by Devan Coogan | via Entertainment Weekly
Earlier in the season, when Mr. Wednesday was giving Shadow a crash course on how to make it snow, he made an offhand comment about the many, many different Jesus currently wandering around America. “You’ve got your white, Jesuit-style Jesus, your black African Jesus, your Mexican Jesus, and your swarthy Greek Jesus,” he explained. When Shadow replied that that is a lot of Jesus, Wednesday added, “There’s a lot of need for Jesus, so there’s a lot of Jesus.”
“A Murder of Gods” kicks off by introducing us to just a little Jesus — not a lot. This week’s Coming to America vignette brings us back to the present, where a group of Mexican men and women are attempting to cross the U.S. border in the dead of night. When one man tries to cross a river but finds himself slipping under the water, someone grabs his hand and pulls him out… someone who can walk on water.
That’s right: The first Jesus we meet is Mexican Jesus, who, sadly, doesn’t last long. Shortly after he pulls the man to shore, the group is found by a bunch of white Americans, who immediately open fire. They’re Christian, too, with rosaries wrapped around their hands and prayers engraved on their guns, but the Jesus they follow isn’t one of tolerance and compassion. Soon, Mexican Jesus is bleeding out on the river bank, with bullet holes in his hands and his arms outstretched, and when a tumbleweed blows across his face, it leaves behind a wispy crown of thorns.
And so American Gods comes to Jesus, beginning what might be the series’ most controversial episode yet. (Although if we’re being honest, anyone who might be outraged over this episode probably stopped watching sometime during episode 1, when Bilquis first showed off her unique, um, power.) Jesus isn’t a major player in Neil Gaiman’s book, but Bryan Fuller and Michael Green have teased that the show will introduce multiple versions of Jesus. It’s a powerful idea, exploring how we each approach belief and religion in a different way and, more often than not, use worship to justify our own preexisting ideas. It’s a theme the show explores even further with the later introduction of Vulcan. (Note that the bullets in this scene are clearly labeled “Vulcan.”)
Still, this Coming to America fell a little flat for me. We know that these are stories written by the mysterious Mr. Ibis, so they’re not necessarily supposed to be taken literally, and Green and Fuller are far more interested in exploring the moral and allegorical implications of these vignettes than treating them as fact. But this one felt a little heavy handed and not quite as powerful for me as some of the past Coming to America stories.
As far as Shadow and Wednesday go, Shadow is, justifiably, kind of freaked out and angry after his candy-colored confrontation with Mr. World, Technical Boy, and Media in the previous episode. As he so succinctly puts it: “What the hell was that in there? Marilyn Monroe just floats into a f—ing room! They massacred a station full of cops and just left us in the middle of it! And then I get stabbed by Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree!” Shoutout to Shadow for being able to think of such great pop culture references while experiencing massive blood loss.
But Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree apparently has one more sinister trick up its sleeve, and as Wednesday and Shadow hurry away from the police station, Shadow begins to feel his stab wound moving. A vicious splinter has been left behind, and as Wednesday tries to extract it, we get a gory, glorious bit of body horror — essentially a cross between Baby Groot and a Xenomorph. After all, Michael Green did help write Alien: Covenant.
Wednesday explains that the creature is a manifestation of someone called Mr. Wood. Essentially, Wednesday says, Mr. Wood was the god of the forests and trees, but when he felt the rising tide of industry, he sacrificed his forests to the sawmills. He’s yet another example of an old god who’s found new relevance in modern society, and he’s now clearly teamed up with the New Gods.
It’s then that Shadow spills the beans and tells his employer that he was recently visited by the dead Laura. Notably, Wednesday is surprised. Snow and tree monsters and floating Marilyn Monroe haven’t fazed Wednesday in the slightest, so whatever magic in Mad Sweeney’s coin is bringing Laura back to life, it’s something Wednesday isn’t familiar with — or at least something he wasn’t expecting. Rather than stick around, waiting to find Laura, Wednesday’s eager to get back on the road, and as they’re leaving the motel, he spots Laura in the rearview mirror, only to keep driving. For whatever reason, he’s not eager to reunite his employee and his dearly departed.
To read the rest of the recap, “Murder of the Gods,” click HERE!!!
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