In Review: American Gods (S3 – Ep9) The Lake Effect

Synopsis: In ‘The Lake Effect’. Shadow Moon returns to Lakeside to learn that there has been a suicide. While Laura Moon gets schooled on how to throw a god-killing spear.

The Story

An apparent Suicide spurs Shadow Moon on to solve the mystery behind all the child murders that have transpired in Lakeside. Meanwhile, Mr. Wednesday goes to see Czernobog and reveals plans to try and make peace with the new gods. It’s fair to say that Czernobog isn’t completely sold on the idea.

At an abandoned derelict church. Laura Moon receives some lessons from her new Leprechaun friend on how best to thrown Odins Spear. Indeed, with the help of Mad Sweeney’s coin, she becomes a deadly shot. The Leprechaun strikes another deal with Laura. That she can use the coin for a touch of god-slaying.

The Acting

Peter Stormare returns as Czernobog and gets some of the lighter-hearted scenes in this episode which is somewhat glum generally. We find that Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) has come to the conclusion that his best course of action is to make peace with the new gods. The scene involving the meeting between Wednesday and the new gods is wonderfully set up. But Technical Boy, who has managed to escape from Mr. World is noticeably absent. This is just as well because I feel that his presence would have ruined one of the best scenes in the episode. The meeting between Mr. World (Crispin Glover) and Mr. Wednesday is brilliantly set up and it’s the perfect prelude to what’s to come.

Ricky Whittle has some great scenes as Shadow Moon finally gets at the truth behind Lakeside, but this knowledge comes with a cost. That cost being the ending of his relationship with Marguerite Olsen.

Overall

In what is a rather gloomy and slow-paced episode. We finally learn the truth behind the mysterious murders taking place in Lakeside. But we also get a twist ending that sets things in motion for what could well be the biggest season finale the show has had to date. The epic closing moments of this episode will likely keep the fans talking for the next week as they try to figure out what is what.

You can check out past ‘American Gods’ related posts here.