Posted in: Movies, Starz, TV | Tagged: american gods, recap, Review, starz

Examining American Gods Episode 5, Lemon Scented You

Submitted for your consideration by Bleeding Cool contributor, Ray Flook his thoughts on the latest episode of American Gods.

"You're a person. I know people. Everything. About all of them."

Attended your wife's funeral…fought a leprechaun in a bar…threatened by a god…lynched by that god's faceless lackeys…robbed a bank…and created snow with your mind (and those are just the "big-ticket items" from Shadow's (Ricky Whittle) first few days of freedom). If anyone's earned the right to a decent night's sleep, it's Shadow…except Laura's (Emily Browning) not quite done with him yet. With that in mind and as Shadow so rightly observes to Laura, "we've got some unresolved issues to discuss," we head-into tonight's episode, Lemon Scented You.

But first, for those of you who are new and for the people in the cheap seats…

***SPOILERS ARE PRETTY MUCH IN-PLAY, PEOPLE!***

While this isn't a formal review, it does cover some "takeaways" involving major plotlines and developments from the episode. If you're not familiar with the book or the show, you definitely want to keep that warning in mind. If you are a fan of the novel or have some idea of what's ahead, then spoilers probably aren't that big of an issue for you storyline-wise but there may be some visual surprises or subtle changes that you might want to avoid until you see them for yourselves.

MPG: AMERICAN GODS MAIN TITLE

So here's what STARZ has to say about Lemon Scented You:

Trying to work things out with his dead and unfaithful wife, Shadow's emotional reunion is interrupted when he and Mr. Wednesday are kidnapped by the New Gods.

Overall Takeaway: The Gospel According to The Great Prophetess Aretha Franklin states…

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Find out what it means to me

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Take care, TCB

RESPECT

So we've spent the previous four episodes getting to know our main players, learning good chunks of their backstories (or at least their personality traits) and dealing with more "baggage" than Heathrow during the holiday rush. I didn't find this episode to be as consequential as the ones that've led-up to it, but it was still important in that it reminded the viewers of the "800lb. Cthulhu" constantly in the "room" of every scene: a war between the gods is coming…and it's going to be ugly. We are introduced to new players in the game as well as see players we've already met in brighter-yet-sometimes-not-better lights. But even as a number of players consolidate their forces and make their moves, there's an underlying theme that resonates with each interaction: respect.

Respect is a commodity both bought & paid for and fought & died for in the world of American Gods: when given properly, respect opens lines of communication and strengthens relationships; but when disrespect rears its ugly head, it's met with forced-at-Mr. World-point apologies and broken limbs. We see a number of examples of these two factors throughout this episode, with some of the more notable dynamics in-play including:

• Shadow & Laura: It took death for Laura to not only find her love for Shadow but also a stronger level of respect for him; and it was that increased level of respect for him that allowed her to open-up to him and answer his questions…with a level of personal insight and honesty that may have been brutal to Shadow's ears but were necessary for him to respect where she was coming from and how things got to be how they are between them. One additional note: there are moments when Laura seems to lean back on old habits by trying to use her words and past with Shadow to her advantage…but she learns this is a different Shadow now…

Laura: "Are you still my puppy?"

Shadow: " No. I'm not."

• Media (Gillian Anderson) & Tech Boy: Tech Boy's run-in and subsequent ordered lynching of Shadow wasn't something that was going to go unnoticed by either the old or new gods; and we learn through this scene that even the new gods have proper "wartime etiquette" and a respect even for those they consider their enemies. Tech Boy crossed a line, so it's Media's job now to clean-up the mess and teach Tech Boy an important lesson in respect and humility…not from a position of enjoyable punishment but from an almost maternalistic, tough-love perspective. In all her Bowie-esque glory, Media thinks Tech Boy needs an upgrade to "see the errors of his ways" and adjust to changing times:

"You have an image problem. You need to think about your brand. How you want the world to see you. How you want Mr. World to see you."

Again, you get that Media has a decent level of respect for Tech Boy in the sense that she sees the potential in him and looks to teach him the errors of his ways and get him back on a more "agreeable" path.

• Laura & Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber): Sometimes you can earn respect from someone, and other times you have to beat that respect out of them. Mad Sweeney only sees Laura as a means-to-an-end: she has his coin so he's going to take it from her. Two problems that he becomes righteously aware of very quickly: the coin is currently a part of Laura, who humiliates Mad Sweeney enough times to get the point across to him that he's not taking it by force; and even if he could take it from her physically, he still couldn't claim the coin unless Laura gave-up the coin willingly (since it was gifted to her from Shadow). Laura is able to use both of Mad Sweeney's problems to her advantage by forcing him into a painful position of respect: tell her what she wants to know or she'll hurt him. Badly. And Mad Sweeney knows she can because he's already gotten a small sample of what she can dish-out. So we find-out through her interrogation that Mad Sweeney was set-up to fight Shadow as a test of his skills. But even in as vulnerable a position as he's in, Mad Sweeney still can't help but attack Laura on a very intimate level: the fact that she's dead…and all dead eventually decay so… "meat's gonna' slide off you sooner or later." But Laura's too strong to be rocked for too long by a line like that, manipulating a moment of rage on Mad Sweeney's part to get him away from her so she can figure-out her next move. As Mad Sweeney yells, "You're a fucking asshole, dead wife" over her purposefully still and silent body as the police take him away, Laura's message is now crystal clear: she may not be around forever, but those around her will recognize (and respect) what she can do while she still has a part to play in the coming war.

1. WORLD INTRO

• Shadow, Mr. Wednesday, Media, Tech Boy & Mr. World (Crispin Glover): A continuation of the earlier scene between Media and Tech Boy, we now have Shadow and Mr. Wednesday as a literal "captured audience": arrested for the bank robbery they committed last episode so that the new gods can correct a "breach of etiquette" and make their pitch to Wednesday as to why their way is the right way for Wednesday (and many of the other gods) to go to avoid war. I found the dynamic between Tech Boy and Mr. World with regard to how they should approach Wednesday to be fascinating in that they're two sides of the same "respect coin." In his earlier scene with Media, Tech Boy reveals that he knows that Wednesday is up to something ("Wednesday's collecting monsters. Fucking Pokemon!") and that he poses a danger to the new gods' plans by being the biggest "wild card" of all the old gods. Wednesday doesn't need everything and everyone to succeed… "just enough," as Media explains. So Tech Boy's solution is simple-yet-oddly respectful: if Wednesday's such a threat, why not take him out now before he becomes a bigger problem? Tech Boy does not subscribe to the James Bond way of dealing with "bad guys": you can't come back with a revenge plan if you're dead. For Mr. World, it's not about "going to war" or killing Wednesday because his respect for him is too high…a respect that seems to have grown over time. Mr. World knows who/what Wednesday truly is, and what he's done throughout his time to survive up to this point. For Mr. World, it's about getting everyone on the same page so that "The System" is maintained. War is way too messy and impractical for Mr. World: better to win him over than run him over. So Mr. World and Media start pitching Wednesday on the benefits of being a "team player," showing him how he could benefit from the services they offer (Media: "We want to help you find your audience." / "Wouldn't you like an upgrade? A brand-new, lemon-scented you?"). For Wednesday, though, this "sales pitch" wasn't done so much out of respect as a fear of the unknown: "An oyster. Inside every pearl, there's a single irritating grain of sand. That's me. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here." As Wednesday reads it, the new gods are coming to him to negotiate a compromise because they're afraid of him and what he's capable of…banking on the painfully wrong assumption that Wednesday would rebel against his own individualistic nature. That fear they have of him is the real respect Wednesday feels…and in his mind, they have every right to fear and respect him. Because a war is coming…

Spare Parts: I've been playing around with the format of these "takeaways" articles for the past couple of weeks, and I like the idea of covering a main theme of each episode and going into the specific details as to why that overarching theme matters. Unfortunately, that leaves some really cool stuff that might not connect with the main theme on the cutting room floor…until now. Spare Parts is going to be a done-with-love dumping ground of random quotes and observations to keep in mind when you're watching the episode for either the first, second or forty-second time, so here's what I've collected for this week:

• We're finally getting the full opening credits at the beginnings of our screener copies, which is sweet!  They're wonderfully "Bryan Fuller-esque" and I want to know who got to take that cool cross/totem/neon sign home with them after the shoot.

• "I was giving myself the benefit of the doubt that there was a version of events where it wouldn't be a lie." -Laura

• In a world where gods are everywhere…in some way, shape and form…it's safe to assume that you're always being watched.

• "There is a big storm rolling across this country right now and nothing feels okay" -Shadow

• "What is that smell? What is it? Cat piss and oven cleaner?" -Wednesday

• That aerial shot of Tech Boy walking through the parking lot and to his car reminded me a lot of that famous image you see from the anime classic Akira.

• Anderson has portrayed Lucille Ball, David Bowie and Marilyn Monroe over the course of four episodes…each portrayal a genuine revelation of Anderson's acting prowess. For the sake of preserving any scraps of objectivity I still have left, I've been a fan of Anderson since the third episode of the first season of The X-Files. Her performance in this episode reminded me yet again as to why I've always considered her a true talent and at the top of the acting game.

• I appreciate Laura acknowledging and confirming that she did, in fact, kick someone's balls up through their brain last episode during the lynching/fight scene.

• "Someone you don't want to let see your face until you're ready to be seen." -Wednesday

• I'm a big fan of Mr. World entering the room all Michael Jackson/Billie Jean-style…

• As much as I wouldn't want to know that my Mom had eighty-sex sexual partners, I'd still take that over knowing that I made the same face as she did when I masturbate…but more in a "lesser-of-two-evils"-kinda' way.

• "It's not our fault they found other ways to occupy their time." -Media

• In Media's world, the words "fuck respect" come with a price tag of two of Tech Boy's teeth.

• The scenes of slaughter at the police station also drive home another point about respect…that being, how little respect the gods pay us "mere mortals" in comparison to the faith and respect that they expect in return.

• At this point (and on behalf of his genitals), Mad Sweeney should be wishing for "no luck whatsoever" over the run of bad luck he's going through now.

• If you ever find yourself working in a hospital morgue and one of the doors on the autopsy cabinets begins to shake and rattle? Run away from it…don't walk towards it.

That sound you hear? It's the drumbeat of war getting louder…and louder…and louder…

Join me next week as we take a look at American Gods Ep. 106: A Murder of Gods…

NEXT WEEK ON AMERICAN GODS, EP. 106…

Ray Flook has been a contributing writer to Bleeding Cool since 2013 and "Ray-splaining" geek stuff his entire life. You can follow him on Twitter at @oldmangeek88; on Instagram at @oldmangeek; and soon through the Big Bad Geek podcast.

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