“You know what they say about revenge: Dig two graves”
“Fear is order. Fear is control. Fear is safety. Fear is fiction.” Mr. World intones these words (and intones is almost always the right word for Crispin Glover’s portrayal of Mr. World) over the opening scenes of “Moon Shadow.” In the second-season finale, American Gods reaches for pomp and chaos, loosely channeling George Orwell, H.G. Wells, and Orson Welles into a bombastic sequence about fear, the ultimate renewable resource.
In 1938, a family sits together in the evening, their quiet comfort yielding to unease and finally panic. On the radio, Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater On The Air broadcasts War Of The Worlds, with its vivid description of an alien life form emerging from a ship, followed by “another… and another!” In an inspired piece of casting, lighting, and silent performance, the wife and mother (Laura Vincent) strikingly resembles Mercury Theater player and frequent Welles collaborator Agnes Moorehead.
In another flashback, Mr. World strides through the streets of a miniature film set, pontificating to the camera on the power of fear before taking his director’s chair. Mr. World has remade himself as the William Castle of the Martian-invasion genre, feeding the world a new fear and letting the world feed it back to him exponentially amplified. “Fear has no end,” he says with eerie, even satisfaction. “Fear is limitless. Fear thrives and feeds on itself, preparing you for calamity, preparing you to believe.”
“If it’s real in your mind, it’s real in the world,” Mr. World concludes, tacitly giving American Gods permission to conjure up anything it might need in future episodes. And there will be another season, and another showrunner.
Like American Gods’ second season as a whole, “Moon Shadow” has some striking moments, though it doesn’t really hold up to a second look. But that first look is a fun ride. Writers Aditi Brennan Kapil (also writer of American Gods’ rollicking “The Greatest Story Ever Told”) and Jim Danger Gray (Hannibal co-producer who also wrote “Amuse-Bouche” ) fill the season finale with so much energy and bombast, so many ominous-sounding phrases, that it takes a while to understand how little most of them are saying or doing.
Mr. World lumps together the bone-deep mob terror over The Other (as represented, with only marginal accuracy, by War Of The Worlds) and the pleasurable fear of the space-flick audience with such authority that it’s easy to forget those fears are very different. Only the mob terror is mirrored by the present-day action of “Moon Shadow,” and to no long-term effect. The minutes Shadow and Salim spent as wanted men with police at the door were harrowing, but those minutes ended with an ease and speed that is both disappointing and, at this point in American Gods, unsurprising.
But there’s a lot to like, and even admire, in “Moon Shadow.” Technical Boy’s midnight session with The CEO (Andrew Koji’s character is the head of Xie Comm, and FBI agents address him as Mr. Xie, but he is conspicuously identified in the credits only as The CEO) fits neatly into the larger plot, as his “unbreachable” servers are overrun, bringing the national banking system to a halt. Outside the walls of Ibis & Jacquel, the nation is in turmoil. Strangers argue and even come to blows over fuel and bottled water. New Media works her charms on the major news networks until they’re all mouthing the same words about fugitives: first Shadow and Wednesday, then Salim as “a known associate.”
The CEO’s segments aren’t just about the need to target a comms magnate. They’re also a meditation on revelation, as his frustration, distraction, and annoyance give way to what is often called inspiration. It’s a parallel to Shadow’s murkier moments of insight, as he lies on a grave slab, buffeted by memories. Inside the funeral parlor gates, despite the yelling, not much happens. Salim asks panicky questions about Shadow, Wednesday, and their alleged cop-killing spree. Mr. Nancy and Mr. Ibis play a game of chess, their leisurely movements unhurried by the timer, though each strikes it with abrupt speed at the end of each turn. Laura tries and fails to persuade Bilquis to help her kill Wednesday. Bilquis tries and fails to persuade Shadow to… well…
“Moon Shadow” also gives us a glimpse of the Moons’ life before the heist, before prison, before they walked and drank and fought with gods. Just two people in love sitting on a park bench, giggling over a tiny puppy in the distance. It’s a touching counterpoint to their somber conversation in Cairo as they lie on gravestones, talking about his murderous employer, her many mistakes in life and death, and how he should trust her.
They don’t talk about whether he can trust her, ever again. Instead, “Moon Shadow” gives us something simultaneously more touching and starker. It gives us a glimpse of Shadow and Laura’s life before the heist, before prison, before they walked and drank with gods. Seeing these two on a park bench, giggling and goofing and just being, it’s daunting to measure how far they’ve come and how much they’ve sacrificed. “Don’t call me Puppy,” he tells her, and who can blame him? “You have to trust me,” she tells him, but that can’t be easy.
For once, it feels like American Gods’ second season, so fond of introducing and immediately offing characters, stories, and ideas, has timed something exactly right. Laura’s nickname for Shadow—the everyday silliness of its origin—and its end come together onscreen, and love and trust and betrayal all converge in their ending exchange. “I’m going to kill Wednesday,” Laura tells him. “Are you going to try and stop me?” Jaw tight, Shadow mumbles, “Free country.”
American Gods started as a road-trip story, right down to its soundtrack. Though it plowed into the second season with frantic energy, the show seems to have lost its drive, and maybe even its map. But as readers of Neil Gaiman’s novel will recognize, Shadow’s new driver’s license (IDing him as Michael Ainsel of Lakewood, WI) points to a route, mapping out season three and giving us something to cling to besides the long-overdue confirmation that Shadow is, as their very first meeting hinted, the son of Wednesday—the son of Odin.
I say “confirmation” because American Gods has dawdled getting to this reveal, though likely even viewers who have never read Gaiman’s novel have cracked the case by now. He introduced himself cracking wise about “fuck[ing] your mom,” for gods’ sake. (Plural possessive for plural gods.) “You remind me of my son.” Like father, like son. This episode’s turgid regurgitation of the increasingly broad hints spanning two seasons is a relief, not a surprise.
There’s another major plot point hinted at throughout “Moon Shadow,” a secret that readers of Gaiman’s novel will remember, a secret that this episode comes tantalizingly close to spelling out. I’ve spoken obliquely of this point in a previous review, and spent a lot of energy balancing the need to discuss every aspect of American Gods the television show without spoiling the events of American Gods the novel. So let the show’s writers speak for themselves: If you prefer to avoid even a hint of this plot point, skip to the last paragraph.
“Rigged games are the easiest to beat,” Mr. Wednesday once told Shadow Moon, and Mr. Nancy repeats it to Mr. Ibis as they play chess and speak of bigger games. “I’m a hustler, swindler, cheater, and liar,” Wednesday told Shadow at their first meeting, and that sentence echoes in his head twice in “Moon Shadow.” “I usually end up getting what I want, on average,” Wednesday told Shadow early in their acquaintance. And finally, in the graveyard behind Ibis & Jacquel, Laura tells Shadow, “He is behind all of this, Puppy. He is the root fucking cause.”
The biggest questions remaining for season three of American Gods, then, is not where Shadow will go or what might happen there; the introduction of Mike Ainsel and Lakewood strongly suggests an outline for the next chapter, even if American Gods continues to take inspiration but not instruction from the novel. The biggest question is whether the show, which persistently treats its obvious connivances as great revelations, can sustain itself on an open secret.
Stray observations
- The most potent image in this episode is the long legs of Mad Sweeney’s corpse, swaying with each small step as little Laura Moon carries him away from Cairo.
- The Mercury Theater On The Air production of War Of The Worlds did not, in fact, cause mass panic, but it did stir a ready fear of intruders in a nation primed for panic.
- “The flash in the sky was visible within a radius of several hundred miles, and the noise of the impact was heard as far north as Elizabeth.” The line the two talking heads from the news network speak in unison is from first act of War Of The Worlds.
- When The CEO admitted “I can’t be in two places at once,” I expected Technical Boy to offer him a Faustian bargain (or maybe a Sorcerer’s Apprentice’s bargain), splitting him into two incarnations, one destined only for family life and none of the pleasure that work brings him, the other doomed to eternal work.
- Welcome, FBI agent Stefany Koutroumpis (Samora Smallwood), named after American Gods’ first assistant art director. I expect we’ll see you in season three.
- Thank you for reading. I hope I’ll see you in season three, too!
44 Comments
I’ll give season three a chance if only because of it being, again, a new showrunner. This season was a mess and really squandered what it had to work with in terms of talent and design. I only hope new direction gets it back in shape – not necessarily the same as the first season but something solid.
Oh boy! Snails! I best Crispin was happy. I keep waiting to meet the god of fear.
I don’t mind the trip American Gods took up on this season. I am willing to trust the story and see where we end up next season. I give it an interesting and I will tune in for the next season.
This season was a mess but it was alright. Let’s hope that there’s no giant backstage turmoil between now and season 3.
So they implied that Shadow was the reincanation of Donar/Thor when in the books I thought they implied that he was a reincarnation of Baldur. If that’s correct I wonder why the change.
So, New Media became News Media. The portrayal was very Old Media, right? Is this how people still get the news?
It might have even worked better if they’d shown the Fake News spreading on social media, but that would be harder to depict cinematically.
I agree that it would have been more difficult to show New Media actually using New Media, but if the show is going to have New Media, it needs to commit. Otherwise, it should have just reincarnated Media.
If Gillian Anderson likes the new showrunner, that might yet happen.
Ibis & Jacquel barely had a working TV, and none of the Old Gods have a smartphone. What we saw was the barest hint of the temporary chaos caused by New Media’s hoax and Technical Boy’s financial system hack.
I was very upset when Salim became entangled in the New Gods’ plan. You, leave Salim alone, show!
Protect Salim and his sweater at all costs!
Although on the other hand it would be nice to have him actually do something. At least he kissed the Djin—I wasn’t even sure if during their road trip they had any physical contact.
“doomed to eternal work”Sounds like Sisyphus, which The Jinn gets called in this episode.
I still have no idea what’s going on with The Technical Boy, but I hope that this latest development gives him a new, less annoying personality.
The “Tron knock-off” look doesn’t fill me with hope he’ll be LESS annoying.
I’m glad that Bilquis is still around, though if everyone keeps doing nothing, I’m going to get very bored very quickly.
It’s not even just that. It’s that you can’t even fathom what they SHOULD be doing. Like, is there a war? What war? What are the stakes? What is Mr. World aiming for? He’s already in control of anything he can be in control of. What are the old gods aiming for? Increase their worship base? They seem to be doing fine as it is.This season’s events can be summed up with “Odin gets his spear back, then loses it because of an associate’s grudge”. We don’t even know what he was planning to do with the spear.
Stick them with the pointy end.
But see, that’s also the thing, something that’s bugging me about all of Gaiman’s core idea (assuming it’s translated correctly, which maybe is not, I didn’t read the book). Old Gods are entities, they might be associated to natural phenomena or abstract concepts, but they exist independently, and become more or less powerful according to worship. Thor is the God of Thunder, but the moment he ceases to exist, thunder still exists, thunder doesn’t need a god to exist. But with the New Gods, they come into existence the moment an abstract concept starts being “worshiped”. Media are worshiped, they coalesce into a godlike entity. If you kill that entity, nothing really happens, if the media keep being worship, they’ll coalesce into another entity. We’ve seen it with New Media. So what can Odin even do? What does sticking his spear into the current avatar of Globalization do?The only real way to get rid of the New Gods is to destroy the concept that brought them to life. Which means, for instance, reset the technology level of the world to an earlier era. If that’s what the Old Gods plan to do (or at least Odin’s more loyal faction), then they are the villains of the piece, with no gray area.
The stakes of the novel are pretty vaguely defined. The idea is meant to be that an abstract concept (be it an idea or a figure of worship) can become personified in a human form as a result of that. Killing a God of media wouldn’t eliminate media from the world, but it would remove the personification of media, which would allow for old Gods like Odin to have a bit more freedom. One of the things in the book is that if a God dies through suicide or murder, a replica version will eventually show up. Obviously this is determined based on humanity’s faith. So if the show version of Odin dies, humanity won’t have enough faith in him for a replica to appear. If Mr World were killed, globalization would still exist and a new Mr World would be likely to eventually be formed. A lot of the notion behind the war is that it’s effectively pointless for all parties, which is why most Gods are resistant to it, despite Odin being suspiciously keen for it happen.
This season was a hell of a lot of boring high-minded monologues delivered in front of arty backdrops and maybe ten minutes’ worth of actual plot. I’ll give season three a chance, but if it’s more of this I’m out.
I can see why Bryan and Micheal expanded/added to it. Season 2 may have worked in book format, but tv is a medium that needs more.
No racism this episode? What a bummer.
When Salim bought the liquor, he asked if everyone is cash only or if it’s a special case just for him. Then the guy points to the TV and he sees the chaos.
So, Emily droped the ball on this one.
Seems like season 2 started nowhere and ended nowhere.
The only problem with referencing “The War of the Worlds on the radio” story is that the widespread panic that followed it was a hoax. It’s an old anecdote that everyone likes to tell, but, um…
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/war-of-the-worlds/
Eh, sorry, didn’t read the entire review before rushing to post this.
But even that lends itself to the series themes. It didn’t happen but many believe it did so….
I read the book a long time ago, but can’t remember — how far are we into the story at this point — i.e. how many seasons left (assuming they don’t chance the pacing too much)? Are we half-way yet?
Yeah this season didn’t hit it for me. I would have checked out for good after the finale except I was reminded of the new showrunner, who has his own past of overseeing shows on mediocre to bad runs. So I’ll give it two episodes next year (or whenever) to convince me.
The deceptively named “American Gods” was a British antiAmerican propaganda movie aimed against America about British gods that was never seen or heard of in America except by a few Bwitish comment troll accounts on Twitter. The British bawstawds tried marketing this antiAmerican propaganda revision of America using fake Wikipedia pages. When that failed they had to resort to fake comment trolls on communist media propatainment sites. And when that didn’t work the Bwitish finally shutup their lying commie faggo buttholes. FAILED BOMB DISASTER IS CANCELLED PERMANENTLY!!
Well, the season was a mess, but it was still very watchable, and I enjoyed it. Looking forward to more.Mostly, though, I want that Salim and the Djinn spinoff!
One thing that gives me hope for season 3 is that the source material of the third quarter of the book lends itself to a season-long arc better than the Cairo stuff did.
Yes, I’m very excited to see the Mike Ainsel , small WI town plotline.
Technical question—here in Canada where it airs on Amazon Prime (even though we do have a Canadian FX which airs most other FX shows, but, yeah…) this entire episode except for the very opening news reel was in full letterboxed widescreen, whereas in the past that’s been used for flashbacks but not the present day stuff. Was that the same everywhere? Can anyone think of a reason to do that? I mean the use of widescreen seems so obvious in other episodes so why mess with it now?
Meh. I will say I liked the back half of this season much more than the first half–where I felt guilty for constantly looking at the time to see how much was left of each episode. I know in season 1 some people complained that not much actually happened plot wise and how it felt disjointed–I didn’t feel that then, but I certainly did in season 2. It was nice seeing characters I really enjoy again (even if most of them seemed to do very little), and like I said I definitely enjoyed the later episodes more, but… Also as a non book reader, I guess I would like some of the story points spelled out for me now. All that had to be done to get rid of the cops was chop down that damn tree?
American Gods has jumped the rails so much from the novel’s original narrative that I frankly have no idea WTF is going on and worse, I’m not sure I care anymore.
Yes, I liked the extended roles of Mad Sweeney and Laura Moon as well as the introduction of modern incarnations of other gods of antiquity such as Vulcan, to expand the story line. However the road trip story line which propelled the plot and narrative so well in the first season, has been swamped in Cairo for most of season two, doing nothing.
It took Mad Sweeney nearly two seasons to die and the reasons for his death are nothing related to the original story. Instead of dying from a run of bad circumstances due to the loss of his lucky coin, he dies impaled on Odin’s spear at the hands of Shadow.
Okay, I’m fine with that, but what followed was a waste! In the novel, Shadow continued to hear Sweeney’s disembodied voice calling out to him, even as the Leprechaun lay dead on Ibis’s table. The show could have done much with that, but instead Ibis, sat around doing nothing, when he should have been doing the autopsy on Sweeney, preparing his corpse with Shadow’s assistance, thus setting up a great scene from the novel.
The season finale was wasted largely on primary characters sitting around the Jaquel & Ibis funeral parlor, doing nothing but reacting to TV! Oh, Bilquis got naked for no real reason, after spending the season hanging out at the parlor doing nothing. New Media jiggled in front of a big screen TV in what I assume was her manipulation of the news networks in calling out Shadow and Wednesday as terrorists. Okay, I guess by jiggling, perhaps she’s doing something. But I have no idea what is going on with TechnoBoy 2.0., other than he wasted a quarter of the episode sulking around in his new Tron outfit, again doing nothing.Wednesday, nothing. Anansi, nothing. Laura Moon, nothing. Czernobog, remember him? Nothing. Mr. World spent most of this season wringing his hands in a villainous fashion and glowering at the camera, but mostly doing nothing.
For a show whose main premise is that gods require attention to survive, then they need to do something to keep our bloody attention! Nobody wants to see gods sit on their immortal asses at a funeral parlor, drinking Egyptian beer and talking about the good old days for an entire season! Cause some bloody mayhem!
My god, you actually cast the Allstate Insurance mayhem dude as Mr. Town! Put him to work! .
“Moon Shadow” also gives us a glimpse of the Moons’ life before the heist, before prison, before they walked and drank and fought with gods. Just two people in love sitting on a park bench, giggling over a tiny puppy in the distance. It’s a touching counterpoint to their somber conversation in Cairo as they lie on gravestones, talking about his murderous employer, her many mistakes in life and death, and how he should trust her. They don’t talk about whether he can trust her, ever again. Instead, “Moon Shadow” gives us something simultaneously more touching and starker. It gives us a glimpse of Shadow and Laura’s life before the heist, before prison, before they walked and drank with gods. Seeing these two on a park bench, giggling and goofing and just being, it’s daunting to measure how far they’ve come and how much they’ve sacrificed. “Don’t call me Puppy,” he tells her, and who can blame him? “You have to trust me,” she tells him, but that can’t be easy.This broke my brain
What a mess of storytelling and time wasting this season has been-Laura kills Argus to get her life back. Next episode shes dead again, no explanation.-Laura goes to Nola to get a voodoo cure, gets a magic potion that needs ingredients….this plot line is then dropped-We spend a whole episode pondering racial injustice and possible revolt…then drop it.-What does/did/is happening with technical boy and and the tech CEA is completely unclearThere’s no momentum. No direction. Just pieces of a story splattered around haphazardly.
I have no idea whatsoever what the scenes between Technical Boy and that young computer whizz were about. The show’s “villians” for want of a better term don’t really seem to be that villainous, or indeed, very active. I have no idea what the stakes are, or what the nature of the so-called war is, because both sides seem quite content to passively sit around doing nothing for a whole season.After two rock solid episodes, this one just floundered. There was no payoff (unless you count the Shadow Moon reveal), just more delay and setup for next season. After the complete non-resolution of last season’s cliffhanger I won’t hold my breath.
American Gods is one of my favorite TV shows in recent memory. I love the Old Gods v New Gods (same as the Old Gods, as The Who might say) conflict, and all the hints leading to Ragnarok. The articulation of the New Gods and their origin stories is a revelation (Technical Boy, Media/New Media, Mr. World and his four henchmen, Money), and the mission for all gods (old or new) is adapt or die.I respect and admire the craftsmanship of the storytelling behind Ibis, Mr. Nancy and Shadow’s forays into American racism. Ibis says (and I’m paraphrasing), “Who taught the black man to hate himself? Who has corrupted the entire world in pursuit of power? Here’s a hint…no one in our immediate vicinity looks like him.”And I love Mad Sweeney. An unlucky leprechaun. And so much more. Has there ever been a more prolific flinger of the c-word by any character in TV history??? I really hope I see him again.
Meh, s2 was just bad and boring and confusing. Still don’t know who Salim and Djinn are.
I believe it’s Lakeside, rather than Lakewood. Shadow muses on its name when he finds some history of the town.
This season was a little frustrating for me; it often seemed opaque for the sake of it, and wandered a long way from the book. But they finished off with a move to Lakeside, and damn if that hasn’t gotten me excited for the next season. It’s one of my favourite parts of the novel.Also, I’m glad they addressed the “Puppy” nickname again. In season one, they implied it was a name Laura had given Shadow because he followed her around. Now they show it was a name for an offer he made her, to be the thing she wanted, which is an important part of Shadow’s identity (or lack thereof). He constantly tries to find a different persona, one that fits the world and the people around him.