Synopsis: On the run after the New Gods’ show of force, Shadow and Mr. Wednesday seek safe haven with one of Mr. Wednesday’s oldest friends, Vulcan, God of the Fire and the Forge.
Review: Betrayal is pretty much the central part of this weeks episode when Mr Wednesday learns that Vulcan is not as a loyal a friend as he thought he was.
Wednesday and Shadow Moon don’t have to spend a great deal of time with Vulcan before they figure it out. Hell even the audience figures it out as soon as Vulcan shows Shadow Moon the hang mans noose.
While Wednesday and Shadow Moon deal with Vulcan. Laura Moon has brokered a deal with Mad Sweeney who has promised to take her to Jesus who can resurrect her properly. They happen to meet Salim along the way who is in search of his Djinn.
This episode is pretty much divided into three acts. Two dealing with Shadow Moon and Wednesday while the other deals with Laura Moon and Sweeney.
Truthfully aside from Wednesday inevitably killing Vulcan for his betrayal. Not a great deal really happens in this episode.
Acting wise Ian McShane is as billiant as ever and his scenes with Corbin Bernsen’s Vulcan are well executed. In fact Bernsen’s turn as the Roman God of the Forge is really, really good.
Pablo Schreiber and Emily Browning continue to amuse as Sweeney and Laura as the feud while travelling toward their end goal.
I’m continuing to love the soundtrack to this series, which kind of flits between Blues and Jazz and at times is really, really unsettling, but also really interesting.
The intro scene concerning the Mexican’s sneaking across the border and getting a little help from Jesus was visually stunning as was the lettering on the guns, which were used to gun them down.
Overall. This wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t great either.
I was hoping to see a little more happen this week to advance the story. Sure a character died. But that death was kind of inevitable.
- Story8.5
- Acting10
- CGI9.8
- Incidental Music9.8
Fyi — Vulcan isn’t in the book. Jesus isn’t in the book. Laura and Mad Sweeny never actually meet. Salim and his Djinn are only featured in one scene. As a result, I found this episode structurally fascinating. Narrative economy is our friend.
I only saw part of one episode of American Gods at your house Ian but from what I saw it seemed like Audrey was being portrayed much more sympathetically than she is in the book. It will be interesting to see how they handle Mr. Town.