American Gods – Git Gone

By: Kelly Kearney

This week’s episode of “American Gods” delves into the life of Laura Moon, her life with Shadow and how she ended up a zombie sitting on her husband’s motel bed. The episode steps away from its usual formula of montages and introductions to the gods and focuses on who Laura is and what part she plays in Shadow’s journey to find his own beliefs.

THE LIFE OF LAURA MOON

We begin with Laura (Emily Browning), a bored and suicidal card dealer working in her hometown casino that just happens to be named Anubis. When she’s not working, Laura goes home to an empty house and a can of bug spray called Git Gone that she huffs in her closed hot tub. Laura is not a happy woman and her lack of enthusiasm for most things in her life prove that. At work, she meets Shadow (Ricky Whittle) who’s a fast-talking card hustler looking to pull one over on the young dealer. Laura, who isn’t easily distracted by Shadow’s flirtatious con job, catches the thief’s sleight of hand and rather than turn him in, she lets him go. Later, Shadow waits for Laura to get out of work and the two hit it off. We quickly get a bird’s eye view of their relationship and through it all, Laura remains unapologetically disinterested in all aspects of her life. This domestic boredom makes the woman antsy for something new and exciting, so she asks Shadow to help her rob the Anubis casino. Who better to know the ins and outs of the casino than the woman who’s worked there seven years? Shadow is happy with their life and new marriage but for Laura, he will do anything. After she promises him he won’t get caught, Shadow agrees to rob the casino if it will cure his wife’s ennui. Of course, the robbery doesn’t go as planned and Shadow winds up behind bars for six years while Laura strikes up an affair with his friend and gym owner Robbie (Dane Cook). Laura promised Shadow she would wait for him, but for a woman who believes in nothing her word isn’t worth a Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber) cent.

SMELLS LIKE SNOW

The series premiere found Shadow Moon in prison five days before he was set for release. Here we see what’s happening from Laura’s point of view as she talks to Shadow about his release and welcome home party. Shadow has no idea about Robbie and Laura’s affair and his wife plans on keeping it that way.  With her husband set to come home, Laura breaks things off with the gym owner but not before she gives him a special goodbye with some lap love behind the wheel. If texting and driving are dangerous than sex and driving is downright deadly and Laura and Robbie pay the price when their car drives off the road, killing them both. Now dead and looking on at the scene of the crash, Laura is whisked away with Anubis (Chris Obi) to test the weight of her heart on the Scale of Truth. True to form, the salty Laura gives Anubis hell when he tries removing her heart, demanding he sends her back to her life. Anubis laughs and tells her she’s dead, rotting in the ground, there is no going back. Moving on isn’t going back and to go forward he must weigh her heart. Laura refuses and tells him not to bother, her heart is heavy, she has no beliefs in god and she is utterly unrepentant. Anubis, who isn’t used to being told no, gets angry and tells her she is destined to eternal darkness. Right before he sends Laura to her fate, she is ripped from the celestial skies and sent back to her grave where she digs herself free from her eternal dirt nap. Sweeney’s coin must’ve brought her back and when she realizes where she is, Laura starts walking towards a glowing yellow light. We soon find out that light is Shadow and its drawing Laura to him and just in the nick of time.

BORED HOUSEWIFE TURNED ZOMBIE SLAYER

When Laura stumbles upon her husband, Technical Boy’s (Bruce Langley) thugs are stringing him up by a noose. Immediately, Laura jumps into action and starts punching, slicing and dicing her way through her husband’s assailants. Zombies must be incredibly powerful because even as one of the goons rips her arm off, she still manages to punch through the men to get to Shadow. She flies in the air and rips the noose in two, freeing a gasping and delirious Moon. With the thugs still on the attack, she keeps Shadow safe by finishing them off with gory groin kicks that split the men clean in two. Nobody messes with Laura’s Puppy and she watches as he wanders off not knowing who saved his life. Bloody and carrying her own arm, Laura makes her way back to her house where she scares the crap out of Audrey (Betty Gilpin) who’s still not over Robbie and Laura’s affair. In a bizarre scene, Audrey cowers in the shower while Laura eliminates her embalming fluid on the toilet (apparently it’s coming out of every hole) and the two have a hilarious chat about Audrey’s post funeral meltdown with Shadow. After the initial shock wears off they have an honest discussion about the affair in which Laura apologizes, admitting she may not have loved Shadow before but she does now.  Audrey agrees to drive her Zombie friend to find her husband and it’s not a hard search when Shadow glows like a beacon in the night. Following that beacon, the women drive until they almost hit two men crossing the street. Luckily for Laura the two men, Mr. Ibis (Demore Barnes) and Mr. Jaquel a/k/a Anubis, run a local funeral parlor and offer to take care of Laura’s rotting body. They sew her arm back on and apply make-up so she appears less zombie, reminding her that zombie body upkeep is important. After putting the final touches on her waxy dead skin, Mr. Jaquel promises Laura that when her task on this planet is done, and she makes good on the love Shadow offered her so freely, he will finish his job sending her to the darkness. Laura’s face is one Anubis will not soon forget and he promises her their business is not finished.

THE DEAD COME HOME

Whoever sent Laura back to her life will have Shadow’s undying loyalty and maybe that was part of Wednesday’s (Ian McShane) plan all along. Patched up and back on her mission to find her husband, Laura ends up in Shadow’s motel room watching as her golden light approaches. Bloody and having just escaped death, Shadow opens the door to his motel room to find his dead wife sitting on the bed looking none the worse for wear. Is Laura a tool to get Shadow to believe in the impossible? Is her resurrection enough to push Moon into this war that’s brewing between the new and old gods? What is the darkness and will Anubis make good on his threats and send Laura hurling into the eternal nothingness? Find out the answer to these questions and more on the next “American Gods.”