No-one’s happy with Mike now, starting with Zeb and Axl ranting away in their flat with Axl angrily stating he is Odin, no-one else, not Mike. On that note he heads out. He has a plan. Oh dear
First step of that plan involves Axl, Anders, Ty and Olaf gathering together but Olaf isn’t necessarily on board the whole idea of Axl’s visions and thinks Mike destroyed Yggdrasil for moral reasons (no-one gets healed at all? I put it down more to power outside of his control). And Olaf wants to double check that they are sure that Mike ISN’T Odin because of woo-woo and stuff. But, ultimately, Odin will be defined by his actions – like finding Frigg; which Axl and Anders are going to do.
And Mike? Mike has a crushed car and a very angry Michele. He still gets transport, goes to a house and asks the man – is that strange-stalky-man-who-is-probably-Heimdall? – to see the woman who lives there and he says “no” and shuts the door on Mike. When Mike knocks again the man yells “all wrong, go away”. He closes the door – but leaves it ajar. Mike opens it, goes in…
And appears in his bar with Ty in the room. He goes outside – yep, it’s the street outside the bar. (Oh I need one of these for door-to-door canvassers!) Inside the bar his little football game has been cut in half – that would be an angry chainsaw wielding Michele. Ty and Mike talk about the whole Odin thing and Mike has been doing his research after Michele’s mother, Karen, warned him about being Ullr. Since “Ullr” means glory, he says some people considered Ullr and Odin to be interchangeable.
The goddesses get together for Ingrid and Stacey to marvel and praise Michele’s revenge campaign, though Ingrid is all kinds of stunned that Michele isn’t a sobbing mess of sadness. Michele is more in for revenge – gods aren’t worth any of their tears
Axl’s plan is actually pretty good – just take Anders to the Retirement home and use his Bragi powers to learn who Frederick Larson’s next of kin is – though that does involve keeping Anders on topic – complete with “retarded” joke – which is a pretty epic task in itself. He’s still distracted by an attractive nurse who rather openly crushes on Anders at first sight (perfectly understandable, especially since she hasn’t heard him speak yet). And she’s an identical twin – which of course Anders makes skeevy.
Mike returns to the house to be told to go away again; the man (possibly Heimdall) knows who Mike is and what he wants – which Mike snarks that him and everyone else apparently. But also that, as Ullr, he will find her. He opens the door and sees the man, her brother, Frigg’s brother. The man again says this isn’t the way it’s meant to happen – but leads Mike into the house and to another teleport back to the bar. I like this power.
In the bar is Olaf, who is frustrated by everyone being interested in the stories despite him repeatedly saying they’re just stories. Mike takes this and dismisses the signs pointing to Axl being Odin because they’re similarly not fact – so it comes down to finding Frigg. And Olaf confirms that Mike has met Heimdall, the Guardian. His ability to move between realms means he can send people anywhere he wants. Also, because Heimdall sees all and hears all in every realm, he is driven mad by the overload and it’s a good idea to stay away from him and so far he has been playing nice.
Anders has finished his “mission” which apparently took longer than expected and resulted in his flies being undone, but he has the details for Axl. They go to the address (and the cameraman is now playing to getting shots of how Anders fills his impeccably tailored trousers, don’t tell me that wasn’t intentional. I like this camerawork). It appears to be a sheltered place and we add retirement homes and mentally ill people to the vast list of things Anders is scared of. So Anders stays outside – and gets a sext from Michele? Oh that’s not good.
Axl goes to the correct room and finds Norse runes written on the wall. He also finds a scrabble tray with several tiles on it he plays with before leaving. When he’s gone Heimdall climbs out of the wardrobe and resets the letters how they were muttering “can’t make it any easier, it’s not in the rules.”
Axl leaves and Anders abandons him because, well, Michele sent him a picture of herself in her underwear. Of course he’s going to ditch Axl. Anders follows the bait, goes to her, follows the trail of abandoned clothes and finds… Michele. Fully clothed. Bait for a “dumb animal”. But she assures him he’s still on her “revenge fuck” list - having being scorned by a man she believes it’s traditional to have sex with said man’s friend or sibling for vengeance sake – and Mike has no friends which leaves his 3 brothers. She’s done Axl, no need to return and Ty has girlfriend and morality so too much effort. Sad thing is that Anders wants it too much, Mike would expect it so there’s no fun revenge element.
Anders seems quite wounded and pouty by the whole thing and they spar a little longer but she wants the money from their last client, the $200,000 client. She wants $175,000 (since she challenged him to bring in a $50,000 client and he delivered way above expectation she assumes all the excess is hers. I… can’t quite follow that logic). Anders’ plays his ace card – Mike has ditched her for a “newer model” – she doesn’t know what he means and Anders tells her of Mike’s quest for Frigg and implies that Mike set up the whole argument and destroying Yggdrasil so he could break up with Michele to be free for Frigg.
Mike heads back to the house and uses his Ullr power to find the hidden key to the back door and goes in and searches the room. Heimdall wakes up when he senses this and teleports himself to confront Mike. He asks Mike who he is –Mike says “Ullr” and Heimdall says “exactly, nothing more” and closes the door. Heimdall adds that it isn’t a game, it’s too important (avoiding Mike’s little “want to play games” trap he repeatedly tries – because 2 people have to agree to a game) and there’s too much escape – but Mike has escaped out the window (what, he can hear everything that happens in every plane but not Mike climbing out a window). They dodge around doorways for a while before Heimdall pushes Mike into a bathroom and threatens to send him to bad places and the only reason he hasn’t done so is because Mike is needed – but not that much.
Before sending him back to his bar where Olaf, again, reminds Mike he’s looking not to be sent somewhere awful like the middle of a volcano or Wisconsin (Dogma reference, lovers of Wisconsin hold your ire). And Michele is waiting for him – the volcano may have been safer. She wants to know if Mike decided to trade up in the goddess department; Mike again says he’s never ever said he wants to be Odin – but Michele skewers that perfectly, his superiority complex says it for him. Mike accuses her of messing with the natural order (what part of being gods is Mike not understanding?) and Michele again accuses him of trying to be Odin – messing with said natural order. She also hopes Frigg rejects him – and she’s shredded his clothes.
Axl brings the much wiser (when sober) Ingrid to the room with the Norse runes on the walls – encouraging her that Yggdrasil only emphasised the power Ingrid already had (which she calls not true but lovely of him to say). He adds “I believe in your Snotra”. She translates the words, it’s a line from the edda, “Widely I saw over all the worlds, loud blows Heimdall, the horn is aloft”. Axl, somehow, realises that Heimdall is Frigg’s brother, Martin. And the edda is the opening heral of Ragnorok – though Ingrid thinks it could be an affirmation – she wrote affirmations on her walls during her “wilderness years” when she didn’t realise she was a goddess.
Looking at the scrabble clue, Ingrid instantly splits it into Villi and Ve. Odin’s brothers – who both slept with Frigg as well, and Axl wonders if that’s a prophecy, especially with Mike.
And Mike goes to see Ty – and has Mike even reasonably tried to make up with Ty after blowing up all over him? Which is good because Dawn wishes to speak to him – she wants to know what happens when they find Frigg. What happens to Ty and her when Ty gets his full powers and becomes the god of darkness? She further adds that she’s come to the conclusion that the Johnson gods don’t actually know a damn thing – they can’t even figure out who Odin actually is. Mike counters that no, they don’t know anything but they have to do it anyway. This… is not a great come back.
Michele goes to Anders’ flat for booze and that revenge fuck. Anders points out it’s not vengeance unless Mike learns about it – she’s confident he will learn, after his dreams of glory have crumbled to dust so it will be an extra kick to the scrotum. They get to it
While that’s happening Axl, Zeb and Ingrid continue to play with anagrams and Axl has a strop and laces into Zeb for very little reason which Zeb objects to because he has always been there for Axl – Axl apologises and it’s an “awww” friend moment. Olaf and Stacey arrive; like Ingrid he instantly sees Villi and Ve. And Stacey, being more sensible and grounded in reality points out that it’s the name of a bridal shop – Vilive – who she does deliveries for. After being hired by Heimdall. And Zeb points out they’ve been looking for Frigg but never once considered that the goddess of marriage may actually be involved in the marriage industry.
Back to Anders and after the act Anders is annoying and Michele is full of sadness and regret – and she cries.
Mike and Ty head back to Heimdall’s for another round of provoking-the-god-to-teleport-me-to-Australia. Heimdall says, again, that Mike just needs to leave her alone. He invites Ty in and Mike runs in after him – annoying Heimdall who doesn’t want his sister with the fake. Apparently Frigg chooses her Odin and Heimdall thinks an extra fake Odin will confuse things; he adds that Mike won’t do the right things, he doesn’t believe so he won’t act (won’t stop Ragnarok?). He storms off, teleporting as he goes through the door – and Ty and Axl follow – because they were playing a game of follow the leader, Ty and Mike, so they get to follow him.
And arrive at the bridal shop. Martin is furious and attacks Mike so they pin him to the floor – and a woman arrives, attracted by the commotion. Heimdall really needs to drop Mike in a volcano.
Outside, Axl and the gang arrive (and Axl invites Zeb to join them) he goes in and sees… Mike and Ty. And Axl sees Frigg – big god moment (should have had some lightning!) He greets her “my lady Frigg” and she greets him “my lord Odin” but Mike is also claiming the title Odin. She spends all her life waiting for Odin to show up and then there’s 2 of them – bit like busses.
I feel Mike’s character has jumped a bit. Last week he was an arsehole but it fit his need for control (which isn’t entirely unjustifiable), but from there he goes to wanting to be Odin and hunting down Frigg?
And Michele made it impossible for them to go on? Yeah, don’t buy that or this natural order crap. Why does he decide (and of course he gets to decide) which god powers are natural order and which aren’t? His grandfather is reborn every day!
And the whole idea that the signs don’t point to Axl being Odin – well lightning struck him, he’s clear some god. And before the signs at all, Oracle Olaf said he was Odin. If he isn’t Odin then who is he? It’s shaky
Would I be totally, terribly wrong in thinking Michele and Anders actually work well together? They’re both manipulative, inclined to cruelty at times and Michele has a positive genius for cutting through his bullshit.
I do like Vengeance Michele – I do not like sad, jealous Michele.
And why is Frigg spending all her life waiting for Odin to turn up – why isn’t she looking?
