American Gods Episode 5 Review

Hey guys, welcome back to the channel, and today we're going to review American Gods episode 5. I believe the title is Lemon Scented. And guys, I have to say, uh, so far throughout the series, this has been my favorite episode. And, um, just the pacing of it, we got introduced to some more of the New Gods, you know, as well as had some dealings with the Old Gods. And probably, and in the introduction, we actually got introduced to some of the, some of the First Gods to come on the scene. And we basically got this very interesting animation. I thought the CGI was well done, and it takes place with the early first migration to America over the Bering Strait. And we got introduced to this mammoth god that these Native Americans worshipped early on and tell this very interesting story about how the mammoth god loved his people so much that he was willing to sacrifice himself so that they can progress through their trip across the Bering Strait, dealing with harsh conditions and extreme cold. And then we get kind of this introduction of the buffalo god we've seen throughout the series, throughout some of Shadow's visions in the Bone Orchard, or just rather But what was very interesting was some of the, or the one line that talked about how powerful the gods were, but that people were more, more powerful. And kind of takes us back to how the gods need people as much as people need the gods. These gods throughout this series feed off belief. They need belief, and when they're forgotten— we got to see this original Mammoth God get forgotten and then replaced with this Buffalo God. And that introductory scene I thought was excellent. It was great animation. I thought it was well done, and I like the approach they took, giving us a different style of visuals, you know, besides live-action sequences about, you know, explaining how the older gods were introduced to the Americas and how they were brought about by various cultures. But moving on and getting past that, what was just so very interesting was We got to pick up on what was going on with Laura Moon and Shadow as they dealt with the issues that they were left with, uh, that were left, uh, going on to death, never to be, uh, resolved. But, uh, they get this second chance with Laura Moon returning from The Leprechaun's Coin, and Shadow and both Laura get to kind of resolve their issues. But kind of like one of my predictions I had made last week, and that was that I don't think Shadow was going to be in the same place as Laura. Laura's changed a lot after her death. She seems to be, uh, her entire, um, uh, purpose And I can't really say life because she's dead now, but her purpose, you know, at this point seems to resolve things with Shadow, to help Shadow understand that she really does love him at this stage. And Shadow, he's still moving about like he's in this— he's in this situation now where he can believe everything that has happened, like nothing surprises him, but at the same time he doesn't believe anything is real. So he's in a very strange place where nothing surprises him. You know, like I had said in some earlier, uh, uh, reviews, that, uh, Shadow is just moving through this entire series like he's in this state of non-reality And when he's faced with certain situations or he witnesses certain things, I don't think Shadow ever really identifies it with reality. You know, his reaction to it, just his entire, you know, how he identifies with the entire situation, it just doesn't seen real in both the character and the scene. So to me, Shadow is kind of in this trance-like state. And even when he's dealing with Laura on their first encounter, uh, after her— after she's back from the dead, uh, it's almost like he's still in that state. And it doesn't even really shake him that she's back from the dead. He's more concerned about, uh, the problems they had much like when she was alive, or He's looking at the situation dealing with her infidelity like she's still alive. And, uh, you know, just very, uh, uh, uh, you know, strange to see the— how he reacts. But at the same time, I think it kind of makes sense because I don't think he's ever really had a chance to get out of shock. You know, it's just been a constant his entire life from this point has been just one strange happening after the, after the next unbelievable happening after the next. So he hasn't really had a chance to slow down. But, you know, Laura still, we get to see in this state where she's just acting like it's fine, you know, like she's expecting him to basically still see things the same, start back where they left off. And Shadow is not really in that place. There's too much crazy things have happened happened, uh, he can't really focus on that. Uh, you know, he basically reveals to her that he is no longer her puppy, you know, going back to the lost puppy dog following her like a puppy, uh, you know, ideal, and how she's always seen him in the relationship. But although things have seemingly changed in her, in her mind, as she's, you know, telling him, she's basically still treating him like the same person she saw him as before she left. You know, her revelation that she loves him hasn't really changed her perception of where he is in that relationship. And he basically does let her know that he's no longer that person in that relationship. And I can— we can kind of see that this has— does have some type of impact on Laura. But I think in Laura's mind Uh, she still sees Shadow as her husband. He's still her guy, and she still believes that they're going to make some, you know, headway in that relationship and get things back on track. Whereas Shadow was still dealing with all these various things with Mr. Wednesday and the guys, the old guys versus the new guys. But I want to say something, um, make a very interesting point. Something that I meant to say several reviews ago, but I just kind of missed the point. But also, as I've kind of looked at some other reviews and information, I haven't seen this addressed. And that is one of my theories, and I'm talking specifically now to when Mr. Wednesday visits the Shadow at the hotel room when he's having his reunion with Laura and having their very emotional conversation. Is that Mr. Wednesday is alerted by his ravens, you know, that something is going on. They're trying to tell him something. Apparently, I believe they may witness Gato and Laura together, but they're letting them know something's going on strange. And we know, if you're familiar with any kind of Norse mythology, you know that Odin uses these ravens as a communication to relay communication from the Ravens back to him. They will fly across the Earth, let them know everything's going on. And, and much— they're pretty much doing the same thing now in this episode. But if we cut back to the first episode, um, you know, when, uh— or I'm sorry, not the first, but actually it would be the episode that shows what happened with Laura when she actually, uh, started cheating on the, um, uh, Shadow with Robbie. Uh, I have this theory that perhaps I'm, I'm wondering now if Mr. Wednesday was some kind of way involved with, uh, oh, you know, Laura's, uh, the whole incident would happen with Laura and the cheating and, um there is no evidence that, uh, Mr. Wednesday had anything to do with it, with the exception of the Ravens being present to see what was going on with Laura Moon. But when I look at how bad Mr. Wednesday wanted Shadow and the interest of the New Gods in Shadow, it wouldn't surprise me at all. And my mind's really leaning towards that It's possible that the entire incident with Laura cheating on Shadow, it could have been arranged or kind of put into a series of events where she could be greatly influenced to take that step. And although she's troubled on her own, and I could see just the way her character's, uh, you know, written, I can see that Laura would need no help from the gods in order to do the things that she did throughout the series. However, looking at the importance of Shadow seemingly through the story so far, I could see there being a need to attempt to keep Shadow focused on certain areas of his life and not being you know, or not, you know, losing focus being with Laura. I could see Laura being someone that would keep him from whatever it is that the New Gods and Old Gods want of Shadow. And apparently they want something because he's constantly being solicited by both the New Gods and the Old Gods. So I just found that very interesting. I think that's a theory we all need to pay attention to, that certain things could have been put in motion for Shadow to— or rather, Laura Moon— to cheat so Shadow could embark on the situation he's on now. And, you know, we get this very interesting scene, and this is also what made this week's episode one of my favorites, is we got a a lot more information about how the New Gods work together. We, we've kind of had been introduced to some individually, got an idea— Media, Technology Boy— we got an idea how they work individually. But in this episode, we get introduced to how they work together, what their goals are, what they're trying to accomplish, and things like that. And we, and we again get, um media merging into these various iconic characters. It was I Love— it was Lucille Ball before. This week we get David Bowie and Marilyn Monroe and things like that. So she does a good job of merging into these characters, and she's this personification of what we see on TV and what we see in the media. And she's, uh, you know, having this— she's kind of scolding Technology Boy. We could— we can see just how she's doing that. That Technology Boy in this new pantheon of gods, these new gods, that he's the youngest of the gods and he's the, the less wise of them. And so they're scolding him about, you know, the people he's dealing with, with Mr. Wynn's in shadow. He's being scolded basically because these are much older gods, that Mr. Wynn says a much older god that deserves respect. And they're basically letting us know their plans, that they don't really want a war, but what they want to do is rebrand, you know, the old gods, bring them into this new pantheon of gods, but bringing them into it whereas they're underlings in this new organization. And just all very interesting. We get Mr. Rourke finally coming through, and Mr. Rourke just seems to be this— he's the most powerful apparently of the New Gods, the leader. And His plan is to basically bring everybody into this kind of neat little order. Uh, he wants everybody up. He wants, uh, the old guys to do things a new way. He wants to recruit Mr. Wednesday, but Mr. Wednesday doesn't like how the new setup, uh, of the new guys to the old guys is. They want to rebrand them. Have this Odin Missile, as they're explaining, and basically, uh, updating him, upgrading him, as media, uh, alludes to. And I just thought that was very funny. And of course, Shadow, with all this going on, he's very, you know, he's just very, uh, much again still in his dream state. Is this real? As he's witnessing all these new guys and old guys merge together into this meeting and, uh, trying to figure out where they're going to go from there. And of course, Mr. Wednesday is basically letting them know, hey, I'm never going to join you guys, you know. I'm like the irritation in the oyster shell, uh, that makes the, uh, that, you know, where that although, uh, the pearl, this beautiful pearl is created, there's always some irritation in the process. And Mr. Wednesday is them all know he's that irritation. So, uh, you know, we can pretty much tell it's a matter of time before they go head to head. But, uh, apparently they don't want to make martyrs out of— they don't want, uh, uh, this martyrdom to form with the old guys. And then they have this big war that apparently they're trying to avoid. But at the same time, we can tell that the new guys very powerful by what they're demonstrating, that the old gods are very weak because they've been so much forgotten, um, by the, uh, everyone. And, and again, the people, as, uh, at the beginning of the review or in the beginning of the series, as the animation explained, the introductory animation explained that it was that gods were powerful but people were more powerful. So as the people forget the older guys, they become weaker, and the new guys are becoming stronger. So I just thought this was a great episode, guys. Uh, you know, who'd I miss? Max, um, uh, Matt Sweeney, uh, he tried to take his coin back from Laura. He failed tremendously. Uh, he doesn't— he didn't have the power to take it from Laura. Uh, he has to— we find out that he has to the person who possesses the coin has to freely give it back to Mad Sweeney or the leprechaun. And, you know, I understand that Laura Moon Emily Browning's character she plays has been getting a lot of negativity. And, you know, but I just want to say that although her character is getting a lot of negativity, Doesn't mean she's not doing a great job acting this character. I mean, she's— if I have to be honest, uh, her character is the most complicated, most complex, and well-developed. And that's, and that's all very interesting because so far in the series, that's all very interesting because as I understand it, in the book American Gods, her character wasn't a very big character. Um, have a lot of story behind her character. She gets a lot in the TV series, but at the same time, I, you know, I believe her character is the best acting, you know, and I think she's doing an excellent job. So everybody who's attacking the character of Laura Moon, I kind of view her kind of like Joffrey of Game of Thrones. Everybody hated Joffrey, but we found out how important Joffrey was when he died and was removed from the show, how important his character was. So I really love this week's episode, guys. I think this was my favorite. Uh, I didn't find myself— the pacing was good. I didn't find myself kind of watching the clock like, let's move on to the next scene. I was very interested in everything I saw. And we did get this weird tree-like god at the end, uh, I mean, when they were escaping from the police station and seems like some kind of god of nature, or seems like it would fit more in the old gods. But then at the same time, he's just kind of— I'm assuming that this god is not on anybody's side, you know. He's, he's just doing his own thing apparently, because I don't know who he represents. Because he seems like he's attacking the old gods, uh, I don't think he works for the new gods. And so don't really know what's going on with that. We'll have to wait and see what's happening on that. But guys, really like this episode. Let me know if you guys like this episode, if you like Laura Moon's character any better. Let me know if I missed anything in this week's episode. Kind of do these reviews a little bit late after the show goes off, and if you— something important I missed, please feel free to give it in the comment section. We can talk about a little bit. But anyway, guys, uh, if you like content like this, don't forget to like, dislike, or subscribe. Giving you that second option now. And until next time, guys, take care.