"You've got yourself mixed up in some really weird s**t, Shadow."
Full spoilers for American Gods continue below.
American Gods picks up from its cliffhanger from the past two episodes right from where we left off: with Shadow Moon encountering his living dead wife Laura for the first time. There is a sense of anticipation here for how she will handle the situation, but the payoff wasn't quite what was expected.
For all that Laura must have been thinking long and hard about how she would approach Shadow once she revealed that she was still alive, this was a bit of a jarring shift in her behavior from the disengaged and apathetic woman we met in last week's episode. I've watched this episode twice now, and the second time around I think I have a better understanding of what Emily Browning and showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green were going for: Laura is re-learning how to care, and she's pretty bad at it.
It's why so much of her story this episode is trying to convince Shadow to take her back; she's not sure what her role back on Earth is now beyond the fact that Shadow is the light of her life. When he rejects her, she is purposeless. And for all that she didn't truly, fully love Shadow in life, her afterlife is defined by his presence and his gift to her. It's clear that that's why she takes his departure so poorly and doesn't take well to Mad Sweeney's jabs about Shadow not caring about her, even if the show isn't explicit about this.
So while that wasn't exactly what was expected from Shadow and Laura's reunion, Laura being out of f--ks to give in this episode is an interest shift, as American Gods incorporates her as one of its primary characters. Her scenes with Shadow popped a lot more than her sequences with Mad Sweeney in the back half of the episode; their dynamic isn't as interesting as the show seems to think that it is. However, those scenes were some of the funnier ones of "Lemon Scented You," especially the scene where Laura pretends to be dead to get Mad Sweeney arrested.
Similarly interesting -- and definitely the high point of this episode -- was the introduction of Mr. World and his vision of the New Gods. It only helped that the fabulous Gillian Anderson slayed as both David Bowie and Marilyn Monroe -- I'm still not sure which interpretation of a beloved figure I like better. As much as there have been mystery forces at work that suitably carried a clear threat, American Gods has been missing a villain. Crispin Glover's slightly unhinged portrayal of this antagonist mixed with his sinister, violent treatment of the Technical Boy filled that void with one excellent sequence. Its heightened nature enhanced the danger here, and seeing that insane scene play out as Shadow looked on in disbelief only amplified how effective they were. Media's rainbow unicorn version of Valhalla was a particularly nice touch. American Gods fully embraces its weirdness, and also becomes pretty explicit about what the conflict in the show is.
It was in these New Gods sequences that American Gods tipped its hand to Shadow Moon's real significance. In a delightful monologue, Media talks about how she was there for the Martian panic and saw the power of belief then. When the Technical Boy notes thet not everyone believed that, she responds that not everyone had to people, just enough people needed to. "That's all Mr. Wednesday needs. Just enough. Maybe just one." If that is the definition of the threat Wednesday poses, then the "just one" became clear when the camera cuts directly to a close up on Shadow. I've talked in the past about how American Gods has alluded to how powerful making someone who is a nonbeliever believe can be, and Shadow is a perfect case of that. Maybe that's why Mr. Wednesday seems so concerned when his crow presumably tells him that Laura has returned from the dead -- she can potentially mess up his well-crafted plan.
One thing I wish American Gods was more explicit about was just what Mr. World plans to do to Wednesday. "Lemon Scented You" has him courting Wednesday for a "merger," and he pitches the idea of a refresh of Wednesday's image. ("Lemon Scented You" was pretty explicitly obvious about the fact Wednesday is "Odin," though it didn't fully come out and say it.) Mr. World offers a terrifying vision of identityless corporate America in the pitch he offers Wednesday, and it's a harsh reflection back on our country and our identities. When he says "rugged individualism ... simply doesn't work anymore," it's a reminder of how much we have as a country let media, franchises, corporations and technologies become the things we allow to occupy our time. But do they give us meaning, as Wednesday says the Old Gods used to? That's a heady question, especially when "Lemon Scented You" opened with the story of Nunyunnini, a foreboding tale of what happens when a god loses their believers and is forgotten.
For all that, there were a lot of weaker elements in this episode, particularly with the interrogation sequence. Everything in this show is so heightened that it didn't do a good job reincorporating everyday people. That sequence felt pretty glossed over and felt like it was missing context and even scenes. There was no emotional connection to those characters, which made their deaths later not as impactful. And for all that the massacre at the police station was a threat, it's not quite clear what Mr. World was threatening. Also, I'm pretty sure that tree creature was supposed to be Mr. Wood, but that was another part of the episode that lost its impact because it's unclear what was actually going on.
Between the lacking interrogation scene and not all of Laura's elements landing properly, "Lemon Scented You" was the weakest American Gods episode to date. There were still a lot of memorable elements and the introduction of Mr. World was a notable high point and excellent sequence, but the rest of the episode was a lot more forgettable.
The Verdict
There were many strengths of "Lemon Scented You," from the introduction of Crispin Glover's Mr. World and the sequence where he tried to win over Mr. Wednesday to American Gods finally being blunt about what the show is actually about. But there were also plenty of problems with this episode, from not everything about Laura's story working to the interrogation scene being pretty forgettable. American Gods has had a strong season so far, so hopefully this is just one misstep in what is an otherwise strong outing.
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