‘American Gods 1×08: Come to Jesus’ Review
Stars: Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning, Crispin Glover, Bruce Langley, Yetide Badaki, Orlando Jones, Pablo Schreiber, Peter Stormare, Kristin Chenoweth, Gillian Anderson, Cloris Leachman | Created by Neil Gaiman | Developed for TV by Bryan Fuller
While there may be a lot of focus on Twin Peaks, there is of course one more show that refuses to be ignored. The American Gods finale is here, and we finally get to meet Easter (Kristin Chenoweth). More importantly the Gods have a face-off that may set the scene for a war in Season two.
Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) and Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) arrive at a party to try to recruit Ostara, also known as Easter. With Laura (Emily Browning) and Mad Sweeney (Pablo Shreiber) also arriving looking for help with resurrection, it doesn’t take long for a few newer Gods to join the party.
Finally seeing Kristin Chenoweth debut in American Gods, it comes as no surprise that they saved the best for the finale. Her party full of variations on Jesus is an interesting thing to see, but it makes sense as the Christian faith’s hijacking of her celebration keeps faith in Easter strong.
The first season of American Gods has managed to introduce a lot of characters, and most importantly not overburdened the audience into having to remember them all. We even get to see Bilquis (Yetide Badaki) who has managed to float through quite a few episodes, but not really shown what purpose she will have.
Mr. Nancy (Orlando Jones) managed to fill us in on the story of Bilquis, and Digital Boy (Bruce Langley) gives her purpose. It seems that whatever task he is forcing her to do though will be in the next season. The question is of course who is she going to seduce, and will she actually go through with it?
What we’ve been waiting for of course is the big confrontation, and this comes with the arrival of Media (Gillian Anderson) who is of course fabulous in this episode. Not only is her chosen style impressive, but her dancing entourage are interesting, but also intimidating at the same time. This of course is exactly what Media plans for them to be.
It is also interesting that we finally get to see Mr. Wednesday finally review who he truly is to Shadow, though it wasn’t really that hard to work out (right?). There is also a tease as to who Shadow actually is, and that is a person of no faith who the Gods want to win over. It is almost like he is the balance in the power battle between the Old and New Gods and it would seem that Mr. Wednesday gets the edge, especially when Ostara shows her true power. Then of course there is Laura ready to review the truth behind her death.
It is interesting that she appears at the very end of the episode apparently to fill Shadow in on just who killed her, but we don’t get to see it, as it is more a teaser for the second season. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to this, as it doesn’t change the fact what she was doing when she died, only who actually brought it about.
This episode of American Gods was the conclusion of a really good season which has introduced the concept of the show well, and has set up what is to come in season 2. It will be interesting to see where the show goes from here, but if they keep up this quality, then it is going to be something very special. Come to Jesus is easily the best episode of the first season, and finally explodes with the action we’ve been waiting for. Now to see if season two can keep up the momentum that has been created in this glorious finale, I get a feeling it can.
***** 5/5
American Gods is available on Amazon Prime in the UK.
