American Gods Episode 7 Review "A Prayer For Mad Sweeney"

Hey you, welcome back to the channel. And today, guys, we're gonna review American Gods episode 7. I believe the title is A Prayer for Mad Sweeney. And so, guys, some people are saying that this may very well be um, their, their best episode yet or their favorite episode. And I have to say, I really did like this episode. I don't know if I'm quite ready to give it the label of my favorite episode. I think A Limit Sent You is still my favorite because we get this dynamic of all these great actors and get to pretty much stick with the main story. And, uh, I'm still kind of caught up on, have, you know, following that main story, guys. You know, as we explained earlier, American Gods has this way of, uh, you know, going off into different directions and things like that. But, uh, a great, uh, episode, uh, all over. Um, and we always get these introductions into how various deities got to the New World, got to America. And no exception with this week's episode. We get pretty much the story of how Mad Sweeney was brought to America. And, you know, it opens up with, uh, we get this character, uh, a young girl by name of Elsie, I believe, Irish, uh has all the Irish traditions of fairy people and leprechauns. Leprechauns that they kind of say with this disdain. Nobody likes leprechauns. And, uh, you know, it's kind of what kind of threw me off a little bit about the young girl they got to play Elsie is I don't know why, guys, I just kept thinking of young Lindsay Lohan. It is— she just looked like Lindsay Lohan when she was young. If you go back and look at some of the Lindsay Lohan, and I was just kind of like threw off by that a little bit. But we get, um, Elsie, she's learning all these Irish traditions, all of these Irish, uh, uh, all this Irish folklore and, uh, mythologies about the fairy people and leprechauns. And, uh, you know, although, uh, kind of was new to me, uh, about, you know, leprechauns being over 6 feet tall and being as big as Mad Sweeney. That, you know, I'm always used to seeing them small and dancing around a pot of gold. But of course, Mad Sweeney explains to us how their image got destroyed and how General Mills was a big reason for it, you know, with Lucky Charms and things like that. So just, guys, oh man, I just thought that was so funny. But, but yeah, so Elsie's learning all these stories and Elsie grows up to be this kind of looks like reincarnated version of Laura Moon. I was a little bit thrown off by that too. You know, when they do things like that, you know, it kind of— I'm wondering if this is a— you know, I'm sure it's a reason for that, that this character, she an ancestor of Laura Moon. Uh, did they just do it just to kind of connect, uh, the character of Elsie with Laura Moon in the present situation, what's going on with Mad Sweeney? Maybe, I don't know, guys. Please give your opinions, let me know, you know, you know what you thought was going on with that. But, you know, Elsie's grown up now. She's, uh, working in as a, as a servant, uh, in a proper gentleman's home. And this gentleman is obviously of a higher class, and she's in servitude class, and it's not permitted for them to mingle. You know, this is a very, uh, you know, tight culture, uh, in Ireland with, you know, mixing with the lower class. This looks down upon. So, um, as he's getting ready to go to college, he's having this affair with, uh, Elsie. And what's happening is, uh, you know, it's found out, it's caught, you know, it's caught. Uh, he's promising her he'll marry her when he comes back from college. You know, we're finding out that young men do whisper in the ears of young women things they want to hear when they're trying to get what they want. That's why I try to warn my nieces and cousins. But anyway, as the young man's, uh, caught, you know, he, uh, he disavows any information. He doesn't— he He doesn't know that he promised her anything, that she had actually stolen a very valuable heirloom that he had given her from his family as terms of his endearment. However, which I may be wrong because if he gave her that, this item, perhaps his feelings were real. But as he was caught, uh, and, you know, uh, he, he, uh, he kind of backed out of it. He kind of, you know, let her, um, you know, uh, be fed to the wolves. And the problem with that was that, you know, thievery in Ireland during this period of time, uh, you go to the gallows. You could be hanged for stealing. It was— this was like— this was under more or less under the Hammurabi Code, you know, close to when you steal, you get your hands cut off. This was worse. They're going to send you to the gallows or you can get this kind of, uh, secondary choice to be sent to the Americas. And it's being explained, uh, you know, that, uh, a lot of people who came to America— and of course we know these stories anyway— a lot of America was colonized by criminals, uh, colonized by not the best of the, uh, of the crew, you know, the cream of the crop of the world. And so it was a lot of people had to create America under the harsh conditions of America. So it's just a bunch of, uh, you know, people with criminal records and things like that. So, uh, you know, this is the choice Elsie is faced with. So this is how she is getting to America. And, you know, we have to take it back to— we do get Mr. Ibis, Mr. Jackal And that's very important because, you know, as we recall, Mr. Ibis is the god Thoth, and he's recording the— I don't know if he's been introduced actually as the god Thoth yet, but it's pretty clear that he's hanging around with Anubis, Mr. Jackal, that, you know, he's a god. But he's the narrator of all of the vignettes, all of the stories and things like that. And so he's writing, uh, so he, you know, they're carrying on their normal funeral parlor business, but, uh, Mr. Jackal, uh, he's just seeing that Mr. Ibis is so distracted from his work, and he says I can tell that you want to start writing. And, uh, he's like, how do you know? Because of the movement of your fingers. And we see where Mr. Ibis, he just has to write. He has to get these stories out. And he's telling us this story about, uh, how Elsie brought, uh, the, uh, the Irish gods, the deities, to the Americas with her. And, uh, you know what else, what also was very interesting when Elsie arrives in America, um, you know, it's very interesting to see, um, how indentured servitude, you know, was in full force. And that, uh, yes, it did play out like a form of slavery. Um, when we think about, uh, slavery in America We generally always just think about the, the slave situation with Africa, the slave trade. But we got to see here that indentured servitude was very quite much like slavery. The only difference was that it had a term limit on it. It was a very similar thing. And you know, when we think of indentured servitude and we think of slavery, we generally will go to, hey, no, those things are nothing. Obviously, if you were an indentured servant, you're better off than being a slave. And obviously that was true. But what I found interesting doing some reading and studying some history was that all slavery in America used to be the same. It used to be every slave had a contract or time limit, as far as I understand it. And that, uh, when it became, uh, that you become a slave for life, that was something that occurred as a change in the law, if I understand correctly. Everybody who was a slave was only a slave for a period of time, and then that was, that was changed to, uh, things of being a slave for, uh, you know, forever, basically, to your death date unless released by your slave owner. And we get this interesting scene just to show you, uh, you know, pretty much how it worked when Elsie's, uh, met, um, it's her last place that she's into this indentured servitude sentence with. And this master of the home who wants to marry her, he basically frees her so he can marry her. She says, "I'm a slave and I thought you were—" She did it in a very clever way, or very sincere and clever. She basically, you know, gets her freedom from him, marries him, and obviously inherits all this land and this plantation after his death. So that just kind of showed that, you know, the term limits of how indentured servitude looked. But, uh, it just all looked bad to me. And of course, we get to see the slaves of the slave trade, they're working on her plant— on the plantation she now owns. And, uh, these are just very, very, uh, this indentured servitude thing is rough business, very rough business. Um, and, um, you know, the Irish, um, you know, basically were under a type of slavery themselves for a period of time. Uh, so, um, yeah, pretty rough, rough time with coming to the Americas and, uh, you know, the conditions that they were all working under. Um, But, you know, we get Elsie basically, uh, you know, making her way back to England and how she— or, I'm sorry, Ireland— and how she was able to achieve all of this. Or rather London, I'm sorry, she got back to London. And how she was able to achieve all of this was, you know, she becomes a a lady somewhat of means by stealing and like prostitution and things like that. And she makes her way back to London, but she's caught stealing and still burglary because she had— we remember originally she had been accused of burglary, uh, you know, when her first home that she was working in as a servant, she was accused of burglary. And she started to accept the title because society had branded her, um, a burglar. And, uh, so she was— she's always going to be looked down upon because of that. So she had accepted what society had branded her, although unfairly and unjustly, uh, but she accepted it. So she ends up getting this, uh, uh, basically it's a— it becomes a double sentence where it's pretty much sure death. And this is— that's a very interesting scene because she met met, uh, Mad Sweeney in prison, and they had this, uh, dialogue back and forth about, uh, you know, how the Americas and things like that, and how that land was magic, was in the fairy people and the leprechauns. They were basically on their way out, and she's explaining that he should go to America and start anew and things like that. And, uh, it's pretty much certain death for her at this point as being a double offender, uh, being a habitual offender, uh, but she gets pregnant in the prison because obviously Elsie is a very attractive young woman. So she has— she's able to kind of use her youth and beauty to get her out of jams, as she does all through the series, uh, does all through this episode. But She actually gets pregnant from one of her jailers, and because of that, they're willing to give her something they wouldn't normally do— another chance to go back to America to start anew. But she goes back pregnant, and, uh, just hard, very hard life, very tough life. But what's important throughout the episode is that she never gives up on her beliefs and the old ways, the leprechauns, or the things she taught. Even through hunger, she's kind of offering up these sacrifices of food on a ship, even at the point of starving herself. She never forgets her traditions, and she's still, you know, in that sense, feeding the deities feeding Mad Sweeney, feeding the gods, because she's still offering up sacrifices, you know, despite her hardship, despite her conditions. And so she makes it back to the Americas. She grows old. She, you know, she becomes— she owns her own plantation and things like that. She grows old. She's trying to uh, you know, basically bestow all these beliefs on her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, things like that, and so they can carry on. But she's just putting fear in these children, you know. And I take that as— and this is the, uh, non-acceptance, uh, of the old and acceptance of the new. So that's the— to me, that was symbolic of the dying of the old gods, that this new generation would not accept, uh, would not accept these new deities, or I'm sorry, these old deities any longer. And of course, you know, we know from how the story goes that without them being able to feed, they get weaker and weaker. And so, you know, as she's getting near death, Mad Sweeney appears and he's basically there to, you know, meet her again. He hadn't met her in decades and years. And of course, you know, Mad Sweeney is immortal, so he ends up there, you know, just like looking the same day that they met, you know, several decades earlier, you know, half a century earlier. And, you know, he's basically telling that he's finally made it to the Americas. And, you know, basically I took it like it was a kind of thank you for bringing me here with you. And that's what— that's what he— that's what she basically did. She brought her gods. She brought Mad Sweeney to the Americas with her, you know, offering up her uh, worship sacrifices, things like that. So I, I really like the episode. I thought it was, uh, really good. You know, it's, it's— the thing is, you know, it's almost like all of these various stories are— it's almost they're, they're all like this anthology or collection of stories that are outside this. You know, in other words, they could all be their own individual stories and part of this one, you know, big story. Um, but you know, in between this flashback, we're flipping back and forth. We're flipping back to, uh, modern times, what's going on with the entourage— Mad Sweeney, Laura Moon, and Salim. Salim has been released from his obligation, so now he can go seek the Djinn. He's released by Laura Moon. Of course, Mad Sweeney doesn't like that. Um, but they're now traveling together. They get in this huge accident, and Laura Moon, uh, actually loses her— her body falls apart, and she loses the lucky coin that sustains her life. And to me, this was the— my favorite part of the episode. This is what really gave us this I think made Mad Sweeney probably one of the— one of my favorite characters now, uh, at the top. And in fact, him and Lara Moon may be my favorite characters of the entire series. I mean, their story is, to me, is getting to be the strongest, the most entertaining. And especially with this episode, it kind of brought it, you know, you know, brought it, you know, that, that even further because We got to see this other side of Matt Sweeney, that Matt Sweeney, although he goes around like this prick and this jerk and this ignorant idiot, as Mr. Wednesday explained him, I mean, when he sees Laura Moon broken up and has lost her lucky coin that sustains her life, you know, he takes the coin, he could just leave. He has his lucky coin back, he doesn't have to do anything else. But he puts the coin back in Laurie and regenerates her back to life. And it was just so hilarious. She doesn't even know what happened. She knocks him out, just so unaware of what he's done, you know. And he doesn't say anything to correct it, or, you know, he just lets her go on being the, uh, the person she is, which, you know, which their energies are, uh, very negative towards each other, you know. So, but it kind of is— they got this really good chemistry in this negative way, and it's kind of funny because, uh, it kind of reminds me of how a lot of the best friendships started off. I've had friendships where I've started off with people and, uh, really didn't like them, they didn't like me, and then we become the best of friends. I'm sure a lot of people can identify with that because under all— underneath all of that, I believe there seems to be a certain type of admiration for both parties that are at war with each other. And I think we got this with Laura Moon and Mad Sweeney the Leprechaun. We got to see that throughout all this. These two probably really admire each other, uh, and, uh, obviously Mad Sweeney, uh, you know, uh, you know, cared enough about Laura to regenerate her, bring her back, you know. So he's fond of her in his own way, because if he wasn't, he wouldn't have done that. And, uh, really like the episode, guys. Awesome, awesome episode. I'm still on the fence if it's the best. It's— I will say this, it's the most, uh, well-acted, the most well-written of the episodes. I don't know if I like this the, the best, you know, plot to the episode. I did feel it just wandered a little bit too far off a bit of the course of the main story. But again, this is American Gods. I, you know, that's— I think the point of American Gods is to do that. And I can only say again, guys, that if they're going to do the show this way, wow, man, they can have 5 seasons, 10 seasons. They can have as many seasons as they— they could be the longest running show on TV doing this. But I like how they're doing it. It's great, you know, it's, it's great. They can just go on and on like this. They won't ever really have to worry about if they're going to get another season or if they need a spin-off or anything like that. You know, they're kind of already doing that. So guys, we only got one episode left. Let me know if you thought this was the best episode, uh, of, you know, so far, like some people are saying. Really did like the episode. Uh, guys, um, if you like content like this, don't forget to like and subscribe. And until next time, take care.