After last week's cliffhanger ending
which saw Shadow come face to face with his resurrected wife we are
treated this episode to an extended flashback telling the story of
their relationship and leading us right back up to the same point. It
seems strange to say but this is perhaps the oddest episode so far,
eschewing the historical vignettes, the first half largely bereft of
supernatural qualities, and with the main plot being sidelined in
favour of filling in background details. Episode 4 is really the
story of Laura Moon, who we meet working at a casino when her future
husband Shadow walks in. Their relationship gets off to a passionate
start and shortly after they are married. However, it is clear that
Laura is quite troubled (having attempted to commit suicide before
meeting Shadow) and we get the uneasy appreciation of seeing their
relationship from her perspective. It is an unusual episode since we
know exactly what is going to happen from the preceding instalments
(i.e. Shadow will be arrested, Laura will be unfaithful and
eventually killed), but they do a good job of keeping you interested
as things unfold.
Although the show has always had one
eye on character, this episode is all about establishing the
relationship between Shadow and Laura. As we've come to expect there
is a great subtlety about how they give information, such as the shot
showing Laura arriving at work, emphasising the monotony of her life,
and the brief glimpse we see of the hot tub later referencing her
earlier suicide attempt. The episode also featured some of the
funniest and most horrific scenes thus far. The dark, off-colour,
humour reached new heights this week with what essentially amounted
to a re-animated corpse evacuating her bowels of embalming fluid
while her former friend watches on in horror. The zombie special
effects and make-up were exceptional. If there was one problem with
the show it was that it felt a little like a filler episode. The
story of Shadow and Mr. Wednesday was put on hold, we saw few of the
gods we've been introduced to. It makes perfect sense to do things
this way of course as Laura's story works as a standalone episode
better than it would intercut into the rest of the drama, but I was
hoping for a little bit of progression. Another little reference I
liked was the flies that seem to constantly interrupt scenes
throughout. Some reference to Beelzebub, or simply to death?
Especially, macabre was the mounting number of flies when Laura is
sitting in the room at the end, keeping you aware if you had
forgotten that she is actually dead.
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