleen..."
- Perpetual-Motion Monster
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title references Everybody Hates Chris.
- Properly Paranoid:
- Amusingly, Sam and Dean burned the Nazi necromancer's corpse before they learned that it was required to permanently keep him dead, apparently just because they believe in covering their bases. Given that a corpse provides a conduit for a vengeful spirit, they probably wanted to avoid a potential pissed off ghost (Eckart mentions briefly talking to Torvald's ghost before the body was destroyed, so that was a sensible precaution too).
- Sam and Dean also speculate on how to take down the golem, despite it being on their side. When Aaron gives them a What the Hell, Hero?, they sheepishly admit that they just prefer to know these things, just in case.
- Ragnarök Proofing: The Men of Letter's headquarters.Dean: The water pressure in the Letters' shower room is marvelous. Presumably there's some kind of magic at work since, despite being locked up for the better part of 70 years, the place doesn't have a single cobweb or speck of dust anywhere.Sam: Yeah, I still can't figure out how we even have water or electricity.Dean: Yep, well, I am putting that under the "ain't broke" column.
- Religion is Magic
- Resurrective Immortality: The necromancers will resurrect twelve hours after they are killed. Putting them down permanently requires burning the body to ashes.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The golem tearing through the Nazi base.
- Secret Circle of SecretsDean: [lifting a scimitar from a display stand] This stuff is awesome, and it looks like they ran a real tight outfit here, but I'm just saying, you know, don't, uh, don't think that they knew some big secrets that we don't know.Sam: Dean... they were a secret society.Dean: Which means that they made crap up and wore fezzes and sashes and swung around scimitars. They probably didn't even sharp— [DEAN runs his finger along the blade and cuts himself] That's very sharp.
- Shout-Out: When they turn on the lights in the headquarters for the Men of Letters, Dean says, "Sammy, I think we found the bat cave."
- The Stoner: Aaron used his grandfather's book of golem instructions to roll joints in high school.Golem: The boy smoked the pages...
- Taking Up the Mantle: Aaron accepts responsibility for the golem, helps the Winchesters fight the Thule, and takes up the cause of the Judah Initiative, finally earning the golem's approval.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Dean sneaks up on the golem—who turns around and stands up to his full height. Dean barely reaches his shoulders. Dean's expression says it all.
- Those Wacky Nazis: The Thule Society. They themselves have come to reject the label.Commander Eckart: Can we please stop with this "Nazi" thing?
- We Will Meet Again:
- Eckart says this isn't over as he uses magic to escape the golem in WW2.
- He does it again at the end of the episode. Given that the Winchesters immediately Boom, Headshot! him and burn the body, at least they won't be seeing that particular necromancer again, we hope. But the Thule Society is still out there, so Aaron takes up the sword.
