Viewing Review: American Gods 2 Episode 5

There will be spoilers ahead for episode 5, ‘Ways of the Dead’. Walk away while you still can, if this troubles you.

‘Ways of the Dead’ focuses on two story arcs. The first one involves Shadow Moon and his encounter with dead William James, and un-dead Laura Moon and her encounter with Baron Samedi. This AMERICAN GODS episode centers on what the dead (or undead for that matter) have going in the regular lives of both mortal and immortal.

Shadow Moon appears to be haunted by the presence of William James who reveals to him his past life, and his reason for still lingering in the funeral home of Ibis, Egyptian God of Death. However, this haunting does not limit itself to Cairo. William James’ presence follows Shadow Moon around during the entire episode. James focuses the struggles of a black man in a white man’s world, almost engulfing Shadow in the experience, and showing him the place (maybe even his perceived place of Shadow?) in the grand scale of things. Torture and sacrifice are part of the deal, and I can’t help but think that this might be a bit of foreshadowing(pun intended) for Shadow’s future role in this series. Shall Shadow be a harbinger of death or a victim to it? In any case, his path to involving himself in death is highlighted in his encounter with James but not clarified.

On the other hand, Laura Moon finds Mad Sweeney in New Orleans. Laura takes up on Mad Sweeney’s offer of true resurrection. Thus, Mad Sweeney introduces Laura to Baron Samedi (a voodoo god) and his lover Maman Brigitte. In this meeting, Laura is given a potion that will supposedly restore her to full life. The elixir was concocted by Baron Samedi, but was missing one important ingredient: two drops of blood infused with love. Samedi tasks Laura to find it herself. There is a price to pay for this second chance though and Laura has sex with Samedi to acquire the potion. Or is it Samedi. At the same time that this is happening, Mad Sweeney is having an interesting discussion with Maman Brigitte, and Bigitte calls Mad Sweeney out for having developed feelings for Laura. Mad Sweeney denies this, and gives in to Brigitte’s overtures to have sex with her. The following scenes show interchangeably that the two pairs might not be having sex with each other, but it was Laura Moon and Mad Sweeney this whole time. Mad Sweeney explains to Laura and him have been played. Whether this is true is not revealed, but Laura decides to leave Mad Sweeney in New Orleans and continue on her travels by herself. Mad Sweeney is left to ponder what to do next.

The two story arcs are quite ironic because they show two dead souls trying to make themselves relevant again in the life of the living. In the case of William James, he possesses Shadow’s life for the entire episode. In the case of Laura, ‘Ways of the Dead’ forwards her quest to resurrection in order to find her proper place in Shadow’s life. Both stress the importance of the dead in this series, and are particularly linked to the destinies of two of the main characters: Shadow and Laura Moon.

Additionally, there are a few side story arcs of relevance worth noting. One, it appears that the sapling given to Mr. Wednesday is actually the world tree, ‘Yggdrasil’ and is now growing in a pot in Cairo. Also, Mr. Wednesday is shopping around to restore his spear, Gungnir to full power. He approaches the Tallest Dwarf in America, Alviss, to help him forge Gungnir back to full power. However, Alviss tells Mr. Wednesday that his spear’s problem are the runes which have faded with time like memory. This is not Alviss’ domain, but another dwarf, Devolin.

It appears that AMERICAN GODS is traveling through different side roads for its characters to prepare them for an inevitable confrontation. ‘Ways of the Dead’ presents an interesting counterpoint to how we live our lives and how we are supposed to live it. Though, these are just suggested, albeit sometimes quite bluntly, the choice is still left for the characters to follow. In this episode, AMERICAN GODS shows you that death is part of life, and can actually be the cause for living one.