American Gods episode 4 recap and review: Git Gone

Welcome back to episode 4 of American Gods. This week, in Git Gone, we learn about Laura Moon, and revisit some previous scenes from another viewpoint.

This week, American Gods takes a look back at Shadow and Laura’s life, how he ended up in jail, and how she came to be sitting at the end of his bed at the conclusion of Head Full of Snow.

Episode 4 also marks the first time the TV show differs noticeably from the book, which did not show us much of Laura or Audrey. Laura Moon has always been a bit of a blank. We know Shadow doted on her, and was loyal to her even after death, even when she’d been cheating on him. But we’ve never had Laura’s perspective on their relationship while she was still alive. And the book doesn’t tell us anything about her life.

At this point, whether you’ve read the book or not, there are many questions about Shadow and Laura. How did they get together? What was she like? Why did she cheat on him? This could go into a long discussion of why people cheat, but Bryan Fuller and Michael Green are here to tell us about Laura, specifically.

After watching episode 4 of American Gods, Laura makes much more sense to me. She is no longer just the avatar of Shadow’s devotion. Laura is a fully realized human being, with a heavy heart she can’t bear to carry alone. I don’t particularly like her. But I understand her a little bit better after Git Gone.

Fell on black days

Laura is not a happy woman. She hates everything about her job dealing blackjack at the Egyptian-themed 76th Dynasty Casino, except shuffling cards. She’s a master, making the cards snap and fly between her hands. But then her boss instates ultra-efficient card shuffling machines, there’s nothing left.

American Gods Season 1 2017 Laura Moon (Emily Browning) at the 76th dynasty casino blackjack table – episode 104 (Official image 104c9445a79-62cf-4c0c-bf2f-250fe0174dfd via Starz)

At home that night, a fat fly buzzes around her as she’s eating. She kills it with a hefty shot of Git Gone insect killer spray. Laura has a revelation: this stuff doesn’t just kill bugs. She climbs into her hot tub and pulls on the cover. Floating there, she sprays Git Gone and tries to breath it in and end it all. But she can’t. She coughs and sputters and throws the cover off the tub, gasping for air.

Laura goes to work again the next day, as usual.

76th Dynasty Casino

Shadow and Laura first meet while she’s at the 76th Dynasty Casino. He sits down at her table and immediately tries to cheat the house. She catches him, but Laura doesn’t turn him in. She tells Shadow to walk out of the casino and never return.

But when her shift is over, he’s waiting outside. Shadow wants to know why she helped him, but Laura just tells him that it was obvious he’s never robbed a casino, and that he’s not very good at it. Shadow says that maybe next time no one will see him coming, because he’s going to get a better plan, and maybe an inside man. Laura asks if he’s trying to recruit her. He says he bets she knows the casino inside and out, and they could split the take 50/50. Laura tells him better luck next time, and moves to get in her car, but he stops her, says he’s sorry, and tells her he’ll buy her a drink. But she takes him home, instead. They rip each other’s clothes off as soon as they close the door behind them.

So why did Laura help Shadow? Was it out of boredom, or attraction? Maybe it’s that death wish of hers. You do not take home the large man who is definitely some kind of criminal and has arms like elm trees who was just stalking you in the parking lot of your workplace. This is the opposite of safe. Sure it’s super hot, but… I guess my sense of self-preservation is more intact that Laura’s. But he doesn’t kill her. Shadow’s in love.

Good times

For a while, everything is picture-perfect. Shadow and Laura seem so happy. They fall into a seemingly comfortable routine: steady jobs, weekend grilling with their best friends, and copious love-making. (Many were the shots of Ricky Whittle’s back and arms, and there was much rejoicing.)

Dane Cook as Robbie, Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon – American Gods episode 104 (Official image e43f58d8-ab07-4618-a68a-c0f0c43c4f54 via Starz)

They get married. There is more grilling with Audrey and Robbie, and copious love-making starring Ricky Whittle’s physique.

Stupid girl

But Laura still hates her job. When Shadow gets home from work one day, she sits him down and tells him she wants to rob the casino. She’s thought it out, and it cannot go wrong. Laura knows everything about the casino and its routines. He wants to know why. She says she wants more. He’d be happy with her if they were living in a cardboard box, and he’s happy with their life. But she says her life represents failure, because she took home a thief and she’s living in her grandmother’s house and … OK, stupid girl. You are bored. You live in Indiana and you are bored, so you want to rob a casino.

Laura says she has a perfect plan. Shadow won’t get caught, no matter what. Finally he acquiesces. Why is Shadow ready to sacrifice everything for this dead-eyed woman?

Of course, he does get caught. We knew that was going to happen. In the prison visiting room, they talk about waiting. He can make it to the other side of his sentence if she can. Laura says yes.

Crash

But apparently Laura can’t hang on for that long. Robbie stops by often, being neighborly, to check and see if she’s OK. One day, he gives her a hug and kisses her on top of the head, and they just keep going.

Laura makes Robbie promise he understands it will be over when Shadow gets out, and he does. Two years is a long time, though.

Shadow’s release date is getting close, and as Laura and Robbie are driving down a back road, she tells him it’s over. He protests, she reminds him that they talked about this, and she volunteers to give him a little goodbye present. She unzips his pants and orders him to sing along with the radio, which he does. Talk about distracted driving. Sure enough, Robbie gets distracted. They smash into oncoming traffic and die, right in the middle of the act, just like we knew they would.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Wake up dead

Laura stands on a bluff overlooking the scene of the accident, and her broken, dead body on the ground below. Everything fades to black.

On a dark, starry plane we’ve seen before, Laura stands, alone. She turns, and there stands Anubis.

"You were alive Laura Moon. Now You are dead, Laura Moon. The circumstances of your death commit me."

They sit down at the scales, but when he reaches in to take her heart, she slaps his hand away. He tells her he must weigh her heart.

"Against a feather? I can already tell you who wins. I lived my life, good and bad, definitely not light as a feather."

Anubis gets up and walks away. Laura follows, asking him where she’s going to go. She looks behind Anubis and sees her hot tub, the bottle of Git Gone sitting on the cover.

"In life, you believed in nothing. You will go to nothing. You will be done. There will be darkness."

Laura says no. Anubis tells her it’s already too late. She’s been autopsied, embalmed, and buried. He gestures for her to get in the hot tub, and into darkness. She asks if she gets a say in all this, and Anubis gets angry. He talks of the people who’ve tried to get out of death before her and failed.

"Who are you? You are just a man and not even one I will remember. You will go to the darkness and I will forget ever having met you."

Just as Laura is answering him with her favorite epithet, she flies away backwards, sucked into the swirling, starry sky. Anubis stares after her in confusion.

Dirt and blood

Laura’s hand reaches through the still-loose dirt of her grave and she claws her way out. Much of this scene is really disgusting, as Laura spends much of it voiding embalming fluid. Do not eat while watching this.

Looking into the distance, Laura sees a bright, golden glow. She follows it, and finds Shadow, in a noose, hanging from a tree. Remember this scene? Well, here’s what happened: killer zombie Laura happened. She attacks his assailants, tearing them limb from limb, blood flying everywhere. Laura leaps into the air, severing Shadow’s rope, and he falls to the ground. She hides behind a tree as he stumbles away.

Emily Browning (Laura Moon) – American Gods Season 1 2017 episode 104 (Official image e6ba2d1d-049c-4bcd-8f19-8cff47d67463 via Starz)

She’s crafty

Laura walks home, to the home she and Shadow shared, to clean up, carrying her arm with her. She didn’t get through that bloodbath totally unscathed. Laura realizes she needs thread to sew her arm back on, and who has thread? Crafty Audrey, right down the street. As Laura’s sitting in Audrey’s kitchen, sewing her arm back on, Audrey wakes up and, understandably, freaks out.

Eventually, Laura gets Audrey somewhat calmed down and they talk about her death, and all her lies while she was still alive. But now all Laura wants is to go to Shadow. So Audrey drives her there, and takes the opportunity to tell her off.

"You had a sh**** obituary because you had a sh**** life. You were sh****. How could you live with yourself when you were actually, y’know, living? How do you think you’re going to live with Shadow? Presumably, your stalking him will come to some sort of fruition. What then? Little happy family? Little zombie baby? Like a zombie dog? … You wiped your a** with that sunshine. Shadow deserves better than you.… You did not love him when you were alive! Come on! Not love him, love him! He was like a pet. There’s a reason you called him Puppy."

Yeah, well, I love him now,” says Laura as she stares at his golden beacon in the distance.

Ibis and Jacquel

Before they can reach their destination, Audrey has to stop short to avoid a man crossing the road with his large, black dog. As the ladies gasp, Anubis stands up from his formerly four-legged posture, and looks through the windshield at Laura, smiling. “You, I remember,” he says.

The two men take Laura and her arm back to their funeral parlor, where they get her all fixed up: spray-tan, makeup and everything. Ibis explains:

"It’s a small, family-owned funeral home. What we provide is continuity. There’s been an Ibis & Jacquel here for over 200 years."

After the paint dries, Laura goes on to her destination: Shadow’s room at the Motel America. She changes into a pretty dress and sits down on the bed, watching his golden glow grow nearer through the curtains. He walks in.

“Hello, Puppy,” says Laura.

If you have questions about Ibis and Jacquel, you’re in luck. Check back Wednesday for my American Gods explainer and the low-down on Anubis and Thoth, and the Egyptian afterlife.

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