Axl and Zeb return home to find Stacey pole dancing on Yggdrasil applauded by Olaf and Ingrid. I’m sure there are stranger homecomings; the party breaks up a little and Stacey explains to Axl that Yggdrasil stick does different things for different goddesses. Michele arrives to collect Yggdrasil (but not Ingrid) and expresses her arch disapproval of using Yggdrasil as a prop in drinking sessions (hah, this is NORSE mythology. Drinking sessions are practically a sacred rite!)
Michele needs Yggdrasil to go to Anders’s place where he has a very sick man, dying of cancer, who they hope to extract a lot of cash from. However when he greets her with “you look more like a prostitute” she turns to leave saying “good luck with the cancer”. You go Michele. While it is, of course, deeply wrong to try and screw people for money for miracle cures, it’s always more comforting when said screwee is an arsehole.
And it’s prostate cancer – Anders hands her some gloves. Oh she will make him pay for this.
The next day she wakes up next to Mike for some awkwardly dodged questions and checking that Mike is still pouting with his brothers.
More happily, Dawn and Ty wake up in bed together. They’ve moved in together (that was fast) but Dawn reassures him that it’s not too fast (you sure Dawn) and they did discuss it (while having sex – worst time EVER to discuss ANYTHING. No-one wants to say no and completely ruin the mood). They’re incredibly cutesy together though there’s an issue – which Ty goes to get advice from Olaf about. Ty, worried about Dawn, is being super clinging and intense which is making Dawn take a bit of a step back. Olaf isn’t helpful
Zeb and Axl take Ingrid to breakfast to bribe her into their next plan to find Frigg – Yggdrasil. If Yggdrasil makes Ingrid super-smart then she should use it to find Frigg, though it may take some practice to get her used to it. Problem –Michele is very protective of Yggdrasil.
Dawn arrives at work and Axl has second thoughts about telling Dawn the big secret since she cracks up at Odin delivering pizza. Axl wants Anders to get the Yggdrasil stick from Michele (with a side order of “Mike’s not the boss of me”) which Anders isn’t a fan of because Michele will hurt him and he’s a cowards.
While Axl and Anders are out that leaves Olaf to meddle with Dawn and Ty’s affairs by talking and listening and feeding her cannabis biscuits. Both get promptly stoned and then Axl calls to tell her about a PR meeting with the dog food people he had scheduled and now can’t make. She has to. While stoned
Despite that, when she goes out for air, Olaf catches up with her and they end up eating more of his biscuits and staring at the clouds. Olaf tries to tell her why Ty is worried – leading with how dark and terrible things tend to happen to mortals who know about gods. Dawn runs away. Not the plan.
Olaf tracks her down to hiding in the bushes and asks if Ty’s going to freeze her – as he has before. Olaf’s current theory is that the Hodr powers are fuelled by dark thoughts (Ty’s guilt about lying to her) and so, no he won’t. She points out that Ty did kill Olaf – which bemuses Olaf because she’s talking about the myth – when Hodr killed Bladur. Olaf again doubts the realness of the stories. Dawn leaves again after confusing them both.
Ty drops in on the office with more clinging worry food to offer Dawn and finds the remains of Olaf’s dope biscuits. He joins Olaf at the children’s play area where Dawn is cowering at the top of a climbing frame. They talk at the top, Ty promises to use all his powers to stop bad things happening to Dawn and says that nothing bad will ever happen to her.
Anders is with Michele talking to Guy, the man she cured whose doctor is in shock because he is cured of terminal, untreatable cancer. He will pay her money he will do everything he can to help - and he wants in. To which Anders quickly shuffles him out the room – it seems Anders has been making plans without involving Michele. Anders dodges Michele’s questions – but Michele isn’t easily avoided, even when the $50,000 becomes $200,000. Anders works on Michele, mocking his brother and how he will “rain on their parade” questioning whether Michele is in love with him, whether she’d really be happy being “Michele the builder’s wife” and generally expertly hitting every insecurity she has. He tries to push her into dropping Mike
And Mike orders a pizza so he can talk to Axl. Advantage of this? Awkward family discussions come with pizza! Mike apologises for losing his temper and tries to rebuild bridges back to where they were after the roadtrip. Mike extends the hand of peace, Axl is still a little snarky. They talk and when Axl leaves because he’s been called by Zeb about them having the stick, Mike also leaves, after invoking his Ullr powers. When Michele leaves her meeting with Anders, Mike is there, watching her.
Zeb and Axl convince Ingrid to use Yggdrasil and she looks on her charts on the wall and sees connections and runs in blazing orange light- and starts talking in Norse. Which, unfortunately, neither Zeb nor Axl speak. When she touches the mystery note left by the stalker guy for Axl she says “Heimdall” the watchman of the gods and then Hoenir (the god who gave reason to man). Axl touches her trying to bring her back to topic and she comes out of her trance and says she has directions to Frigg. The chase is one.
While Mike goes to the hotel room that Michele emerged from and finds Anders, in a robe. After a brief moment where Anders assures Mike he’s not sleeping with Michele (Mike knows – he trusts her and she has taste – true on the first part. The second? Well…) Anders tells Mike what they’re doing and Mike leaves, no happy. He calls Michele to give her a heads up but she’s looking for the missing Yggdrasil, currently on the Frigg hunt.
Which is chaotic because Ingrid speaks in Norse and gives directions in Norse while Axl drives – and the pressure of it gives her a nose bleed. Zeb calls a halt when he sees how badly Ingrid is doing. But once the car stop she gets out and starts walking. They chase her down to an old folks home and take the stick off her. They go inside and she leads them to a silent man, a catatonic man – Hoenir. Frederick Larson and his daughter is Frigg. Unfortunately “Larson” is a very common name and Frederick is injured and catatonic – unless they get Michele to heal him.
Mike and Michele have the awkward discussion – Michele claims that, for her, it’s far more about doing good and helping people with her power than it is the money (especially since she was initially healing without being paid). Mike puts it down to her feeding her ego and being more than a minor goddess to which Michele flares back what is so wrong about her feeling good about what she’s doing? She loves saving lives (remember again that she’s a doctor by profession). He’s against using god powers – especially using them to decide who gets to live or die (or, rather, who she chooses to save or not). She asks if they’re finished and he asks if she’ll stop – she counters that she would be stopping because he told her to which isn’t the basis for a good relationship. She would be stopping the one thing that gave her life meaning – she would resent him forever. Their relationship is off.
Axl leaves the other two at the retirement home to track down Michele to get her to heal – except Michele is hellaciously pissed. She reminds Axl she’s Sjofn, “minor goddess”, and she shot him with an arrow precisely to STOP him becoming Odin. Axl threatens her –but she tells him that Mike is ahead of him – the god of the hunt is hunting.
Mike arrives at the room and takes Yggdrasil. He declares it’s wrong to use it – and hits Zeb when he tries to stop him. He takes it outside, heading towards a woodchipper as Axl and Michele arrive. He calls Yggdrasil a corruption that doesn’t belong in this world. He throws Yggdrasil into the woodchipper. Axl charges Mike, knocking him aside, but it’s too late. The branch of Yggdrasil is reduced to woodchips.
Michele is furious. Axl is furious and calls it nothing more than Mike trying to control them – and tells him he isn’t Odin and that he’s seen inside Mike’s head.
I can understand Mike’s concerns - especially since bringing money into it leaves it all kinds of skeevy – but I can’t follow him with it, especially just taking Michele’s legitimate desire to heal people. She shouldn’t heal because she can’t get to everyone? She has the power to choose who lives and dies so she should decide everyone gets to die rather than saving the people she can? Where’s the ethical choice there?
And, ultimately, it’s her ethical choice. Mike dishing in the ultimatum shows his incredible control issues. On some level I understand them, since he is practiced in constantly having to clean up messes – people make their own decisions but they always expect Mike to clean up after them so I get him trying to play safe and prevent future messes happening, but it’s not his choice to make still. Even for his brothers – let alone Michele.
What, exactly, is Mike afraid of? The godkillers have been exposed and dealt with and weren’t up to much anyway. Does he think there’s going to be a witchhunt against a faith healer in 2013 New Zealand? A faith healer with PROVABLE results?
And why is Mike hunting? Mike is stopping them using Yggdrasil? Where did this come from? Why? How can Yggdrasil be a corruption that doesn’t belong? If that applies to the World Tree surely that applies to the gods themselves? The only explanation is simply adding "it gives people power Mike can't control."
I did want to see more of Dawn getting used to the god stuff. I didn’t want to see her running for the hills stoned.
More Odin-ness! There’s only a few episodes left in the seasons and I don’t think Axl has come into his Odin powers once.
