American Gods season 7 review: The ballad of Essie Tregowan
Technically, Essie wasn’t prominent at all before tonight’s new episode, which told a tale through two timelines that gave us a proper Mad Sweeney history lesson, including how his relationship with Essie further informed the connection that he has with Laura Moon now. It’s a fairly interesting dynamic, and it was certainly appropriate to explain this backstory for the sake of Sweeney’s central tonight: Reviving Laura when he could have easily left her for dead. The two found themselves driving around in a stolen ice-cream truck before they flipped it and the coin shot straight out of her. He left her, considered her options, but then eventually chose to place it back in her. He had his opportunity to leave her, and take the coin that he wanted so badly, and yet, he kept her alive.
Was his affection geared so much towards Essie’s own belief in him? That seemed to be a big part of it. His story with Essie, a well-traveled woman forced through a life of thievery and other misdeeds at times, was powerful mostly through the sense of magic that came with it. For the first time in ages, Sweeney felt significant, and he found himself in America. Cheeky as it may be to say, he didn’t find himself so mad anymore.
Contrast that relationship now to the present, given that Laura is hardly that nice to Sweeney or anyone else. She continues to find her way in the afterlife despite her inherent selfishness and terrible attitude. Much of this comes back to the notion that you don’t have to like Laura as a person to appreciate her story. She is very unlikable in so many ways, but she’s the most addictive character on this story just because so much of her is an improbability. She’s died twice, and yet still has a purpose to fuel her potential resurrection and find Shadow.
Mr. Moon was nowhere to be seen in this episode as he furthers his own path with Mr. Wednesday towards the war, something that Sweeney warned Laura about in the present. He made it clear of the bloodshed on the way and his intentions in it, and for us, the purpose of this story lied in how we arrived to this point with him. It was clear through watching this that unless Bryan Fuller and Michael Green are throwing some elaborate prank, Mad Sweeney may be one of the key players in everything to come.
Final Verdict
We began this review by praising Browning, and it only feels appropriate now to end it praising Pablo Schreiber for making Mad Sweeney more and more interesting as the show goes along. This is arguably his best role, and we say that knowing that he’s had some other great ones on Orange is the New Black and elsewhere.
The prevailing criticism out there on the internet may be that not that much actually happened in this episode; yet, when you are watching something this visually arresting and subtly emotional, do you really care? American Gods is a thing of beauty, and a story about how faith ultimately can come in a wide array of different ways.
One other note before signing off: How fantastic the music was in this episode, whether it be the doo-wop music for Essie’s story (we’ve always found that there is an adventurousness and a heartbreak in these tunes) to the broken ice-cream jungle in the closing minutes. Grade: A-.
Prepare for the American Gods finale
If you are ready to look ahead towards the final episode of the season, you can do just that by heading over to the link here. (Photo: Starz.)