American Gods “Conscience Of The King”

So, after a couple episodes in a row of good, thematic storytelling where much of the episodes each worked toward some unifying goal, mostly dealing with Bilquis of all characters and where gods stand and what they mean…we’re back to a less focused episode that involves Wednesday’s plots maybe coming to fruition in ways he doesn’t want, Shadow finding all kinds of people he doesn’t want to see showing up at his apartment, and Mr. World…doing Worldly things.

Actually, Mr. World took another new shape today.  Now he’s Danny Trejo.  I’m guessing that’s the face he uses when he wants to scare the crap out of his various underlings, but that doesn’t work on the Technical Boy anymore for some reason as he’s still glitching but now has some newfound confidence caused by the realization that he needs the Artifact.

I don’t know why or even what that is beyond the fact Mr. World has it in his basement.

He’s also working for someone.  I don’t know who.  He sounded like an underling on the phone with someone.  I can make an educated guess based on the book, but where’s the fun in that?  I could also wonder how he knew Laura was alive again, but here we are.

Laura, with Salim, wants Wednesday dead.  Well, Salim doesn’t want that, but he’s not the worst traveling companion around when the TV stops making specialty ads directed at him.

Then again, Laura only just learned Wednesday is Shadow’s father, or her former father-in-law.  Yeah, that makes sense.  Shadow didn’t realize it right away, and it’s not like those two talk to each other all that much.  Mostly, Shadow seems content to hide out in Lakeside.  OK, he can do without Laura stopping by.  And he can do without that driver who picked him up off the side of the road last season stopping by because her sister is Shadow’s new love interest Marguerite.  Actually, just random visitors at all not stopping by would be a good thing.  So far, no one seems inclined to blow his cover, but that’s so far.  There’s still a ways to go.

Really, this is the sort of episode where not much happens aside from set up of future problems as the back half of the unplanned final season gets started.  I don’t need a lot of plot.  Heck, seeing Wednesday’s attempts to romance Demeter blow up in his face when she sees through him and turns into a pile of grain blowing away in the wind (wait, is she dead?) is nice, but I am more curious about where all this is going.  Who is World working with?

You know, besides Laura and Salim.

Oops.