After their run in with the New Gods, Wednesday and Shadow seek out one of Wednesday’s old friends for a safe place to regroup. Things don’t always go as planned, though. Here’s our recap of “A Murder of Gods” and a preview for Sunday’s episode, “Prayer for Mad Sweeney!
{Rated 83% on Rotten Tomatoes}
“A Murder of Gods” opens with a group of immigrants praying near a river. The leader of the group tells them that the river is strong and high. If they can’t swim, they can’t cross.
A man and woman look at each other, and it’s quite obvious the man can’t swim. Still, that evening, as the other begin to cross, he says a prayer and begins to try and make his way across, too.
He sinks under and begins to drown, but it pulled from under the surface by Jesus. In this case, the Mexican version on him. When the man has coughed up the water and looks to Jesus he asks:
“Who are you?”
“You already know who I am.”
That’s when several trucks pull up and men with assault rifles start shooting down all these immigrants that have just swam across the border. They take aim at the man and his family, and Jesus runs in front of him. A bullet pierces his hand and others hit his body, and he falls to the ground and dies.
****
Meanwhile, Wednesday and Shadow are walking down the road, trying to get as far from the New Gods as possible, and Shadow is having a bit of a freak out. He can’t or won’t let himself believe what’s happening to him yet.
Shadow asks what that was back there with all those people murdered, and Wednesday answers,
“A warning to me. A sacrifice to them.”
“A sacrifice?”
Shadow feels he needs a bit more clarification, but as usual, Wednesday is playing his cards close to his chest.
At the hotel, Wednesday and Shadow see that Laura is gone.
“Your dearly departed has departed, and I suggest we do the same.”
They get into the car and as they drive away, Wednesday notices Laura in the rearview mirror. He turns up the music so Shadow won’t hear her yelling and continues on his way.
In the parking lot, Sweeney shows back up as she decides she needs to steal a car. Sweeney settles on a taxi, but Laura is less than impressed saying she won’t drive it, and Sweeney tells her that she isn’t driving. He is.
“This car’s a toilet.”
“It’s your toilet.”
Sweeney then makes the ultimate deal with her. He knows she won’t give him the coin, so he offers to take her to someone who can ressurect her. He’s owed a favor, and he’ll call it in. That way she can be alive and he can have his coin and luck back.
“What the fuck are you?”
“A leprechaun.”
Salim shows up, pointing a gun at them. He tells them they’re not taking his car and asks Sweeney if he knows the Jinn since he heard his confession about what he is. Sweeney tells him that he gets them to Kentucky, he’ll find him all the Jinn, demi-Gods, and all of the Gods.
Thus a new friendship is born.
****
As Wednesday and Shadow continue down the road, Shadow asks him questions about why the dead stick around. If it’s because they have unfinished business. He’s experiencing a whole lot of pain in his side and when he reveals his stomach, where the tree branch scratched him, the gash is deep and infected…and moving.
Wednesday pulls over the car and he uses his ability to harness electricity to get out the parasitic root that has taken up residence in Shadow. As he’s removing it, he explains about the old God who gave up his power and is now this.
“Religion inspires in those who fear nothing. Fear of the gods. And using that fear inspires a certain element of fucked up.”
As Salim, Sweeney, and Laura continue their awkward roadtrip. Salim recounts everyone he used to be scared of in his old life. Laura asks him what we’ve all been wanting to know:
“So, you have a new life? What happened to the old one?”
He doesn’t really know, and Laura thinks about her old life, too. The one thing she’s thankful for is that she won’t have to see her mother again. They both agree, “Fuck those assholes.” in their past.
Salim brings up the supernatural when Laura admits that she’ll be praising God when she gets resurrected and asks,
“You’re not a leprechaun?”
“She’s a lepre-cunt.”
He then changes directions and asks if she’s dead. Laura tells him yes. Then he asks her if she prayed for another life. Laura tells him all the time when she was little. She asks Salim what he prays to God for…
“I don’t pray to ask God for things. I pray to thank God. The Jinn is my afterlife.”
Once Sweeney is asleep, Laura turns the wheel gently and Salim heads in the direction of the light (Shadow) not Kentucky.
****
A man is walking through a steel mill, and he looks super happy. He’s carrying a “World’s Best Boss” mug and everyone seems to like him. As he walks across a catwalk above the vats of steel, he reaches for the railing to lean against it, and it breaks, causing him to fall into the vat of molten steel.
Bullets are mass produced off the steel that this man fell into, and the outside of the place looks like Willy Wonka’s Nightmare Factory.
Shadow and Wednesday get into town afterward, and Wednesday tells Shadow that this town is:
“Dedicated to America. Their America.”
Vulcan gives a rousing speech and the members of the town shoot their weapons into the air.
They get out of the car and Wednesday casually mentions that Shadow might want to watch out, so he gets back in the car and a few seconds later, bullets start raining down on the vehicle as Wednesday and Vulcan greet each other.
Wednesday tells Vulcan that the New Gods are taking over, and Vulcan tells Wednesday that he’s not starving…
RED FLAGS, WEDNESDAY. RED FLAGS.
****
Sweeney, Laura, and Salim go to the bar that Sweeney met Wednesday and Shadow at for the first time. As they stand at the bar, Sweeney tells Laura that she stinks and she looks really dead.
“I have no shame.”
At a booth, Sweeney mentions that there vows were until death, and she needs to take the hint.
That’s when they get into a very awkward discussion with poor Salim caught in the middle, watching them talk like it’s a tennis match.
*****
Shadow’s in Vulcan-town looking at a tree on Vulcan’s front lawn. It had a noose hanging from it, and Vulcan asks him if he likes it. Of course Shadow says NO along with all of the audience.
They go inside, and Wednesday asks him how he has managed to acquire all this, and he tells him “Sacrifice.” RED FLAG AGAIN.
Vulcan offers Wednesday a drink, but tells Shadow “none for you”.
Wednesday asks if he’s gained all this from a “faulty railing” but Vulcan starts leaving little hints that he may have chosen a side already…
Vulcan goes to another extreme and asks if Shadow has ever seen a man be hanged before, obviously knowing he was lynched before. {Did Wednesday tell him or did he learn it from Technical Boy?}
“I’ve franchised my faith.”
“Franchised?”
“You are what you worship. God of the Volcano. Those who worship hold the volcano in the palm of their hand. It’s filled with prayers in my name.”
He says more worshipful things about the guns and bullets he makes then shoots one of his trophies on the wall.
“God bless the believers.” Wednesday tells him then asks him to go to Wisconsin with him. To help him fight the New Gods.
“I was on the bus before you even painted it yellow. When do we leave?”
When they’re alone again, Shadow asks Wednesday if he really thinks he can trusts him.
“I know who he is and who he’s always been.”
Wednesday accuses Shadow of being distracted by Laura, and when Shadow closes his eyes, the light Laura always sees flickers there.
“You can see her, Shadow. The question is can you let her fade away?”
{What’s with Wednesday’s attempts to get rid of Laura when it comes to Shadow?}
****
In the forge, Vulcan makes a longsword for Wednesday, and we finally get the truth from him. He has long since sold out to the New Gods and was “rebranded” to receive the prayers and praise he wanted. In fact, he’s sold out Wednesday and the New Gods are on their way.
“They’re not the oppressors. They’re the tide. They’re gravity. You saw what I was. I was a story people forgot to remember to tell. They gave me a gun. They put power back in my hand, and I tell you, it feels good. Every bullet fired in a crowded movie theater is a prayer in my name, and that prayer makes them want to pray even harder.”
And that’s how you franchised your faith?”
“I never needed my religion to be moral.
“Moralizing religions are materialistic ones. Every religion needs a martyr.”
“That’s your role in all this. A martyr.”
“No, that’s yours, my friend. You pledged allegiance to me and forged a blade in my name, and they killed you for it.”
He take the sword that Vulcan made for him and cuts his head off then pushes him into a vat of steel. Shadow freaks out, but Wednesday has set up a way to recruit other Old Gods in his name. Vulcan will be his martyr.
Wednesday then urinates all over the molten steel, claiming that he’s cursing the whole thing.
Just like the man before him, Vulcan is made into boxes of bullets being shipped out for people to sell. He’s become his own prayers.
****
As the sun rises, Salim gets out of the taxi and prays.
Laura and Sweeney watch him. Flies buzz all around Laura as Salim turns to her.
“God is great.”
“Life is great, Salim not Salim.”
“Life is great.”
****
Click on the number 2 right below (under the related posts) to read on for a preview of Sunday’s new American Gods.
