​ "The Ways of the Dead" - American Gods S02E05 Review

American Gods continues on its merry way as it talks about race relations in America while juggling a few other balls in the air. That means more godlike knowledgeable smirks all around, and Shadow gets drawn into yet more intrigue and unanswered questions.

There's also a bit of vying for Samil's belief. Wednesday wants it, the Djinn isn't too thrilled with it because it's Islam and the religion incorporated the deserts spirits into their beliefs or branded them heretics.

Oh, and Sweeney and Laura have sex. Although not with each other.

The main part of "The Ways of the Dead" is we hear and see the story of Will James, being lynched in 19th century Cairo, Illinois. He's a black man, and apparently he cursed the black citizens in the town while they stood by and watched the whites lynch him. I... guess Will's ghost haunted the city and the funeral parlor. First he tries to make Shadow cut his own throat with a razor. Then his burning head appears on a post as the grandson, Jamarr, of the woman who died last week is running from a policeman after a drug bust. Then the burning head appears before Shadow when he's driving away from the funeral home after another round of 20 Questions with Ibis (Demore Barnes) and follows a black dog into an alleyway.

Will kinda/sorta possesses Shadow and has him speak at Jamarr's funeral. Reverend Hutchins (Glynn Turman) is giving a eulogy and admits he's lost his faith in the treatment of blacks in America. Shadow goes back to normal, and asks Wednesday, Nancy, and Ibis what is going on in yet another round of 20 Questions. They don't answer--again--and he stalks off.

Samil and the Djinn are bringing Wednesday's spear Gungnir back to Wednesday, who has already planted a sprig of the World Tree in Ibis' funeral home and urinated on it to make it grow. They meet him at a roadside produce stand, and then all travel to meet with Alviss (HITG Lee Arenberg), an Asgardian dwarf (as opposed to the Sleeping Beauty dwarf he played on Once Upon a Time). Alviss is eager to repair Gungnir, but tells Wednesday he'll need Dvalin to provide the necessary runes.

During all of this, Wednesday wants to get Samil's faith in Islam to him. The Djinn doesn't seem too happy with this, since Samil believes in Islam and Islam subverted the desert spirits. But he still wants Samil with him because they're lovers.

In the last plot, Laura somehow finds Sweeney in New Orleans. They visit Baron Samedi (Mustafa Shakir) and Maman Brigitte (Hani Furstenberg), and Sweeney calls in a favor to get Laura brought back to life so he can recover his lucky coin. Brigitte restores Laura to some semblance of humanity, and Samedi whips up a potion but tells Laura that she'll need two drops of blood infused with love to complete it. Then they have sex.

Sweeney goes off and watches Brigitte dance. She figures he's in love with Laura, but he has sex with Brigitte anyway. Afterward, Laura is still undead and Samedi & Brigitte have disappeared. Sweeney says the loa tricked them both, and Laura still refuses to give him his coin. She storms off and Sweeney curses in Gaelic, presumably. The end, of both their subplot and the episode.

I should add "I think" to all of this because it's all rather vague. The part with Lee Arenberg is probably the most entertaining. It gives us a relatively plainspoken godlike being who says what he means and means what he says. The exchange between Alviss and Wednesday sets off yet another quest. And the whole thing still feels rather slow-paced because no one is in a rush to do anything. Wednesday is moseying along having the Djinn and Samil get Gungnir, so he can get it, so he can talk to Alviss, so he can find out he needs a dwarvish runemaker. Shadow is hanging out in Cairo doing not much of anything because Wednesday says he doesn't need him. But it's not clear what Wednesday does need Shadow for on any of the occasions when he took Shadow along.

Ruby Goodchild is leaving Cairo with Bilquis, who has apparently convinced Ruby to be her worshipper. Although they don't seem to have had any of that conversation onscreen, this week or last. Nancy is... Orlando Jones, bopping along and being sarcastic to Shadow and everybody in general. Ibis warms up a little but is still the enigmatic God of Wisdom and the Dead. Mr. World isn't in it at it, and he's Wednesday's main enemy.

Laura isn't going to give Sweeney his coin, so where do they go from here? I don't know. I guess we'll have to wait to see what happens there. They're presumably onto a new quest, and it doesn't involve Wednesday or World or even Shadow.

So American Gods plods along. Last year when the creative team then was setting things up and introducing the viewers to the concept of old gods and new gods and lucky coins and undead revenants, the relatively slow pace made sense. This season, not so much. No one seems to be in any real hurry to do anything: not Wednesday and his allies, not World. Cripes, World "retired" Technical Boy last week and TB was apparently one of his more reliable allies. If he can afford to get rid of one of his most valuable and loyal allies--more loyal than New Media, apparently--then why does he think the old gods pose a threat to him?

Not to mention the end of last season when Easter was going to plunge America into famine to get people to worship her. Granted, Kristin Chenoweth refused to continue her involvement with the show. But what was supposedly the first strike in a major war against the new gods has turned into... nothing. Now it's back to the pre-season 1 status quo. The old gods are putzing around, the new gods are putzing around and World doesn't seem to be in any hurry to deal with them other than shoot down an old god who wasn't doing anything anyway.

Part of the fun of the first season was seeing what had become of the old gods. Wednesday is a conman, Sweeney is a tall leprechaun, Ibis is a funeral director, Nancy is a tailor (spider = weaver = tailor, get it?), Old Media swaps forms to become media-popular characters). In season 2 we find out Brigitte and Samedi run... a club in New Orleans. Samedi is a tall black guy in a hat, which is about as innovative as if they had made Wednesday an old guy with a white beard who looks like Anthony Hopkins. Or Sweeney a little person. And Avliss the Dwarf King manages a near-abandoned factory. What that has to do with being loas of death and King of the Dwarves, respectively, I don't know. The only entertaining revelation god-wise has been Mama-Ji works as a motel maid.

So while "The Ways of the Dead" is entertaining because of the actors, it doesn't seem to add anything to the major storyline or the characters. Then again, I'm not sure the current creative team wants to add anything to what used to be the major storyline. Yes, American Gods is based on a one-book novel and actually ending the war would presumably end the series. But the show plods along like it thinks it's going to run for 10+ seasons. There's no urgency to anything, and maybe they need some urgency to get us viewers excited. Right now, I'm not feeling it. And without urgency there are entertaining performances. Come for actors, not for the story or the characters.

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