American GodsHas a Lynching Problem

Though the scene was n’t part of the original novel , thelynching that takes placein the veryfirst instalment of Starz ’s American Godswas a statement from showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green about the variety of story they need to tell — one where reflections on the horrors of the transatlantic striver tradebecome beautiful pieces of orationand lynchings are presented as grotesque works of artistic production .

The dazzling visuals and innovative storytelling of American Gods ’ first time of year made it so that , if you wanted to , you could miss the showrunners ’ determination to hang a grim mankind in the pilot episode . At least for a time , there was a sense that Shadow might stop up exact his retaliation on the Technical Boy for what he did to him and American Gods would slow down to direct the lynching for the profoundly uncivilized , antiblack act of fierceness it was .

But as the season live on , Shadow ’s lynching went for the most part unaddressed , and in prompt on from the mo , American Gods try out that it waswilling to solicit into potent , afflictive imagination without doing to workto make certain that audiences understood the showrunners were handling the associated ideas with care . With the show ’s second season and anew showrunnercame the hope that American Gods might have con from its fledgling misunderstanding . Last night ’s episode—“The Ways of the Dead”—showed that , unfortunately , that ’s not the sheath .

Shadow being taken over by a spirit.

Shadow being taken over by a spirit.Image: (Starz)

Varied as they are in form and strength , the many deities of American Gods are all the materialization of the feeling and convictions of their deathly believers turn into bread and butter , breathing flesh . But in this human beings , it is n’t just gods proper who walk the Earth desperately trying to find design and substance in their lives . Nearly every powerful feeling or idea has the electric potential to become something more in the magic sense under the veracious circumstances , which “ The Ways of the Dead ” illustrates with the story of Will James .

Before we learn Will James ’ name or anything of center about the man he was or the life he endure , “ The Ways of the Dead ” chronicle the case leading up to his death on the fatal day he had the misfortune of crossing paths , and allegedly making center link , with a ashen womanhood . LikeEmmett Tilland countless other black gentleman’s gentleman like him , James ’ very presence in public spaces and his willingness to walk freely — as is his rightfield — so exasperate his town ’s population of racialist that it takes nothing for them assume that he ’s the perpetrator when the white woman turns up dead one good morning . Without any sort of trial or investigation , James is get behind through the streets as the town of Cairo , Illinois wonder and cheers at his imminent execution . James , for his part , reconcile himself to the fact that all things die .

While there is a larger significance to James ’ lynch , it ’s unmanageable to put one ’s finger on why “ The Ways of the Dead ” absolutely had to give with one of the most nauseating characterization of violence against black bodies of the year so far , and even more unmanageable to infer what the viewer is stand for to take away from it within the context of the sequence . As Shadow awakes from his dreamlike visions of James ’ past tense in Cairo , he ’s literally and figuratively haunted by the gumption that there ’s something more to Cairo thanWednesday and his associate have have on , and it ’s got something to do with the man from his incubus .

Graphic: Jim Cooke

Emily Browning in American Gods.Image: (Starz)

In Will James ’ slaying , there are sound reflection of Shadow ’s own life history and the episode further suggest there might be more to Laura ’s destiny as a kind of herald of death that neither of them is properly cognisant of . Like Essie Tregowan in season one , the woman James is accused of murdering is portrayed by Emily Browning , and while it ’s never explicitly say , the implication is that both Wednesday and Ibis know that there ’s some sort of connection between Laura and these women who very well may be her ancestors .

Again , like with the lynching in season one , you’re able to take care at this bit of world - building ( which also was n’t part of the novel ) as American Gods ’ attack to delve into therealities of American historyin decree give more profoundness to the life of its back characters . But nothing about the plot ever reach it sense like the ideas at workplace have been properly think over and no circumstance ’s been taken for what the experience of actually observe a carefully shot lynching is actually like .

“ The Ways of the Dead ” spends a great deal of time following Shadow as he figures out that Will James ’ death inflicted a curse on Cairo that ’s responsible for the Ithiel Town ’s tenner - long account of brutalize and murdering black the great unwashed — a kind of supernatural scar wear out of the terror and pain he felt in his dying moments . In time , Shadow learns that Ibis and his associate Jacquel have been take advantage of the jinx for years , dutifully gather up the murdered bodies of smuggled and brown mass and subjecting them to their divine funerary art before show them into the world of the dead to weigh their tenderness on a golden scale . It ’s a Apocalypse that ’s signify to be shocking and make you understand that even the most dignified of the old gods have been capable and willing to harm their own people out of the desire to last in America , but you ca n’t aid but need yourself , “ What am I reckon to be catch out of this ? ”

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Emily Browning in American Gods.Image: (Starz)

Why do we ask to see a pitch-black man vomiting up blood as he ’s being exhibit around for the enjoyment of a anti-Semite syndicate ? In what way did American Gods ’ creative team feel as if it ’d lay the base for this particular tale to shoot down in a path that would n’t be traumatic for hearing ? Are we really just supposed to accept that two of the most major god of the Egyptian pantheon have been sending pitch-black people to the drubbing for their own personal gain ?

Because “ The Ways of the Dead ” does n’t ( and ca n’t , really ) cut into into any of those ideas in a substantive way , its depiction of a lynching becomes an extension of the spectacles that lynchings are . In more skilled hands , the episode could have maybe been the kind of subplot that better think over American Gods ’ agreement of the hard position that the show ’s black Supreme Being have always notice themselves in , given the plight of black Americans . But instead , it ends up feeling like a twisted edition of the Mike Ainsel plot from the novel thatrevels in simulacrum of black suffering .

It ’s a shame that “ The Ways of the Dead ” is build around such a fraught and mishandled centerpiece because , on the whole , the residuum of the episode is quite good . Perhaps not season one good , but certainly operate with a newfound rhythm and form that makes the show ’s characters delightful to find out to interact .

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The Jinn, Salim, and Wednesday driving through America.Image: (Starz)

As Shadow ’s having his crisis of religion in Cairo , Salim ’s struggling to reconcile his love for the Jinn with the Jinn ’s antipathy for Salim ’s unwavering faith in one divinity . Despite all of the actual gods Salim ’s encounter during his locomotion with the Jinn , he ’s resolute in his commitment to Allah , which amuse Wednesday and perturbs the Jinn . Even though American Gods has nodded to the musical theme that the god of the macrocosm ’s major monotheistic organized religion have no real need to become involved in Wednesday ’s war , it ’s interesting to see the show sharpen on one mortal ’s personal human relationship to a god who , for the determination of the show , is n’t likely to manifest physically the elbow room other gods do . Like his relationship with the Jinn , Salim ’s faith is a personal , complicated thing that ’s build on his own connection to god , which is something that none of the other magic beings at all factor into . Salim understands that other beings who are god exist , to be sure , but for him , God is a singular construct who both is and is n’t part of the human race he ’s find himself in .

In a not altogether different way , the installment continues to unpack the more personal relationships between idol and humans in the new connexion Bilquis is do with the people of Cairo who , following the murder of another member of the Goodchild category , are once again in mourning . sick as it is to think of , it ’s imply that James ’ curse on Cairo is part of what ’s bonded Cairo ’s black-market residential area together . Bilquis sees that in moments where ferocity collide with , everyone in the Ithiel Town is brought together in solidarity , but she also understands that their quandary is the direct result of other divinity ’ actions . There ’s no reason she ca n’t step in and offer them something dissimilar — another sort of spiritual lighting perch that could draw them all together .

At this item , American Gods is … well , it ’s hard to say where the show ’s hold up . It ’s deviated off from the path of the source textile into new , and often messy spaces where lofty ideas down with leaden thumping , and bright moments of lineament development are sweep aside as the show plows on towards its time of year last . American Gods still has its mo of visual brilliance that make you appreciate what the show ’s endeavor to do , but what it ’s actually negociate to do is becoming less compelling to watch .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.