American Gods episode 4 review: Stages of afterlife
At the cornerstone of the entire episode is Emily Browning, who commands every scene as Laura Moon. This is the story of Laura’s life, and eventually, also her afterlife as the character somehow finds herself rising from the crowd and seeing Shadow Moon as the great beacon of her life that she previously never did. He was glowing, and she found herself on a tunnel-vision mission to track him down and rebuild something she previously desecrated.
The strength of both this episode and Browning’s performance in turn is that through many of her actions, Laura is far from unlikable. This is a casino dealer who, after forming a relationship with Shadow Moon and effectively reforming him from a life of criminal behavior, decides that she wants to execute the casino heist job with him after initially turning it away. Shadow may have been willing to go along with it, but she allowed him to take the fall. Then, she cheated on him with their good friend Robbie (Dane Cook) while he was behind bars. Then, there’s her death — which was already well-documented on the show before the episode, but there was still something about watching it play out inaction that further sent a chill down the spine.
The storytelling and the pacing on Laura’s story to get to this point was effectively pitch-perfect, as it took the time to understand something that she was going through: Love, but also a lack of fulfillment. She cared deeply about Shadow, but could never find it within her to understand why she wasn’t content with him. She strayed in an effort to have more of this epic story, but in doing so, she met her untimely demise.
Then, things get weirder
It’s better that American Gods wasted little time on how Laura came back, mostly because that wasn’t anywhere near as compelling as the visual sequences of her wandering through the streets, bloody and holding her severed-off arm. Then, there was the crazy confrontation with Audrey where she had the audacity to ask her for both a bathroom (embalming flood everywhere) and also a car ride. The show took her on a journey that ended at a motel, but not before she had the right amount of “instruction” as to keep up her appearances as living even among the dead.
With Browning’s performance, there was such a different wrinkle to Undead Laura that was not there beforehand. For one, there was some crazy athleticism in her scenes before making it back home. Then, there was an element of determination, a feeling of purpose and understanding even without quite knowing what the source of it was. She was born anew, and with a mission to find her man and try to make the past right. She already knew that Shadow was aware of her marital indiscretions, but hat didn’t stop her.
There is nothing realistic about resurrection in this sense, but if there was, american Gods probably created the most interesting, realistic portrait of it in terms of the confusion, the panic, and the new-found sense of purpose that comes with having a different lease on life.
Final verdict
A phenomenal, beautiful episode. It may have been separated somewhat from the first three episodes in terms of the cast, but that did not slow things down in terms of momentum, the effectiveness of the writing, or the emotional gut-punches it provided. It was sat at times, funny at others, and incredibly engrossing. “Git Gone” is a thing of grotesque beauty, and it elevates American Gods to another level.
What’s next on American Gods?
In the event that you do want to retrieve some further news when it comes to the series, head over to the link here. (Photo: Starz.)