American Gods Review 1×05: “Lemon Scented You”

American Gods brings us the World (and a glamrock homage) in the fab fifth episode

After diving into Shadow (Ricky Whittle) and Laura’s (Emily Browning) relationship before she died, we’re really curious to see how they get along now that she’s dead. American Gods decides to open this week’s episode with an animated sequence about an obscure god we’ve never heard of before we’re back with Laura and Shadow. Laura understands she has quite a lot of explaining to do and makes a valiant attempt to woo Shadow back to her side. Shadow is at first reluctant, but appears to be succumbing to her wiles when Wednesday (Ian McShane) appears after being told something is up by one of his stalker ravens. Before they really get down to the nitty gritty, though, they’re both arrested for bank robbery.

RELATED | Fun Facts About American Gods Episode 104

Technical Boy (Bruce Langley) appears looking like a 90’s boy band reject before being sucked into the same limo we saw in the season premiere only this time he’s sharing it with Media (Gillian Anderson), this time in the guise of David Bowie. Media’s pretty furious with Technical Boy and demands he apologize to Wednesday and Shadow and warns him about making a martyr out of them. Meanwhile Shadow is getting the run around from the arresting detective who assumes that the bank robbery wasn’t the whole deal and is really interested in finding out the bigger picture, including who is after Wednesday.

[wp_ad_camp_2]

Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber) comes to get his coin back from Laura, but she’s still strong as hell and manages to strong arm information out of him before ironically he’s arrested for killing her (and you can’t kill what’s dead already)! Back in Shadow land, Media appears again, this time as Marilyn Monroe, and she’s accompanied by Mr. World (Crispin Glover) who seems to know a great deal of information. He offers Wednesday a position as an underling in his new “world”; he respectfully declines. Ultimately Mr. World decides to let Wednesday and Shadow go, much to the dismay of Technical Boy. The two of them escape through the police station where they past all the officers and detectives dead and a tree grows instantaneously almost killing Shadow.

Whew! A ton of things happened in this episode, it was packed! There’s so much to break down! Let’s get down to it!

Mr. Wednesday vs. The World

Last week’s episode was incredibly character driven, it was really great to get down to brass tacks and get so much plot. The journey of Shadow and Wednesday and their relationship is the spine that the show is built on, and even though Wednesday and Shadow didn’t precisely interact a great deal during the episode, we got a much stronger sense of who Wednesday is. That might be because they smacked us over the head with who Wednesday is this episode in case you hadn’t realized it previously. From him finally communicating with one of his ravens to calling him by not one but two of his other names (Grimnir and Odin) and even having Media reference lightening and Valhalla, it appears the time of subtlety with regards to Wednesday is over.

“Inside every pearl there’s a single irritating grain of sand. That’s me.” -Mr. Wednesday

While some of the new gods have been around for a decent amount of time (Media references the fact herself), Wednesday’s age and experience put him at advantage in the charm game, as he can talk himself out of nearly every situation. This seems like a wonderful time to praise Ian McShane. It doesn’t matter how many other actors McShane is in a scene with- the moment he opens his mouth, he swallows everyone else. He’s even convincing having casual conversations with ravens for heaven’s sake. When he uses the absolute truth to convince the detective he’s with that he’s a doddering old man who has completely lost it, we’re infatuated with the performance. Second, when the female detective conveniently brings Shadow and McShane together, McShane manages to convey the perfect amount of braggadocio laced with a twinge of fear. Third, when Shadow is finally in a room with Shadow, Media, Technical Boy, and Mr. World: The moment McShane slaps his palm down on the table, he owns that scene. We no longer care who else is there, what they’re saying or why they’re saying it. There’s never a moment’s doubt that Wednesday is the real power player.

This is the reason that Mr. World says he wants to bring Wednesday into the fold- leashing that kind of ancient power would absolutely be a coup for him. We don’t take much at face value with American Gods anymore though. Technical Boy can be a jerk, but he had a point. Wednesday isn’t going to just join the fold of new gods for a little publicity. He’s not the type.

[wp_ad_camp_2]

New gods from best to worst, or worst to really worst?

We’re slowly getting details about what it is the new gods are trying to accomplish. It took until episode 5 before he was even mentioned, but Mr. World is the big bad we’ve been waiting for to “Billie Jean” onto our screens. The central conflict in the show until now has been Shadow trying to make sense of the his upside-down world. Yes, the new gods have posed a malevolent presence since Technical Boy hanged Shadow in the premiere but since Czernobog posed an equal threat to Shadow we weren’t exactly rooting for the old gods either. Crispin Glover’s introduction as Mr. World has now given a face to the “old vs. new” setup. Glover is called on to do what he does best here, which is creep us the hell out. That he knows so many specific details about Shadow (thanks for what he looks like when he masturbates and his mother’s sexual history, totally needed that) is as grotesquely surprising for us as it is for Shadow. His “godflesh” is also significantly more horrifying than Technical Boy or Media’s. He’s the perfect mixture of terrifying and off-putting.

“Of course you are. And that is the you that deserves to be seen. Incorporated. Everyone in the world gets their place. That’s why they call me Mr. World . . . You’re an individualist . . . I get it. I do . . . It simply doesn’t work anymore . . . Everything is all systems interlaced. A single product manufactured by a single company for a single global market. Spicy, medium, or chunky. They get a choice, of course. Of course! But they are buying salsa.” -Mr. World

Mr. World’s appearance gives us a hierarchy of new gods that we haven’t seen previously with Mr. World at the top and Gillian Anderson’s Media as his right-hand man. Technical Boy, spoiled brat that he is, is at the bottom and not happy about it. Media and Tech Boy’s first confrontation is incredibly satisfying. Anderson’s look as Bowie is all-star (bravo to Suttirat Larlarb & Colin Penman, costume designer and head of makeup respectively for this fantastic look). She steamrolls right over him and points out the very obvious: You don’t help your cause by leaving a string of martyrs in your wake. Mr. World gets it. He goes so far as to walk into a police station and tear apart all of his own worshippers inside in order to get Wednesday on his side. With Wednesday on their side a war would be entirely averted. We don’t believe for a second it will work, but at least he gives it the old college try.
The animated sequence in THIS portion is amusing and works well. We’re as fully immersed in it as Shadow and Wednesday. Gillian Anderson looks great as Marilyn but doesn’t quite have the success here that she has as Bowie or Lucy. Perhaps it’s the voice, or her overall look, but she doesn’t sell Marilyn. Seeing her as a different pop icon each time is still a gas though.

[wp_ad_camp_2]

Laura’s lucky charm is a leprechaun’s legal tender

On to what went on with Laura Moon this episode. Last week’s episode was entirely focused on Laura and her inherent boredom. This week gives us a clearer picture of what actually is driving Laura, and it appears to be love. We hope that this is going to lead to something a bit more satisfying. To have a complex character like Laura suddenly just discover that she does love Shadow and have that be what is chiefly motivating her is actually a bit of a let down. And wow did Laura’s explanation of events sound lame, and we liked her backstory. At first it appeared Shadow was going to stay strong here and not fall for Laura’s garbage cutesy act, but Shadow is still full of crap. The “puppy” moniker is certainly warranted. Shadow’s kiss making her cold dead heart beat again was kind of stereotypical and made us roll our eyes a bit. Will it save her? For now we’re going to assume probably not, but you never can tell.

Laura Moon: “My lucky coin, ginger minge. My husband gave that coin to me.”

Sweeney comes back for his lucky coin for a bit of comic relief and to show us just how important his coin is to him. Schreiber and Browning have excellent chemistry and Schreiber sells the hell out of getting the snot beat out of him by a tiny zombie. Sweeney is a bit of a moron for thinking that offering Laura money would make her give up something that is literally keeping her alive, but he is desperate. Trying to kill a woman who was already dead is also a dumb idea, but we’re used to Sweeney doing stupid things. We’re looking forward to more scenes between these two characters. They’ve got quite a lot of chemistry.

[wp_ad_camp_2]

Final Verdict: American Gods 1×05 “Lemon Scented You” delivers a bad guy, a slippery zombie and a blatant disregard for the lives of worshippers

The action ramps up in this episode of American Gods where we finally meet the largest malevolent force of the series thus far. This was a great episode and we loved seeing the tension between the old and new gods in full force. Mr. World, we’re sure, will prove to be an unpredictable and worthy adversary for Mr. Wednesday. Perhaps now Shadow will wake up and start believing a bit more?

RELATED | American Gods Roundtable Episode 1×04

Other than the fact that it showed what happened to gods when they’re forgotten, and that gods are fickle and demand sacrifice, did we miss anything else in the animated sequence at the top of the episode? We felt as if we were watching a rather long sequence that we were missing the point of despite the fact that the animation was gorgeous.
Laura is probably going to have to change her tune in a big way if she really wants to impress this more cynical version of Shadow Moon. And what’s the deal with cutesy act? So lame, Laura. She’s really going to need to up her game from this, because whatever this act was was nauseating. And we like Laura Moon. Shadow was also full of shit in this scene. Sure, to him “nothing feels ok”- but he continues to work for Wednesday, so it can’t be THAT bad. And if Laura’s mission is to protect Shadow, why the hell didn’t she do anything when he got arrested?

Please give Suttirat Larlarb twenty thousand gold stars for the costumes in this episode, and while you’re at it give Karola Dirnberger and Colin Penman gold stars for the hair and makeup as well. Gillian Anderson as Bowie alone would warrant it. But failed 90’s boy band Technical Boy gets an honorable mention here as well. And speaking of the Bowie scene, let’s have a chat about sound supervisor Brad North and some evocative music by Brian Reitzell. It just contributed to the overall fund and quality of that scene. The synthesized voices there and over the credits gave us the happy tingles.

Overall a solid episode from American Gods for finally bringing together some characters that we were longing for. Was this the “all-star day” the cast hinted at in our roundtables? We’ll definitely be keeping tabs on that going forward. Since Wednesday turned down a his brand new “lemon scented you”, he might be off the hook with Mr. World but that definitely isn’t going to last. Shadow and Wednesday are definitely on the run with the new gods controlling the narrative. Where will they turn? Stick with us for more American Gods!

[wp_ad_camp_2]

Comments and Questions: Odin help us, what’s up with this stuff?

• So that coroner, huh? What was he looking at? Horses? …That’s some weird porn, man.
• Was the chair alive? Why was the tree trying to kill Shadow?
• Does Shadow’s bone orchard have anything to do with the bone orchard from the animated sequence?
• Why is Gillian Anderson’s skin so flawless? There’s not a pore, not a line, not a wrinkle. If we get a chance, we’re asking her about her skin regime.
• Please don’t be lame and fall for Laura’s nonsense, Shadow. Stay strong, man.
• Now that Laura and Shadow are separated, will they come back together? How will Laura get back to him?
• WHAT was with the absolution for Technical Boy from Mr. World? Like a Renaissance Pope I absolve you? It was delightful, but random.
• Champagne and potato chips? Wtf, Media-as-Marilyn.

American Gods returns next Sunday June 4th, 2017 at 9/8C on Starz.