Review by RCRs Henry Abrams, entertainment reporter, follow him on Twitter @Seven16
This week’s American Gods started off with an animated segment rather than the previous live-action centric ones before it. As I’ve said many times before, I find it refreshing that the show takes such bold risks at the opening in order to instigate a reaction, whether it’s necessary or not. Thus far, all have proven to be, so you won’t hear a peep of negativity from me. It’s not very long considering the others that came before, but it continues to set up the idea that was presented to us a few weeks back; A god dies if they are forgotten.
Immediately following this comes the eagerly-anticipated confrontation between Shadow and Laura. Back from the dead, she’s ready to talk, but at the same time, Shadow is still in a lot of pain over her betrayal, so his mind races over all of this without a second thought. The fact that we get a good amount of time with them was much needed after playing on our expectations since the end of the second to last episode, especially now that we’ve seen both sides of the story. There’s still a lot left for the two to talk over, but not before Wednesday shows up, asking to have a drink with Shadow, hoping to explain the strange occurrences once and for all. However, before he can, the cops show up and arrest the duo for bank robbery, leaving Laura alone at the motel.
Media, dressed up in David Bowie drag, meets with Technical Boy, the little toad smoker from the pilot, in a scene that wouldn’t be out of place in a late period Stanley Kubrick film. She explains that he needs to apologize to Shadow at the behest of someone named ‘Mr. World’, and that if that apology is inauthentic, there will be serious consequences. What I particularly loved about this scene is that it was goofy and sinister at the same time. The background music also felt like a mix between modern electro-pop and classic Bowie, as if two worlds were colliding, which bolstered the tension. It’s nice to see that little details like this aren’t thrown in haphazardly, and only make the proceedings richer for it.
In separate interrogation rooms, Shadow and Wednesday are confronted with the evidence against them, yet not all is as it seems. The detective interviewing Shadow informs him that a tip was what brought them down, and not the normal kind of tip, the kind that comes with coordinates and photographs from a satellite. While Shadow contemplates whether he should talk, in the other room, Wednesday spouts off about what’s really been going on, which all sounds like mumbo jumbo to the other detective. Once again, the dichotomy here brings a nice balance between the serious and humorous.
Back at the motel, Laura meets Mad Sweeney, who has tracked her down, demanding his lucky coin from her. With her powers, she quickly gets the upper hand, and tortures him for information, whilst he spews every vile word in the book at her. Once she’s caught up to speed, Sweeney tells her that he’ll take the coin when all the flesh has fallen off her bones, knowing full well her zombified state won’t last forever. He attacks her, but is quickly apprehended by the cops while she plays ‘dead’ in the tub. In this circumstance, a bit of dark humor and literal puns never hurt anyone, especially not this reviewer.
That leads us to the best scene in the series so far, where Shadow and Wednesday are broken out of their cuffs by Mr. World (played with perfection by Crispin Glover), the boss behind Media and Technical Boy. He knows everything, and sees everything, essentially a database of the world’s knowledge in one man. He has Technical Boy apologize to Shadow, then proposes an alliance with Wednesday in order to bring his influence back to the world before it dies out. While being exposition heavy, it finally answers a lot of the significant questions I’ve had thus far, and really shows a level of creativity that might otherwise seem rather absurd under different circumstances.
This week’s episode was the strongest yet, with a payoff that I didn’t see coming, and was oh-so-sweet in execution. I am absolutely enthralled with the prospect of Crispin Glover as the main villain, and the fact our heroes now have a clear motivation to continue forward in their mission. It’s impressive that Fuller let the first four episodes burn as slow as they did in order to bring us to a level of understanding in the chaos. There’s a lot more to unpack here, but that goes without saying, so I won’t say anything except what’s coming next is going to get weird in a hurry, and I can’t wait to find out how weird it’s willing to get.
Lemon Scented You: 9.4/10
About Episode 5 of American Gods on Starz
Mr. World explains to Mr. Wednesday why his ways simply don’t work anymore.
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When Shadow Moon is released from prison, he meets the mysterious Mr. Wednesday and a storm begins to brew. Little does Shadow know, this storm will change the course of his entire life. Left adrift by the recent, tragic death of his wife, and suddenly hired as Mr. Wednesday’s bodyguard, Shadow finds himself in the center of a world that he struggles to understand. It’s a world where magic is real, where the Old Gods fear both irrelevance and the growing power of the New Gods, like Technology and Media. Mr. Wednesday seeks to build a coalition of Old Gods to defend their existence in this new America, and reclaim some of the influence that they’ve lost. As Shadow travels across the country with Mr. Wednesday, he struggles to accept this new reality, and his place in it.
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