After last week's fantastic episode this week brings
together most of the characters we have met, yes even Bilquis makes her long
awaited reappearance, and many of the themes that have been present throughout.
We begin with another exceptional story time with Anansi telling the tale of Queen
Bilquis, all the way from ancient sex goddess, through 1970's disco-era Iran,
to modern day. Her story typifies one of the central pillars of American Gods,
that of the old deities losing their power, having being forgotten and
unworshipped for a long time. She is offered a bargain by the new god of
technology, joining the modern world of online dating and the internet in
general. This show has always had plenty of ideas and keeps you thinking
throughout about the way in which religion has changed and clashed with
technology, or been subsumed by it. We also rejoin Shadow and Wednesday as they
meet Eostre, on her own day nonetheless. The multiple Jesus's walking around
was hilarious to watch. All the stories that we have been following finally
converge as Mad Sweeney and Laura also turn up to try to return Laura to life.
The climax of the episode is as unusual as you might expect and again more
reliant on the ideas and themes than flashy sequence, although the special
effects departments are given plenty to do. I felt the reveal of Wednesday's
character was slightly flat, since anyone who has been paying attention has
known this since episode one (also in the age of the internet it is almost
impossible for someone to have been surprised by this). They did their best to
make it epic, and it worked in some regard, but I felt like it was intended to
be more of a shock than it was. You are left scratching your head as to how
Shadow could have gone so long without realising who his companion was, or that
he has been constantly in the presence of gods.
A really strong episode again with everything that people
are enjoying about the show. Great chemistry between the actors, really fun
script (I liked the line early on about Wednesday being like "the
Godfather"), and lots to contemplate. It is such an unusual show that it
is hard to compare it with anything else, because it is offering an intelligent
look at modern society, religion, faith, technology and many other things
rather than being a straightforward good versus evil battle. Very little to
complain about in this episode as it was packed with great scenes and enjoyable
moments.
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