In Review: American Gods (S3-Ep3) Ashes and Demons

Synopsis: In Ashes and Demons. As the search for the missing girl continues, Shadow dreams of Bilquis. Wednesday discovers the whereabouts of his old love, the Greek goddess Demeter, and resolves to free her from the grip of an unscrupulous antagonist.

The Story

While in Lakeside. Shadow Moon lends a hand in the search for the missing girl but has little luck. While getting a little more acquainted with Marguerite Olsen he learns of a common interest that they share in reading. To this end, Marguerite lends Shadow the most boring book she can find, which he gratefully receives as he goes off to dream about Bilquis, who is in trouble. Spurred on by the dream Shadow gets Bilquis’s address from Wednesday and urgently heads off to New York.

Meanwhile, Laura Moon has died and wound up in Purgatory where she must deal with some red tape and face her demons. To this end, she meets an old 1940s cinema projectionist and a 40s style usher who act as her therapist. The process of facing her demons seems to be by observing her lived life via VHS. I guess they haven’t gotten DVD, Blu Ray, or Video on Demand on the astral plane as yet.

While all of this is going on. Mr. Wednesday is being driven about by Cordelia, who has no idea he is a God. Are trying legally to get Demeter out of an insane asylum. The trouble is Demeter doesn’t want to leave and is not particularly wanting to cooperate with Wednesday.

As the episode concludes. Shadow Moon gets to Bilquis’s apartment and makes a shocking discovery.

The Acting

Emily Browning gets an interesting bit to do as Laura Moon finds that her life’s journey may not be exactly how she remembers it. The sequences that she has in purgatory where she faces some of her demons are pretty funny. And shine a light on how cunning Laura Moon is, but also show her more vulnerable side.

Ian McShane gets some nicely played scenes with Blythe Danner who plays the role of Greek Goddess of the harvest Demeter. Wednesday of course is trying to woo Demeter away from the Assylum, but Demeter has apparently never been happier. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

Overall

This was a slight improvement on last week’s episode with a bit more happening and a little more movement in plot progression. The way in which this episode ends will no doubt have real implications on where things go in next week’s episode. Especially given that it looks like another of the old gods may have died.

I particularly enjoyed the opening sequence in America of the 1700s where a farmer pays homage to Demeter.