The episode opens to an Egyptian-themed casino somewhere in America. The camera pans over the casino floor, glancing upon the employees and tourists walking about. The camera lands on a Blackjack table with its dealer, Laura. She finishes her shift at the table learning that the casino will soon have machines shuffling cards for her; she is not amused. She goes home, kills a fly with bug spray, and then attempts to kill herself by trapping herself in her hot tub with the bug spay and the water; she is unsuccessful. She goes to work the next day and meets a player at her table that will change her life from that moment forward: Shadow Moon.
In Git Gone, we learn about Laura’s journey with Shadow. The two fall in love after a one night stand, get married and become couple friends with Robbie and Audrey. Throughout their relationship, Laura has still not found happiness. Eventually, we learn that Laura’s idea to rob the casino is what lands Shadow in prison. She is unable to fulfill her promise of waiting for him and has an affair with Robbie. One final fling in a car ride is what leads to the deaths of both Laura and Robbie, and we see first hand Laura’s journey through the spiritual world, a world she did not believe in. As she disputes the decision of Anubis to place her in darkness for eternity, a certain lucky coin is responsible for sucking her back into the world of the living.
From this moment on, the episode delivers in both gore and comedy. Emily Browning does a superb job of delivering a Laura Moon filed with annoyance and sarcasm. We see this through her violent method of saving Shadow in episode one, freeing him from his noose and literally tearing apart his captors. She then spends the morning walking down the empty street, her right arm being held in her left hand after it fell off during the altercation. Browning has this strut of annoyance as if this is something that has happened before and how much of a pain it is. Her delivery continues when she attempts to sew her arm back on and is walked in on by Audrey, in which Laura responds with a “Hey, Audrey†and continues with a more than awkward releasing of embalming fluid. This scene alone finds away to be both disgusting and hilarious all at once.
Following another awkward moment in which Laura gets a ride from Audrey, she is confronted once again by Anubis, this time in the living world. He gives her body the attention it needs in order to pass for the living and then reminds her that once she has done what she has come back to do, he will place her in the eternal darkness her heavy heart deserves. She finally makes her way to a motel and sits on the bed, patiently waiting for that moment. The moment when Shadow opens the door, walks in and she greets him with her familiar statement: “Hey, Puppy.â€
And there, we are left once again, forced to wait until next week to discover how Shadow reacts to the resurrection of his deceased wife.
American Gods airs Sunday nights at 9pm on Starz and the Starz mobile app