FOKS Broadcasting Service presents a broadcast about the Orson Welles Martian panic. A family of farmers in Trenton listen to the radio broadcast. They listen as a Martian spaceship opens fire on the onlookers and a Martian emerges
World says that fear makes the world go around, not love.
The farmer family drive away, looking fearfully at the sky.
World says that the fear made the radio broadcast real, and the fact that it was feared so deeply. He walks through a movie model of a city and talks about how people pay to view movies of horror, and sits down in the director's chair. People run through the streets as flying saucers open fire on them. After the movie is released and a boy watches it on TV, he goes to bed. He hears his dog barking and goes outside to watch it run off into the nearby field. The boy chases after it, and a column of white light comes down and takes the boy.
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Shadow stands outside of the funeral home.
Ibis tends to Sweeney's body and senses something.
Shadow lies down on a stone coffin and dreams of the ocean and dying. Images from the past flow through his mind of Wednesday saying that Shadow wouldn't believe who he was if he told him. Laura appears to Shadow and says that he's having a bad dream.
Wednesday slips out of the funeral home and drives away.
Come morning, Shadow wakes up and sees Laura lying on the coffin across from him.
The CEO works in his office on his coding, and after a moment stops his metronome. He still hears the ticking, and follows the noise to a metronome sitting on the floor. When the CEO stops it, he hears another CEO and finds it as well. The first one has disappeared, and another metronome starts ticking. The CEO is inspired and goes back to composing his code, and it forms into Technical Boy. Technical Boy stops the metronome and greets the CEO.
Laura tells Shadow that she can't cry or make things right, and insists that she's not her mistakes. She wants good things for both of them, but she can't and she's sorry. Shadow says that sorry doesn't change anything, and tells her that Sweeney died the night before, and he didn't mean to kill him. Laura tells her husband that Wednesday is behind all of it and isn't his friend, and promises that she will always have Shadow's back.
In the past, Shadow and Laura go to the park and Laura wants a puppy that she sees. Shadow says that he will be her puppy.
Shadow tells Laura not to call him "Puppy". She agrees, and then says that she's going to kill Wednesday and asks if he's going to try and stop her. Shadow just says that it's a free country, and Laura goes into the funeral home.
The CEO tells Technical Boy that he's perfect and simply, and Technical Boy says that he's messy meat. When the CEO talks about Jacob wrestling an angel in the Bible, Technical Boy wonders he would want to and the CEO explains that they want to see if they can match up since they're made in God's image. He continues, saying that Jacob refused to release the angel until it blessed him, and breaks into laugher as Technical Boy looks at him.
Shadow finally goes inside.
Laura enters the greenhouse and finds the empty table and the pool of blood on the floor. She knocks the table over in anger and Bilquis appears holding an apple. She says that Sweeney is in the mortuary and Laura isn't interested in seeing him. Bilquis tells Laura that Wednesday isn't there and that Laura asks if she wants to help her go against Wednesday. The goddess thanks her for her offer, admitting that it's tempting, and Laura figures that Bilquis doesn't like him either. Bilquis says that she knows where to find Laura if she needs her and leaves.
The CEO tells Technical Boy that human progress is dependent on their capability to understand chaos and craft a pattern from it. He talks about making sacrifice and he doesn't have a family, and he chose the work. Technical Boy asks what he thinks happens when he touches a god, and the CEO figures that it's like the Sistine Chapel. The computer flashes an alarm as new code writes itself, and Technical Boy tells him that they're made in a god's image. He touches the CEO and there's a burst of light, and he asks the CEO if it's everything he imagined. The light ends and Technical Boy says that his only limit is the CEO's imagination, and they'll work on it. He tells the CEO that fear fuels imagination and says that he can be in two places at once.
Technical Boy appears at the bunker where World and the Caretaker are watching newscasts about a data dump attack.
Salim is purchasing liquor for Sweeney's wake, and the attendant points out the TV running a newscast about the data dump of recent crimes. It's an attack on American financial institutions, causing a run on banks. Salim leaves and sees people panicking and attacking each other. He returns to the funeral home, locking the door behind him and calls for anyone. Laura goes to Sweeney's body in the workshop and looks at it for a minute.
Shadow finds Sweeney's coins on the greenhouse floor, and hears Salim looking around. He finds Ibis and turns on the TV.
New Media is flipping through the broadcasts for World, which show the FBI asking for information on Shadow and Wednesday, who are suspects in the Bellefontaine massacre.
Salim asks Ibis if Wednesday and Shadow killed police officers, and Ibis tells him to be skeptical and remember that all police have bias. Ibis then goes to Nancy and plays chess with him, and Nancy says that Wednesday is gone but Shadow is under the knife. Shadow hears them talking and walks off.
Wednesday is at a restaurant and sees a news broadcast showing his face.
New Media continues manipulating the media, sending out reports that Shadow and Wednesday are tied to the chemical attack in Kentucky. Salim asks Ibis if it's true, and Nancy tells Ibis that he's lost his edge in Cairo. Ibis insists that it's chess, not a revolution, but Nancy says that it's going to take a revolution. Ibis notes that a king removing himself from the board and leaving his knight behind as a distraction is efficient.
Shadow discovers that Wednesday is gone and goes to get his hidden stash. Bilquis appears and figures that he's making a run for it, lets her robe drop to the floor, and says that his survival is of great interest to her. She kisses Shadow and says that he tastes of love lost. Bilquis marks his forehead with red liquid and disappears, and Shadow grabs his things and goes.
The Djinn approaches Ibis and Nancy, thanks them for their hospitality, and says that Wednesday will be in touch when the time is right. He says that he has to take Salim away because he's a target, and Ibis asks if he can go against Wednesday's express wishes. The Djinn tells them that he can kill whoever he pleases whenever he wants, makes a move for Ibis putting Nancy in check.
New Media adds Salim to the news reports. Salim sees it and asks Shadow if he killed the police in Indiana. Shadow says that he doesn't and that he needs to leave because he isn't going to prison. He invites Salim to go with him, saying that they're not like the gods. Salim insists that he's making his own choices.
Tips come in to the Illinois police, and they head for the funeral home.
New Media speaks through the newscasters on the TV, addressing Shadow as he leaves. She repeats the words from the Welles broadcast and gives Shadow the finger, and then disappears.
Salim prepares to leave, and the Djinn tells him to wait. The police pull up out front and Salim tells the Djinn that he doesn't regret any of what happened. The Djinn kisses him.
Shadow realizes the police have surrounded the place and are moving in. As he goes out the door, the World Tree pulls him into itself using a vine. What has happened flashes through his mind, including his dying mother telling a young Shadow not to let "Him" find him. The buffalo appears the with the flaming eyes, and Shadow remembers Wednesday telling him that he reminds him of his son. After grabbing an axe, Shadow hacks at the World Tree. The gods sense the disturbance, and the World Tree shatters revealing a young Shadow in a house on the beach, playing with a model of the funeral home.
The police break into the funeral home.'
The Boy Shadow wipes all of the figures around the funeral home.
Salim looks out and discovers that the police have disappeared.
Reports go out that terrorists breached the ARGUS drone even though it was thought unbreachable. The FBI secure the CEO's company as a crime scene, and ask the CEO if he can reverse the hack. The CEO tells them to pray.
Nancy goes to the greenhouse and finds Shadow's hatchet but no sign of Shadow. He chuckles and leaves.
As Salim prepares to leave, the Djinn tells Ibis that what Salim does is what is important, not what he knows. Ibis gently mocks him, and the Djinn leaves with Salim.
Laura carries Sweeney's body away, walking down a street.
As the Emergency Broadcast System goes out, World figures that the natural state of things is reasserting itself.
Wednesday figures that his boy will be just fine as a waiter pours him a drink.
Shadow sits on a bus leaving Cairo and a police car pulls up. They check the passengers for identification, looking for Shadow, then address him by a fake name and say that he's good to go and they can all leave. Shadow discovers that he has a new ID with the fake name, and gets back on the bus.
Written by Gadfly on Apr 28, 2019