Shadow Moon and Mr. Wednesday make their way to Chicago to try and enlist the help of an old friend, but somehow Shadow ends up on the chopping block. Here’s our recap of “The Secret of Spoons”! Plus, preview tonight’s new episode “Head Full of Snow”.
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“The Secret of Spoons” starts off with another entry into the story, Coming to America, 1697.
We see slaves chained in the belly of ship, and a young man begins to pray to Anansi, begging him to save him. That he’ll dedicate his life to him if he does. Anansi is typically known as the keeper of all stories in African and Caribbean folklore and is often depicted as a spider.
When Mr. Nancy appears, he’s dressed in a flashy suit and tells the men:
“Let me tell you a story…”
This is our first introduction to Mr. Nancy, and honestly, an entire post could be written about his speech alone. It’s blunt and forceful. It’s heartbreaking and a call to arms. He runs through three-hundred years of history about being black in America, explaining to them that there’s no positive future. Three-hundred years from now, they’re still in chains, just different kinds.
“You are staring down the barrel of thee-hundred years of subjugation, racist bullshit, and heart disease.”
“The only good news is the tobacco your grandkids are gonna farm for free is gonna give a shitload of these white motherfuckers cancer.”
When he tells them that they should go and slit everyone of those Dutch bastards throats and set the ship on fire, one slave brings up the fact that if they burn the ship, they’ll die, too. Mr. Nancy tells them that they’re already dead, and they might as well die as a sacrifice for something worthwhile.
After Mr. Nancy frees them, they burn down the ship. The opening scene ends with Mr. Nancy, in spider form, washing up on shore in America.
***
We’re back with Shadow Moon, who’s getting staples in his side after his lynching by Technical Boy’s faceless men last episode. He tells the doctor that he wasn’t shot and he doesn’t want the police there. When he’s able to leave, he goes to the hotel to see Mr. Wednesday who has a young, blonde, naked guest.
They get into an argument because Shadow wants to know what’s going on and Wednesday tells him he’ll up his salary.
After he gets back to his room, Shadow Moon takes a bath to wash off all that blood and takes off his wedding ring. That night he has a dream and Laura is there. He tells her that he thought she was dead, and she tells him that it was just a dream.
The next day he packs up his home. While he’s doing it, he sees his wife in different rooms and the image fades to current surroundings. The box from the coroner’s office is on the bed. After ignoring it all day, he opens the box and finds his wife’s phone. Ignoring ever single person in existence yelling NO! at the screen, Shadow opens her phone and goes to her messages from Robbie.
With a small scroll, he finds the first dick pic.
Finally, the moving truck drives off, and Wednesday is on the other side of the street. He goes to Shadow and tells him that there’s a lot to be said about bottling up emotion. That Shadow needs to understand that he can be mad at his dead wife. He even goes so far as to tell him:
“Word on the street is your wife died while sucking your best friend’s dick.”
It’s the truth and it’s hard, but sometimes you’re allowed to be angry with someone you can’t confront anymore.
Just like that, we’re back on the road!
No highways and straight to Chicago…with one small stop.
They stop at a small diner, and Wednesday tells Shadow that he needs to go do some shopping for him while he meets with someone. He gives him so money and tells him that he expects him to skim no more than 5% off it from him, to which Shadow tells him that he won’t steal his money.
“If you can’t look out for yourself, how the hell are you going to look out for me?”
Shadow leaves for his errand run, and while he’s in the store, the Media, a New God, starts to talk to him, specifically in the form of Lucy Ricardo (Gillian Anderson). She’s trying to recruit Shadow to the her side and tells him that he can’t fight gravity. In fact, cases like him usually end up in suicide, which I’m not sure was a threat or something that happens to bodyguards to Gods on a regular basis, but we’ll find out.
When he gets back to Wednesday in the diner, he explains what happened and tells him that he thinks he’s going crazy. Wednesday says:
“The world’s either crazy or you are.”
Not exactly comforting.
They get back on the road, and Wednesday finds the burner phone that Shadow bought for him. He promptly throws it out the window and says he doesn’t want it.
****
Across the country, Bilquis is consuming people left and right. However, after her last one, she’s lying in bed and a tear rolls down her cheek.
Later, she goes to a museum and looks over all these ancient artifacts that seemed to belong to her. Bilquis looks at the jewelry and gives the clothe underneath it form. It fills out into the shape of a body and we see how the jewelry was supposed to cover her body.
This room is a mausoleum to what she used to be and how people worshipped her at one time.
****
Wednesday and Shadow make it to Chicago and meet Zorya Vechernyaya, one of the three Zorya sisters. She’s an old God, that allows Shadow and Wednesday inside her apartment. She tells Wednesday immediately that Czernoberg won’t be happy to see him, but he just tells her he’s brought gifts and gives her a bottle of vodka.
She takes a long drink and invites them to stay for dinner. Wednesday brings out the other gifts he brought for her two sisters. They all wait for Czernoberg to return home.
When he does, he’s definitely not happy to see Wednesday. He tells him that he doesn’t want any part of his war that’s coming up. Wednesday tries his gift approach, but it still doesn’t move Czernoberg. He does invite him to stay for dinner, though.
I imagine it’s more out of habit than really wanting the company.
Over the course of dinner, he regals everyone with stories of his work in the slaughterhouse. He tells them that:
“To give death is art.”
Czernoberg laments that anyone can kill now and that it used to take skill.
Eventually he challenges Shadow to a game of checkers, and Wednesday tells him that he can say no if he wants to. During the game, Czernoberg decides he wants to make a bet.
If Shadow wins, then he’ll go with them to help Wednesday. If he wins, he gets to kill Shadow with his hammer at first light. He calls it sunrise blood.
They go back and forth for a while, but in the end, Czernoberg traps Shadow and wins the game. The episode ends with him telling Shadow:
“At sunrise, I get to knock your brains out.”
****
Take a deep breath and wonder just how Shadow Moon will be getting out of this one! I imagine with some help from Mr. Wednesday. Take a look at the preview clips for episode three then share your thoughts on what the line, “You sold your head to Czernobog?” might mean!
Here’s the official synopsis for “Head Full of Snow”:
Shadow questions the terms of his employment when Mr. Wednesday informs him of his plan to rob a bank (because, naturally, every army needs a source of funding). And just when Shadow thought his life couldn’t get any more complicated, he returns to his motel room to a surprising discovery.
American Gods airs on Sundays on Starz at 9/8c. Live tweet with us at We So Nerdy!