​ "Treasures of the Sun" - American Gods S02E07 Review

After a week where American Gods seemed to reach the excellence of season one, with "Treasure of the Sun" it's back to good ole season two. Apparently this episode was written to get rid of Pablo Schreiber, who is moving over to a new Halo series. They needed to get rid of him, so... they got rid of him. In other words (spoilers ahoy)...

Oh my god! They killed Sweeney! Those bastards!

I wish I could say I was surprised. But I'm just indifferent. Mr. Schreiber is a good actor, and I've enjoyed his time on American Gods. But they haven't given him much to do this season. He got a sex scene, and he got to curse, drink, and smoke a lot. And indulge in some humor. And he kind of lusted after Laura from afar, although that's more a credit to Schreiber and Emily Browning then anything the creative team gave them to do.

But mostly I'm indifferent to Sweeney's death. Mostly because it came out of nowhere and wasn't foreshadowed in any way. Or rather, there was some foreshadowing. But it was so vague that it could foreshadow that he lived. Or died. Or became the Lucky Charms mascot. Or any of a half dozen other possibilities. Mostly they dumped a ton of exposition and backstory on Sweeney to make him seem more significant than he has been so far this season.

Then again, most of the characters have been made to seem more significant than they are. The only one who really impresses me these days is Mama-ji (Sakina Jaffrey), who has her worshippers and has her domain. And kicks some ass display-wise when she gives Laura some advice on her revenant state and reminds her that she's a Destroyer as well as a Nuturer.

The rest of it is the various characters sitting around and having enigmatic conversations. World and New Media aren't even present (although Kahyun Kim is credited). Nancy isn't present. An episode without the energy of Orlando Jones and the threatening menace of Crispin Glover just isn't much of an episode. Schreiber tries to make up for it by giving it his all, and he does his best. But Sweeney isn't evil, and he's not that deep a character. He's either a running joke because of the loss of his coin, or lusting after Laura who has his coin. And I'm sick of hearing about Sweeney's coin. So with Sweeney gone, I'll miss Schreiber but I won't miss hearing about his damned coin. Over and over and over again.

So how did Sweeney buy the farm? He gets back to Cairo and passes out drunk beneath a railway trestle. Shadow finds him and takes him to the funeral home. Wednesday spends a lot of time stuffing his face with funeral food left over by mourners, and telling Sweeney to keep his end of their compact. Shadow and Sweeney have an enigmatic conversation or two. Sweeney and Samir talk about faith. Sweeney and Ibis talk about stories and whether they're "truer than truth."

Throughout all of this, Sweeney is remembering his past as he confronts three mourners who are apparently Banshees out of Irish legend. He thinks they foretell his death. Sweeney starts remembering how he was a barbarian king in Ireland, fighting the Catholic invaders and the Femorian barbarians. He remembers that he had a wife and child, and when the Catholic priests successfully invaded Ireland, he lost his mind and went off to live in the forest. The leader of the Femorians, Balor (Robert Maillet, a "Hey, It's That Tall, Dark, and Foreboding Guy!") is apparently Sweeney's grandfather who tried to kill all of his grandsons but Sweeney escaped and was eventually forced to kill him.

This somehow leads to Sweeney having enough of Wednesday and his manipulative ways. He and Shadow fight over Gungnir and Shadow ends up stabbing Sweeney with Wednesday's spear. This kills Sweeney, although whether it's a "permanent" death or not given that we were just told a week ago that gods can only permanently die through suicide, I don't know.

Oh, Shadow has Gungnir because Wednesday entrusted it to him after restoring it with a branch from the World Tree that he's growing in Ibis' greenhouse.

Laura is making her own way from New Orleans to Cairo. After stopping at a diner to talk to Mama-ji, Laura hitches a ride and arrives in Cairo. But she doesn't get to the funeral time to see Sweeney die, or learn that Shadow killed him, or much of anything. Other than to give Mama-ji a chance to exposit and look cool, Laura doesn't do anything in the episode except to look forlorn. Ms. Browning is very good at looking forlorn.

Wednesday ominously says the war is brewing, and the war is coming, and that he'll give Sweeney the war that he promised. Why the war is coming, I don't know. The characters keep saying a war is coming. But there doesn't seem to be evidence onscreen to show why the war is coming. Easter fired the first shot in the war at the end of season one, but it's been on hold ever since. So why it's suddenly kicking into gear isn't at all apparent.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?