Well it all happened this episode, the lines are drawn,
supernatural open and clear and the battles ready
The introduction was ideal showing us an old god,
Nanunini, god of the people who crossed the land bridge from Siberia to North
America. Like pretty much every god we’ve seen, he was empowered/created by
sacrifice, human sacrifice. But, as the narration is clear, humans hold the
true power. Gods are born in the hearts of men – and when mankind forgets a
god, the god dies
And lo, we have the whole core of what Wednesday and his
fellow much reduced gods are facing – being forgotten and dying.
Before we get to the war we have the very heavy and very
awesomely acted and highly emotional moment of Shadow reuniting with his dead
wife. There’s a lot of excellent emotion from Shadow here – anger and grief and
shock and just plain on-the-edge-of-breaking trying to understand everything.
Laura seems to try and hold up the idea that
hey-miracle-I’m-back-let’s-focus-on-this but Shadow isn’t as quick to run with
it. After the last few days, coming back from the dead isn’t going to distract
him. Or, maybe, after the last few days coming back from the dead is just
something else he can’t even absorb at the moment. There’s a definite sense of
Shadow reaching a breaking point.
He’s not exactly ready to let go of the whole cheating on
him even as she describes her mindset and assures him that she does truly love
him. She tries to seduce him but I’s all faintly surreal with her doing things
like bathing in hot water to raise her body temperature for him – it’s all
faintly surreal, slightly creepy. When she kisses him, her heart beats –
pointing to him giving her some sense of life. Laura is confident and certain
about what she wants but Shadow just feels kind of lost, needing time to just
absorb everything. I can’t say enough how good this scene is with all the
emotion and eerie feel and poor Shadow just being kind of lost in the middle of
it.
Though he’s interrupted by Wednesday who has just been
woken up by one of his ravens – Hugnin or Munin (and this episode is definitely
the one where all of the could-be-maybe-is-it-magic becomes Oh yes, magic and
gods clearly on display) warning him about the police arriving; who promptly
arrest Wednesday and Shadow for bank robbery. Oops.
At the police station Wednesday pulls out his full
dementia act and then doubles down on it by telling them the truth – that he
was recruiting and ancient terrifying god which even the new gods are afraid
of. He’s duly confused his police officer while Shadow is wisely stonewalling
his, demanding a lawyer repeatedly. She ominously tells them about the
dangerous enemies Wednesday has – someone sent them a fax detailing exactly
where they were, to actual map grid references and the vin number of the car.
And the fax machine wasn’t even plugged in.
Putting them both in the same room, presumably to record
their conversation Wednesday warns Shadow they need to get out quickly before
they’re seen – and killed. Wednesday is eerily afraid but thankfully Nancy is
there to open the cuffs.
But we need to catch up with the new gods. Media ambushes
Technical Boy to read him the riot act about images and narrative, all the
while looking so much like Bowie, it’s positively eerie. She is concerned about
image, about branding in the eyes of Mr. World (and it’s clear the New Gods –
maybe all gods – are very concerned about image and narrative). Specifically
they sent Technical boy to ask Shadow some questions and ended up with him
lynching a black man. Media and Mr. World are clearly very aware and not happy
with the racial connotations of this (I’m very glad that American Gods hasn’t tried to gloss over this while aiming for more
Odin references). Media demands an apology – not for Mr. World, but for Shadow
and Wednesday.
Technical Boy just can’t understand this as they’re
completely ignoring Wednesday as he runs around and recruits “monsters” for his
cause to which Media gets cryptic. Media talks about both the fear of Wednesday
being a martyr since martyrdom is a powerful belief (hence al the sacrifices we
see) – and as for Technical Boy dismissing him as delusional? She is Media, she
has seen the terrifying power that mass delusion can have, even implying there
are aliens out there simply because humanity has been convinced about this by
media delusions. In a world where, as the opening scenes was clear, gods are
born by human belief, mass delusion (and the power of Media herself) is a major
force.
To which we return to the prison where Media comes to the
police station with all the electronics flicking off – and she comes as Marilyn
Monroe and floating about a foot off the ground. If Shadow had any doubts about
the supernatural before, this is beyond clear – the supernatural thrown right
in his face. He is duly freaked out.
She is here to introduce Mr. World who arrives with one of the most epic displays of creepiness ever. The floor tiles lighting under his feet, telling Shadow incredibly private information about himself and his family, changing his face to Shadow’s and then just pixels – Mr. World is everything, knows everything and can open handcuffs with a wave of his hand. He is definitely powerful and Wednesday is definitely afraid of him.
They also drag in Technical boy, manhandle him, offer him
to Shadow for some violence before making him apologise and acknowledge how
racially terrible the whole thing was.
Mr. World is here to recruit Wednesday – in a long speech
about rebranding and adapting (which is what the new gods are all about) he
denies there’s even a war between them – tghey want a merger. They want him to
be part of the new collective – and again Mr. World has a big speech about how
everything is connected and related and the individualism of the old gods no
longer applies. It’s a long speech with lots and lots to unpack here, from the
idea of individual narrative to a greater context/system (and the implication
that that greater context basically means a level of subservience to Mr. World
since he seems to be the ESSENCE of the collectivism) to how narratives and
gods are shaped to what the actual roles gods have.
The method they propose is a nuclear satellite – called
Odin (and everyone has guessed Wednesday is Odin by now, right?) to nuke North
Korea: name, narrative and human sacrifice. All the keys to god power.
Wednesday isn’t buying it. He knows he’s a pain in their
backsides – or grit in their oyster – and he recognises them trying to sideline
and co-opt him. On some level they’re afraid of him – or, at very least,
respect him. As Mr. World says to Technical Boy (who doesn’t understand why
they don’t kill him right there), Wednesday is older and wiser than Technical
Boy will ever be. He’s cunning and Mr. World seems at least a little wary of
that. Technical Boy isn’t – but Media shuts him up with a tooth-shattering
blown kiss before they leave to let Wednesday consider their offer.
Wednesday also claims that he and his fellow gods give
something back – rather than just command attention. Which is an interesting
point – because every time we’ve seen the gods being born or being established
in America so far, including Nanunini, it has been because someone has prayed
and asked them for something. From Anansi’s slave ship to Odin’s Vikings killing
each other for wind even to Anubis helping people to the afterlife. They
provide something… do the modern gods do that? Or do they just entertain? Do
they just, as Wednesday says, consume attention?
Wednesday and Shadow leave – through a ruined police
station full of brutally murdered police and a terrifying animate wood/tree (I
wonder about that – living wood doesn’t seem like a Modern God power).
Well that’s the battle lines laid out and we can clearly
see which side represents what and all done with several layers of epic and
power and eeriness.
Catching back up with Laura – Mad Sweeney finds her and
tries to get his coin back. This is difficult because a) she has to give it to
him freely and b) she has super strength and is more than capable of battering
him around the room by her finger tips and torturing him to get more
information (and breaking things when he calls her a c*nt – which even with the
violent slap down is grossly unnecessary with the many insult she could have
chosen)
He tries to bribe her with coins. She doesn’t buy it. He
tries to threaten her, she hurts him. She does beat out of him that Wednesday
had asked him to pick a fight with Shadow. He even talks about how she’ll rot
and he will be able to take the coin from her skeleton. And then he tries to
drown her
Which isn’t likely to kill a zombie – but it does mean
when the police arrive she can play dead so he can be arrested for murder. She
later escapes the morgue – and he escapes the police because they take him back
to the massacre police station
This episode is where all the epic meta finally started.
No more hinting, the cards are revealed and the big powers and stances have
been revealed – all while being eerie, powerful, well acted and with some
amazing visuals.
Completely unrelated tangent – the very concept of American gods is new media replacing the
old gods – but I wonder about how we’d actually see more of a resurgence? I
mean, go back 100 years, how many of your average people around the world would
have heard of Odin or Czernoborg? But modern media spreading old stories,
retelling old stories, spreading those stories to every corner of the world
would surely give them greater attention than ever before? Sure, more people
may know Odin as the father of a superhero with a metal eye-patch in a weird
sci-fi setting than as the old wanderer, but they know of him.
