'American Gods' season 2 episode 3 review: Mad Sweeney's luck runs out as Laura follows Wednesday in hopes of recharging her decaying body

'American Gods' season 2 episode 3 review: Mad Sweeney's luck runs out as Laura follows Wednesday in hopes of recharging her decaying body

Over the last episode of 'American Gods', we saw Shadow Moon's (Ricky Whittle) past, with the dead wife, Laura (Emily Browning) putting all her efforts into rescuing her husband with the help of Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber), the leprechaun, while Wednesday (Ian McShane) and Mr Nancy (Orlando Jones) headed out to carry out their own mission.

Towards the end of the episode, the dead wife and the leprechaun found out where Shadow was being held and Wednesday did pull a trick of his own to help Shadow escape.

In continuation, you would have expected Wednesday to be there for Shadow when he wakes up and bring him back, but when has Wednesday ever done what was expected of him?

A still of Wednesday from 'American Gods' season 2.
A still of Wednesday from 'American Gods' season 2.

 

He is off to form an alliance with Argus, or so he tells the dead wife and adds that if she were to accompany him, she could recharge and save herself from decaying further. Her body can only hold on for so long before it is ridden with maggots.

Sweeney tells her that the two of them should be headed to New Orleans as they had planned before. The dead wife decides to follow Wednesday and the two of them are on a mission to find where Argus is.

Sweeney, who has decided to head out on his own, leaving his luck behind with the dead wife has a tough time getting himself to New Orleans. The boat he gets on catches on fire, the car that he tries to boost has a dog in the backseat ready to pounce on him and his day doesn't get any better. 

A still of Argus, Laura and Wednesday from 'American Gods' season 2. (Source: Starz)
A still of Argus, Laura and Wednesday from 'American Gods' season 2. (Source: Starz)

 

In the meanwhile, we also meet New Media (Kahyun Kim), who reflects the world of millennial media - all that attention from social media sites, bloggers, news sites - she is the face of it all. Technical Boy (Bruce Langley) is initially annoyed by her, but once Mr World gives them a mission to find Argus - the same man that Wednesday is following - they work around their differences. They even find Argus, the God of bytes and from when it all began, before Wednesday and we see a disturbing yet fascinating union between New Media and Argus.

Technical Boy, who is watching all of this has the same reaction as us plastered on his face. He is so disturbed that when the dead wife approaches to kill Argus - a plan hatched by Wednesday because he doesn't like Argus playing both the sides - he doesn't warn either Argus or New Media. After Laura stabs Argus, Technical Boy tells her that Mr Wednesday owes him one. She also manages to receive enough energy from Argus to recharge herself, but Wednesday abandons her. 

Wednesday has always made it clear that Laura was never good enough for Shadow when she was alive. Now that she is the dead wife, which was something that he had planned all along, he wants her out of Shadow's life. Something that was hinted at, at the beginning of the book, is surfacing in the series little by little and we cannot wait for it to take shape. While mentioning what it really is, is a spoiler of epic proportions; you can guess what I am getting at.

A still of Sam Black Crow from 'American Gods' season 2. (Source: Starz)
A still of Sam Black Crow from 'American Gods' season 2. (Source: Starz)

 

During this time, Shadow finds his way out to a local store where he meets Sam Black Crow (Devery Jacobs). The tough looking student spots Shadow's con from a mile away and has him looking sheepish while he approaches her for help. He wants to ride with her to a town called Cairo and she doesn't seem to mind giving a con man with injuries a ride. All she needs before they head out is a picture of him in case he murders her on the way.  

We can now look forward to who Sam really is and what role she would play in Wednesday's grand scheme. There is also the truth that Shadow is not aware of about Wednesday, and we cannot wait for the big reveal!

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