AmGods Ep 105 Lemon-Scented You

The kiss that awakes

The spark that starts

A volcano in your heart.

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             At last we get to the beating heart of the matter: Shadow has a brilliant light that Laura can see now that she’s dead. She wants and needs to get back to him…back to love and back to life. It’s possible, she realizes, when that kiss from Shadow sparks her dead heart to beat just once – a taste of reignited life. Born again, so to speak.

Natali's storyboard for the kiss and the heartbeat.   image v natali/starz

Is Shadow still Laura’s puppy? Not if Wednesday has anything to do with it. A raven has just informed Wednesday that Laura is on the scene, so he quickly pulls Shadow away, and in the process, exposes their presence to two small-town cops who have come to arrested and jail them.

             The prison transforms to a futuristic boardroom where TechBoy, Media and the weirdly enigmatic Mr World try to convince Mr Wednesday to surrender and join their side. 

             The pitch is one of the most spectacular A/V presentations you’ve never seen, complete with rainbows and unicorns. And Mr Wood making one last stab at things as a gnarly tree with man-eating roots and shoots.

But this is a blog about Food and Godsplaining, not a recap. 

So on with the Godsplaining since this is a totally foodless episode. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nunyunnini comes to America

In a gorgeous animation directed by Vincenzo Natali, the powerful spirit god Nunyunnini is embodied by the great Wooly Mammoth revered by the first people to cross into America via the elevated Bering Strait . 

                                                                      The Nunyunnini Elders                               image StudioTendril / Starz

              That Mammoth-worshipping tribe cannot adjust to the new world and is eaten/absorbed by Buffalo-worshippers of the land. The old god Nunyunnini’s disappearance is confirmed when the Wooly Mammoth becomes extinct. The children have forgotten him. 

                                                     The Children designed and animated by StudioTendril                                 image Starz

               Was Nunyunnini destroyed or merely changed? Perhaps a thread of him survived in the Buffalo, rebranded as a new belief. Today, Buffalo faith has faded; could Nunyunnini now be toiling beneath the yoke of an even newer god poised to spring back and reclaim his uber-god status?

                        White Buffalo concept art             image Starz

               Death is not a problem for Gods – they live by it – thrive on other’s death/sacrifice and they might lay dormant and reincarnate when conditions are more favorable. It could happen as today’s Americans continue to revive old belief systems like astrology, feminism, yoga or tarot. Or Vulcan’s bullets.

One-eyed Odinn with Huginn at his left shoulder and Muninn at his right. 

Raving ravens Huginn and Muninn

A raven shows up at Wednesday’s door to warn him that Shadow is being pulled astray by Laura. A fan tweets, “Is it Muninn or Huginn?” Well, that’s why I’m here, Godsplaining.

                Huginn and Muninn are two ravens in Nordic folklore that act as Odin’s messenger. Huginn is Thought and Munin is Memory. It’s often said that humans are the only creatures that think about the future; Huginn is the exception. This raven is all about thought. And he thinks Laura is going to cause trouble.

Odin with his ravenous wolves

More of Gods’ little pets

We also see a couple of drooling wolves occasionally streaking through the undergrowth and these are Freki and Geri They are Odin’s hungry companions and he feeds them his war-dead and the spoils of his conquests.

                 And are those bunnies doing the devil’s work? Again? Of course the rabbits hopping all over the road are this episode's Easter eggs: episode 107 is all about the goddess Oestra.

Technical Boy

Tech Boy is young brash inexperience god and doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. He was born from human belief but he has the soul-less mind of a computer. Like the internet, he can be a bratty troll or a powerful tool.  Interestingly, he might one day make the New Gods look old. Kinda makes you think – how quickly and inexorably The New becomes The Old.

                               This is how the New Gods roll                       image Starz

Media/Medea

Gillian Anderson IS Media. She inhabits Marilyn Monroe who is the message of desire, Bowie the musical message of fame and Lucy the message of television and we will see her one more time this season as Dorothy who is not in Kansas anymore. You will love her in this season’s finale episode when she crashes Easter's party in her Easter bonnet.

from the finale - Techboy, his Children and Media   image Starz

Mr World

We need to take a closer look at the marvelous gangster Mr World. He is never what he seems. He’s a smooth-talking chameleon with his eye forever on the end game. But because spoilers, this bit of Godsplaining must wait til next season when we encounter him again.

                                Leader of the New Gods Mr World             image Starz

Mad Sweeney

Last but never least, our unlucky Leprechaun who unluckily gets arrested for murdering Laura but luckily gets taken to the same prison where Shadow and Wednesday are being held and makes his escape in all the mayhem and bedlam. Laura wakes up in a nearby morgue and the chase is on.

Next week, we can sit back and enjoy the story of Mad Sweeney’s Coming to America and more Godsplaining about our mad American Leprechaun.